Reanchoring--with more windlass fun

After our difficulties with rowing the big rubber ducky from our current anchoring position we decided to move to a position that we'd be closer to the beach and easier to dinghy back to.  (with more wind protection.)  We cleared it with the ranger the day before.

So, off we move up to our new spot.  Once again, crazy ass windlass and I accidently jammed it because I thought we had 200 ft of chain, but we only had 100 feet before it turned into this crazy gnarled up join with regular nylon rode, and hold up! The rode isn't attached to the BOAT! Seriously, you would have thought we checked that before.  it's nicely coiled up and hanging, so if it had got ripped loose, just a snarled mess of rode would have jammed the windlass, but crap!

(And this is why we are doing our sailing off shore in baby steps)


So, with some careful planning an manuevering (thankfully, we DID have more wind protection) we got the windlass unjammed and plans for either repainting our chain or just getting a longer chain rode.

Once set (again) our sojourn to land was much easier.  We were just off what I started calling Dry Tortugas International Airport because of the seaplanes, but I just love watching them. Not a problem.  They had plenty of room, and absolutely no qualms about taking off between boats.