Wednesday 22 March - The Right Tools (Rodney Bay, St. Lucia)

There is always a tradeoff between having specialized tools on hand when they are required, and not carrying around a lot of unnecessary weight and clutter. We fight this battle all the time, in all sorts of categories. Even though we have way more storage space than we can use, we like to keep the boat relatively empty. She sails better, it is easier to find things, and there is a certain aesthetic benefit from being lean and mean - but then, you don't want to carry things too far!

So here we sit in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia, and have just noticed that our five-inch (125mm) diameter UMHW bow roller is split in half. We're not sure when this happened - it could have been years ago, or last week. But is is split, and the 3/4" axle bolt is bending under the load of the chain - and so the roller binds on the sides of the aluminum weldment which houses it.

When you consider that the anchor weighs 240 pounds (110kg) plus chain and the load of whatever rock we happen to be wrapped around, there is a potential for trouble.

Which brings us to the aft port bunk, under which reside our well pared collection of rarely used power tools - amongst which are a 3/8" and 1/2" drill and 4" grinder. There's no hope of replacing the roller in this part of the world, so the temporary fix will be to bolt the two halves together, so the bolt will rotate - and then take care with the load on it until we can get a proper replacement.

This operation entails digging into the specialized drill bit bag and extracting a couple of overlong drills - we've got five inches of material to drill through. 3/16" pilot hole first, then all the way with 1/4." Then we need to drill out the ends on both sides of the hole so that the bolt head and nut sit flush, within the confines of the roller. This means drilling in series fashion - first 7/16," then 1/2" and then 5/8." Are we glad to have the 1/2" drill motor aboard!

Of course when the two halves are bolted together, there is a "wow" between the halves and the overall width no longer fits on the bow. Out comes the 4" grinder and in short order we have a mess of UHMW plastic on the deck, and a nice fair, now properly sized roller which fits properly.

The final step is the 3/4" bolt - it has a series of bends in it from previous bouts with the bottom and the 5 pound (2kg) hammer is needed to do a rough straightening job.

We really dislike carrying all these extra tools - and this is the first time the 1/2" drill motor and the large bits have been used - but if we hadn't had the tools aboard things would have been a lot more complicated.