Today we moved ORION to a new anchorage...Dakiti, Culebra...we are now in crystal clear water with a front yard of pure ocean and a back yard of beautiful island :) We had a little bit of a scare this morning, because the engine did not want to start (!)...my captain tried all kinds of magical tricks to no avail...so after a while I suggested to try and turn the motor by hand just a little bit, knowing that I had to do this to my VW Beetle once in a while when it would not want to start and hoping that maybe...maybe it would work. To both our complete astonishment...IT WORKED (!)...Please don't ask why, we have no idea...we are just thankful that we got that good old Diesel going...and everything seems to be okay with it again :)
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| Bob and Judy, SV Adastra at Zaco's Tacos |
We will most probably stay at Dakiti anchorage until we are ready to move on...in between we'll motor to the DRNA dock to get water should our water tanks get low. It feels like heaven here compared to our previous anchorage where it was nice but not THAT nice! We miss our friends Bob and Judy who will be leaving Culebra on Adastra tomorrow and wish them Happy Sailing and thank them for their fare well drink aboard Adastra yesterday afternoon :)
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| the mooring ball, the black line is our dock line |
Here at Dakiti anchorage they have mooring balls for anchoring...something we have not done too often. We are used to setting our anchor...mooring balls were just not very common where we used to sail...but it is never too late to learn new tricks and practice makes perfect anyways, so now is as good a time as ever to start :) The mooring balls have a "painter" attached to it. A painter is a short line to attach something to...for example a dinghy has a painter to attach it to the boat. The painter on the mooring ball has a small loop on the end and you feed your dock line through the loop and then attach it to the cleat on the boat. Sounds simple and it pretty much is, but it is a little nerve wrecking when you are doing it for the first time or the second time as in our case. We only used a mooring ball once before at Coffin Island! I am happy to report that my captain and I performed "the operation" flawlessly and within minutes of anchoring you could hear us laughing and frolicking in the crystal clear water with our snorkel gear attached to our faces and feet...mission accomplished...time to play again :)
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| our front yard at Dakiti, Culebra |
