AT ANCHOR

Anchor Position 10°37.81N
                            124° 23.68E
Poro Island, Camotes Sea
Philippines

Finally we managed to depart Pinoy Boat Service. We got underway this morning with a rising tide about 1045 hours.  Following the inbound track we made in May of 2013 we were once again free of land and making our way toward the Camotes group of islands twenty miles away.

After sitting for so long in one spot we were a bit nervous about how all the various systems would work. I knew that the auto pilot would have some difficulty as it would need to be re-initialized. I had not read the manual so it was hand steering to here in the anchorage. Manana. The big surprise was the failure of the engine drive refrigeration system. This is one we have used almost daily for the entire time we were in the boat yard. The compressor was making a noise and not cooling the plates so in the next few days it will be time to remove that one and install the spare. It's not difficult but time consuming as I'll also change out the dryer and have to vacuum down the system before adding new gas. As the 12 volt system is working it can wait a few days.

We had very calm weather with less than 8 knots of wind so it was a day of motoring. Looking at the upcoming forecasts the next few days are the same. Tomorrow we will be on the move again heading due south toward Bahol Island. Our planned anchorage is about 27 miles away. We plan to stay in that area for several days.

We were not sure about where to anchor here and passed by an anchorage off the village of Santiago that looked quite nice. Here a bit further east is nice too. We anchored in 30 feet over a coral bottom. the water is clear with visibility of about 50 feet. We had a nice float off the stern once anchored. My best guess is the water is 80°.

We enjoyed our first evening "sundowner's" in our enclosed cockpit sitting on the cushions that Kathy recovered so many months ago and have just been kept in storage to keep from getting dirty while in the yard.

As we move along I'll try to keep the blog more up to date. Having new adventures will help in that rather than what were the boat yard projects of the day.