Treasures of Life...First Underwater Session...

We still love it here at Dakiti and have decided to stay and explore more of Culebra and the Virgin Islands for the time being before eventually moving on down the island chain...whenever that may be! It has been our plan all along to have no schedule and to stay where we want to stay as long as we want to stay...so we are sticking to our plan :) Life is good!

Today we used our new underwater camera for the first time, so here are some of the promised pictures of our underwater world! My captain took them and I bestowed him with the title of "official underwater camera man"...because the photos are awesome despite the murky conditions present down there today! Way to go to my sweetie :) As you can see the mini reef not far from our anchorage is pretty healthy...we were surprised to find so much variety there! Especially the Queen Angelfish is something you don't see very often...the starfish are plentiful here and always make us smile...Rick even found a six legged one the other day (they usually have 5 "legs") and we will definitely try and find it again and take a picture (!)...lots of different size sponges and corals are part of the scenery and the ever so beautiful feather dusters, which are actually tube worms that sway gently in the underwater current...and yes, we found a lion-fish, not so good news, because they are predators that eat anything, multiply by the hundreds, and have no natural enemies here in the Caribbean (!)...

We went snorkeling late in the afternoon today, so the sunshine was lacking and the water appeared murky...there will be many more underwater pictures in future posts under more favorable conditions...but today was the FIRST "underwater session" of our full time cruiser life and we are proud to share it with you all :) Stay tuned and God bless!

 

King of the World!

Up, up and away...okay not away...but up, up went my captain the other day...up up ORION's mast that is! There was no other way out...the anchor light is right up top the mast and the bulb needed to be changed...so my captain was king of the world for a little while :) Since this kind of maneuver makes an interesting blog post we decided to capture it on camera. ORION's mast is about 56 feet tall (!)...it has climbing steps on it which makes getting up there quite a bit easier than having to winch the person up...nevertheless it is quite terrifying...just kidding! Rick is used to climbing up cooling towers etc. in his past work life...ugh work is a four-letter-word...so he is definitely not afraid of heights. Our anchorage here in Culebra is none rolling...in other words the boat lies steady in the water. This is important when climbing up of course...so my captain put on his "climbing gear" and went into action...I was the "safety mechanism" that would try and save him in case of a fall by fastening a security rope to a cleat...luckily there was no need for that...uff! Whilst I took some pics of my sweetie aloft he took some pics from above...all quite stunning and wonderful...you can even see mini me next to the bottom of the mast on one of them :) Well the procedure went uneventful...thank the Lord...but will have to be repeated after we exchange the bulb we purchased...The manufacturer changed the design recently and of course ours was still the old design although we bought it only half a year ago (obviously from old stock)! In the meantime the existing bulb still works okay, so all is well. Hurray to my captain for taking the "high way" :) And best of all: We now have our very own pictures from aloft! How cool is that?

 

Food glorious Food

Yes, we love to eat on ORION! It is such fun to try out new recipes and to invent your own...when living aboard a boat it comes in handy to be able to make up tasty dishes from scratch, because sometimes it's not possible to get all the ingredients needed for that super special breakfast, lunch, or dinner. My solution is to "wing it", hahahaha...luckily I do not have a problem inventing new dishes...I just use what I have on hand and create something...it usually turns out super duper...at least that's what my sweetie and I think! Our possibilities just expanded with the addition of our new BBQ grill...with the old one we only grilled some sausages and chicken breast and pork chops...the flame did not stay on when the wind blew a little more than average, so it was not real fun to work with it. Now it is total reverse (!)...the new Magma grill has a nice new technology that keeps the flame going even during heavier wind. So we are inspired to step onto new paths of grilled EVERYTHING :) We work great as a team...I do the creations and Rick does the grilling to perfection...life is good!

Pizza in Paradise is our first attempt at...well...grilling pizza! Since we love the KISS approach = Keep It Simple Stupid...we used flatbread as a ready made crust, topped it with ranch dressing (instead of tomato sauce), cut up deli ham, pineapple tidbits, and topped everything with grated cheese...Hawaiian pizza here we go...4 (four) minutes on the covered grill and you have Pizza in Paradise...how simple is that? Just wanted to share the good news :) Stay tuned for more...