Dropping anchor and the dog days of August

For many,  summer is their time to get out there and boat, as it was for us for many years.  But now for Jeannie and I, it is our slower shore bound time. A short trip here and there but largely we are not out on the water as much, too darn hot and humid!

It is a time of general maintenance and working the list that Wheelhouse provides for us. After all it is a boat and it seems two new tasks go on the list for everyone that goes off. It keeps me busy, and more importantly,  out of trouble!

On the list is to clean and grease the hydraulically driven Maxwell 4000 windlass. With temps in the 100's and so humid of late I could not muster the "gumption" to go out on the bow and work for a few hours.....Recently we had a morning that was partly cloudy and somewhat reasonable temps so to I decided now was the time. What it lacked in temperature it more than made up for in humidity however.

The first task  was to drop the anchor and take all stress off the chain and windlass.  

Check out the Tide Slides we had installed last year. The boat will rise and fall with the tide while staying very tight and secure in the slip and most importantly off the dock and pilings. These are really great!

To service the windlass, you begin by disassembling from the top down;  with slack chain, I removed the cap at the very top at the capstan.

Loosening the band brake and the SS clutch nut so it is freely moving and then removing the cap and screw.    

Looking down at the clutch cone     

The chain is now off as well as the chainwheel, band brake and clutch cone. You can see the fully dissembled windlass down to the deck unit. The black on the deck plate is dirt from various anchorages that has only been partially cleaned. Another ten min to clean the entire area, getting all the dried black mud off.

A slightly different angle of the parts and pieces of the dissembled unit.

The important task was to clean the windlass and greasing it with lithium grease as it is being reassembled, A bit of metal polish to the unit and it looks great. Haul up the anchor and test that every thing is as it should be and the task is done.

Wash the decks and clean up a bit put the tools away and one more task off the list....a summer of making progress, one step at a time.