Not leaving Hilo

The staysail is in place, the dinghy is onboard, there's a great weather window to sail to Kauai. We're ready to leave Hilo, and then ...

yesterday afternoon, I motored forward and backward repeatedly while Dick pulled and pulled on the anchor.  It just would NOT come up.  Dick put on mask and gloves to dive down about 13 feet to see what was going on.  Except he couldn't see anything, he had to feel.  In three dives he was able to loosen part of the line from what he thinks is an old mooring.  Although the mooring field in Reed's Bay is administered by the Dept of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), it the responsibility of every owner/renter of a mooring to secure it to the sea floor.  There is all manner of stuff down there.  One boater told us about his 50-gallon drums filled with concrete along with 2 refrigerators.  Boat owners are quite careful about their mooring - remember the boat that came loose and ended up on the rocks (see the 27 June blog post). 

Today we are working on a solution?  Dive down but be able to stay there longer is the key.  Dick is already PADI-certified.  Rent equipment or buy?  There are some great diving locations in our future sailing (we hope). 

And then I was thinking ... is this something I could learn to do?  I'll have to ponder that.