A Winch Override Trick, Wing Foiling Barbuda, and Everything We’ve Broken So Far
Some passages are about getting somewhere. This one, from Antigua to Barbuda, ended up being about a lot more than that — a genuinely useful winch fix, an afternoon of wing foiling with an unexpected turtle cameo, and a moment of total honesty about just how much gear had already failed since leaving Spain.
Reaching to Barbuda on One Rudder
Conditions for the crossing were comfortable — reaching along between nine and ten knots, kids largely vegging out for the ride. Still sailing on one rudder at this point in the journey, the remaining rudder was visibly working hard on the Sailmon display, but the boat handled the conditions well despite the reduced setup — proof that a well-thought-out damage control configuration can genuinely hold up over real miles, not just get you home in an emergency.
Fixing a Winch Override
A winch override — where the sheet wraps back over itself and jams on the drum — showed up during the passage, and it’s worth taking seriously rather than treating as a minor annoyance. In the wrong conditions, a jammed override under load is a genuinely dangerous situation, which is exactly why a sharp knife within reach to cut a line free is standard safety gear on any boat, not an afterthought.
The fix that worked here: cross-sheeting to the opposite winch. Rather than fighting the override directly on the jammed winch, taking the load off through the other winch releases tension on the wrapped turns enough to clear the jam safely, without needing to cut anything or wait for a lull. It’s a simple trick, but one worth knowing before you’re actually in the situation rather than working it out under pressure for the first time.
Wing Foiling at Princess Diana Beach
Barbuda’s Princess Diana Beach turned into a proper wing foiling stop — genuinely gusty conditions, but the water stayed remarkably flat throughout, which made for good foiling despite the wind being a bit inconsistent to work with. A GoPro mounted on the foil caught an unexpected cameo from a passing turtle mid-session — a good reminder to always be watching what’s around you in the water, wildlife included.
Harry spent some of the stop in the water with some genuinely large fish nearby — the kind of moment that’s easy to forget happens on a trip like this amid the boat projects and passage planning, but is exactly why this lifestyle is worth the hassle in the first place.
An Honest Inventory of Everything We’ve Broken
Somewhere in the middle of a genuinely lovely stretch of cruising, it felt worth stopping to actually tally up everything that had gone wrong since leaving Spain — partly for our own sanity, partly because pretending a refit and a long passage go smoothly the whole way doesn’t do anyone any favours.
The list, honestly: an oar broken and a phone drowned bringing the dinghy to shore, the fractional spinnaker torn in half, the centreboard case blocks broken, a batten car receptacle damaged (meaning the mainsail was limited to second reef rather than full hoist for a stretch), a propeller damaged and not working quite right, the headsail furler bearings failed, and the water pump packed up (thankfully with a spare already aboard). And that’s just what had been noticed — there was a reasonable chance a few more things had quietly failed without anyone realizing it yet.
Cruising has a well-worn joke attached to it — that it’s really just fixing your boat in beautiful locations — and honestly, that’s not far off. The point of listing it all out isn’t to complain. It’s a genuine, unfiltered look at what a real refit and passage actually involves, gear failures included, rather than only ever showing the parts that went right.
