Windlass or Windless

A word on the windlass. Treazure never had a windlass, Karma does.

Treazure had a shallow draft of 3 feet, we were able to anchor in fairly shallow waters, bearing in mind the tidal changes. We could usually snug in fairly close to shore and drop anchor, though we have anchored fairly deeply too. John would stand on the bow and hand over hand drop the anchor into the water. On a muddy bottom it could take a few attempts, and was tiring to pull it up again and again. Messy too. This could prove frustrating at times, especially in a crowded cove.

But ... when it bit you could feel it. There were many times John would call over his should to me at the helm as I was backing up,  "She's got it"  and he was right. The anchor had bit and Treazure never moved an inch, except to swing with the tides.

So on some occasions you might not be exactly where you wanted to be but you really did 'feel' that the boat wasn't going anywhere.

With Karma's electric windlass we realized pretty quickly that we could be quite fussy about where we anchored, after all John wasn't having to pull it up time after time. You just pushed a button.

At Rebecca Spit for instance, it wasn't crowded, there was good spacing between boats and we decided to haul anchor a couple of times and move a few feet over, and then over a bit more to get a better sunset view through a spacing in the trees, over the spit and out into the Sound. A push of the button, it felt so easy.
We were not too far from the beach but in 80 feet of water, without the windlass we would have stayed where we put down the first time. That would have been a heck of alot of chain to bring up by hand. 

But on the other hand, with an electric windlass you don't often get the 'feel' of the bite. We tend to sit a little longer and watch our markers on the shore to make sure we are holding firm before heading ashore.

So while you don't necessarily need an electric windlass, you do need someone on board with a strong back. And after four years without one, a windlass feels like a very nice luxury to have.

Kalena

Thank you Johnny for your big heart and strong back!!