13 Tons of Catamaran, Pulled Up by Hand || Sailing SV Goat ep 120

Our anchor dragged at midnight in Lanzarote, the windlass on our Lagoon 400 catamaran shattered, and I pulled thirteen tons of boat back up by hand in 28 knots of wind. It started so well. La Graciosa, the little Canary island with sand for streets and not a metre of tarmac, where as always we arrived knowing nothing — a place we could spend a week just waiting for the blonde's best friend Betta to arrive. The only problem was 25 knots, no matter what you do (and a shark circling the boat). So we sailed down to Playa Blanca on Lanzarote — three hours of champagne sailing and two of complete madness — where people told us the anchorage was beautiful. Very protected. I loved it. For 55 hours. Midnight. The anchor-drag alarm. We checked the other two systems, decided it was a setting, went back to sleep. Five minutes later it went off again — and this time we were moving. Re-anchoring in the dark in a full anchorage, the windlass didn't just stop working, it came apart, and the chain started running out on its own. Bare hands on 12 mm chain, the breakwater a metre off the stern, the dinghy line wrapped round a propeller so we were down to one engine, and about thirty metres of chain hauled back by hand while it blew 28. And Betta was arriving the next day. Perfect timing. The morning after: the whole anchor up by hand again, into the marina, my foot split open, the windlass in pieces on the bow — the worm gear had eaten every tooth off its cog — and the news that getting a windlass shipped to the Canary Islands takes ten days. So we rented scooters and saw Lanzarote: the Timanfaya lava fields, the vineyards of La Geria where every vine lives in its own hole, Teguise, Arrecife and its lagoon, and a winery that failed to convince me wine is anything other than vinegar with ambition. And then Cesare, Betta's husband, helped me fit the new one: an Italwinch vertical, 1500 W instead of the old 1000, €2,900 of shiny chrome. CHAPTERS 0:00 Everything that could go wrong 0:19 La Graciosa — we know nothing 1:03 Sand streets 2:34 The church 3:00 25 knots and a plastic bowsprit 6:04 A shark around the boat 6:52 A very protected anchorage 9:38 We're almost there 10:15 Playa Blanca — I am loving it 12:28 Captain, explain the fun of this night 13:03 Three alarms 14:28 The windlass shatters 15:37 Thirteen tons by hand 16:39 Perfect timing 17:53 The broken windlass 18:29 Hercules 19:44 The morning after 22:37 Scooter day 23:51 The lava fields 25:15 Teguise 27:01 Arrecife 28:29 One step before vinegar 29:27 One vine per hole 30:37 The new windlass Next: Lanzarote — and whatever breaks next. Follow along so you don't miss it. Filmed aboard SV Goat, a Lagoon 400 we live on full time. Vlad supervises, from the boat. #SailingLife #Liveaboard #CatamaranLife #BoatRefit #Lagoon400 #SailboatLife #BoatWork #SailingVlog #Catamaran #DIYBoat #AnchorDrag #Windlass #Lanzarote #LaGraciosa #CanaryIslands