Kelcey Chandler-Yates and Jim Yates present...

UnderSeaPhotoVideo.com

Jan 18th, 2001
Today the boys studied and Jim and I sailed back over and around to Trellis Bay. It was over and around because the winds were in the wrong direction and we had nothing better to do than sail---soooo-we tacked and tacked and tacked till we finally got where we wanted to be-it was nice but the northern swell is coming in so a bit rolly.  Once in Trellis Bay the girls wanted to shop-so shop we did while the guys had cocktails on the other boat.  There are not too many places to shop here -two to be exact---being the good tour guide with out a clue what was here, I read the guidebook!  Actually sounded interesting to me this time instead of the typical tourist garbage.  One was Flukes-a very good painter who moved here from England in 1982 and has set up quite the studio.  He even had coasters, cutting boards and naturally limited edition prints!!  Next was a beautiful house made of stone filled with woodcut print t-shirts-the nicest t-shirts so far in the islands-as well as local and down island crafts.  I had a pair of my earrings on and the owner commented on them-naturally, I told him all about them and he will stop by the boat tomorrow to purchase some for the shop-I was honored, as it was a beautiful collection of art.  Off to catch up with the guys- there is a British pub on a small Island in the middle of the bay. --- No draft but they had Guinness in a can!!-The guys were already enjoying a cold one when we arrived.  Then back to the boat for a huge stir-fry and pasta feast. -Another day in the islands-not looking forward to when our friends leave on Sunday as then we have some serious boat maintenance to do-but until then, we will act like tourists!

Jan 19th
Well we were awaken to a LOUD knock on our hull.  Naturally we FLEWWWW out of bed to greet the concerned neighbor and the front of another boat 3 feet from our stern!!!-On go the engines, up came the anchor-time to pick up a twenty dollar mooring-the winds had picked up over night and although our anchor was bit into the sand when we dove it the night before, it dragged due to the strong winds in the early morning.  Nice way to be awaken but then again it could have been by a long grinding noise as our stern kissed the other hull--- I will take a knock any day of the week!!

A few hours later, the man from the woodcut shop came to purchase earrings.  300$ later we were in his shop purchasing t-shirts and a print.  We still came out 125$ richer and tonight decided to splurge on a fixed mooring instead of chancing pulling another anchor in these 25 knot winds.  We are now off Virgin Gorda by the British Virgin Island Yacht Club.  Gary wanted to come up here for their last day of snorkeling.  Turns out that window-shopping was all they did while we sailed and fished the day away.  I managed to hook a little 4lb tuna for dinner.  Had to supplement some chicken to fill up these big boys but it was a delicious appetizer.  Time for some sleep---we can only hope a more restful morning is yet to come.

Jan 21st
Yesterday we had a wonderful sail in from Bitter End.  Down wind and wing on wing, we sailed to Tortola's Fat Hogs Bay to visit once again with our friends on Tiramisu.  After getting organized, we went to the most wonderful pizza place run by two ex-cruisers.  The people were great and the pizza was the best I have ever eaten!!!  Late night however so this a.m. when we awoke it was hard to rise and fathom the 10 loads of laundry, that was to be hauled to and done at the local Laundromat!  The kids hitch-hiked (which is common place and safe here) to Josiah's beach to watch a surfing championship, Jim, and I pined away in the Laundromat until three!  I hate days like this!! Nevertheless, lets face it -it has to be done!  After toting all of our whites! We actually have whites now!! As well as the rest of our CLEAN clothes back, I had to vacuum and clean the boat as we have had way too much fun with Gary and Linda for the past two weeks.  Luckily, for me the ceilings are fiberglass and the walls varnished oak so it is just a matter of spraying and wiping -a lot! --- Jim greased the steering mechanisms.  When the kids came home, we all quickly showered and dressed so we could meet up with Gary and Linda once again for their last night.  We had a lot of fun -adjusted them and sent them on their way-or should I say they sent us on our way with all their leftovers in a taxi.  Wine, spices, salmon and a variety of cheeses we were thankful to put away when we arrived home.  We will miss them as well the new friends we made of the couples they brought with them.

Jan 22nd
Shop till you drop---used to be I loved to do that in Redding and especially in big cities but Tortola is another world in it's self. There are wholesale markets but in those places you can bring bugs back to the boat-no thanks and then there is a great store a lot like Raleys with fresh veggies, a deli and even a meat department---this place I found last! After 4 hours of trying to be the bargain shopper! Ughhhhh - ----but we provisioned for another 3 weeks.  Thank You Hanna for driving me about!!

In our travels, I was introduced to an interesting woman named Annie. She is an artist who paints beautifully.  She is also a shaman.  This fit right in with some of the spiritual teachings I was learning before we left Redding.  We had an hour long conversation and by the time we parted we traded the earrings I was wearing for a beautiful little painting that I fell in love with the moment we entered her studio.  We will keep in touch by e-mail.

Jan 23rd
The morning like all mornings was spent encouraging the kids to do their studies-encourage having several meanings of course!  Then Chris and I spent the afternoon cleaning the boat-I'm sure you don't want to hear about it-while Jim and Nick went into town to buy parts- "PARTS" this has become an interesting word around the boat-What exactly do you consider a part!!  I have definitely figured out that it is right up there or even surpasses us women folk "going shopping" because you never know what he is going for and he will never come home with just that one PART anyhow-but then who am I to argue -the boat always runs well OR there is always that PART he needs handy!!

The 24th
Was a very unusual day---I read all day because I had to finish up Hanna's book so I could give it back-Poisonwood Bible-a must read-I don't think I have ever read for 7 hours straight before since chiropractic school ----well a few interruptions today but not many.

The 25th
Jim and the boys went to Josiah's Bay to go surfing and I had the day off from everyone! -Glorious days!  I read some more, scanned Hanna's cook books into the computer (getting quite good at this cooking three squares-I never knew I would love it so much-the creativity is awesome!!) went for a swim, and even did a little sun worshiping which is totally out of the norm for me. The boys had a blast.  They have been going there every afternoon since we came back to Hogs Bay. They were on a mission to show dad a good time-not that Jim ever needs any encouragement in that department! Then there was today-

Jan 26th
Diving at Ginger Island-best diving so far-in the BVI- beautiful corals and schools of fish everywhere-even six barracuda watched our every move.  It was great to get back in the water again with the fish-It has been so rough for the past week we just did not feel like dealing with it.  .  Time to get a good night sleep here in Manchioneel Bay on Cooper Island.  It's a cute little bay with a bar and a few brightly painted four-plex hotel rooms.  There was a beautiful sunset tonight-one of the best so far.

Jan 27th
Yipes-the people you meet-at about 3 am Jim wakes up to a banging on the hull-actually more like a grinding!!  I look out to see and hear him yelling GET UP- GET UP and holding another boats stern off our bow!!!  This guy comes out yelling at us that we swung on our anchor!!-I thought I was hearing things!!-he told Jim that we had swung 180 degrees and were opposite of what we started---what a nut-I anchored us and know exactly the points I used to check if we were dragging-we didn't and weren't!!!-It gets worse-he will not move up on his anchor-so here Jim is holding this boat off ours-in the buff naturally! In addition, this jerk will not pull himself forward on his anchor to get his stern away from our bow ------ finally he pulled up a bit and was off us but was going to swing right into our port (left-right is starboard) side!  Well we right quick let out another 70 foot of chain and moved away from this @#$%$#@#--nice(?) person!!  Sure enough here he comes again 30 min later and is about 5 ft away with Jim yelling - "hello-get up get up"-He comes out screaming that we needed to let out some more chain!!!-I put my foot down to that!!-I told him to pull forward or I was going to pop his dinghy that luckily was hanging from his davits off his stern otherwise who knows the damage that would be done to our bow!! -Well that got his attention and he moved up on his chain saying what do you want me to do-pull up my anchor and reset it- (duhhhhh) I said I didn't much care just keep your boat off mine! -Well his anchor must have caught as he pulled up a bit on it and held at 10 foot away from us through the night till in the morning-when at 7:30 after we were up with this fool till 5:30-he was pounding on our hull with his dive equipment on saying he didn't drag and he was set firm! - Can you imagine this nut?? Ugghhhh-at that we went back inside and made coffee hoping he would leave soon as now he is still in front of us- 10ft. and totally over our anchor so we were not going anywhere till he moved! -Luckily, 40 min later he moved away-not without one last swing by our boat to tell us off! -ekkkkkes what next-so as we prepared to leave I went over to the poor people on the boat next to us to apologize for any ---lets say stray words from the eve before-they said they were screaming for us to go for it and put him in his place!!  Just as I thought I was totally loosing it and by some weird force of alien uptake we were at fault, they told us that they had video of the night before. The guy was anchored so far in front of us that it was not in their panoramic video of the anchorage-he had to of dragged his anchor in the night-- well I just laughed and said I was sorry anyhow and moved on so the boys could dive the wreck of the Rhone.  Great dive--   Now after getting fuel in Rhode Town at the Moorings dock we are anchored stern to shore with two anchors and a line off the stern wrapped around a 4 foot diameter tree--- we are here for the eve and nobody better mess with us- I'm tired!

Jan 28th
Slept in until nine then made this delicious cranberry coffee cake-(from scratch no less).  Pizza for lunch-dough from scratch and then calzone for dinner-yes that dough from scratch too.  Starting to live up to, the kids Betty Crocker name for me-or "galley wench" as they so fondly call me when I let them!!  No dog food today!! (That is what they call it when I screw up!)! - I was never the baker type!  but I can read a recipe and have been doing a lot of that lately--of course after making it by the recipe one day the next I do it my way--so far it has worked out very well especially since everyone , well nick, always has a different idea what I should put in the coffee cake or in the calzone or on the pizza-- quite comical--have you ever eaten a coffee cake with half of it made with cranberry filling and the other peach halves??--we have!!!--it was quite good!!  Jim wanted a calzone with blue cheese-- well it had Italian sausage, elk sausage (from Jamie and brad!!) green and red peppers and blue cheese--Chris and Jim ate the whole thing!!--nick and I opted for cheddar cheese instead!!--it was very yummy!!- This afternoon I decided that it was time to do a scavenger dive as we are in great Harbor with not a whole lot exciting to see and exercise needed after all that good food. It is a deep harbor by BVI standards at a 115-foot max depth and has many mini cruise ships(250-300ft) anchoring here so we figured there might be lots to hunt for.  We took off in teams taking different bearings and secretly on a mission to find the best stuff!! Chris and I took off finding a whole lot of nothing till all of a sudden---jack pot!!  A working dive light and two suction cup things 6 inches in diameter-not sure what we will use those for but the dive light was a great find.  We swam on and at the end of our bottom time at 80 feet low and behold-a Dan forth anchor!!  We think it is aluminum and know it is very large-unfortunately attached to a rather large, long chain.  Tomorrow we will see how well our navigation skills really are when we attempt to find and then raise it!!!  Then we ascended and headed back to the boat at 30 feet able to see nothing but each other till we saw an anchor rope--- I only could hope it was ours-up we came and BINGO there is ole Lady Starlight staring us in the face.  We were two proud puppies!  Jim and Nick had a great muck dive seeing shrimp and lots of garbage---  we were able to give them a huge ration about that one!!  They even came up 15 feet away from the boat!  Still not bad but we had fun with it anyhow!!  We all know if the tables were turned, they would be the ones forever giving us garbage!!

Jan 30th
Well not only did we find the anchor we swam smack dab to it! Then I proceeded to hack saw the shackle in two to release the anchor so we could raise it with the lift bag Jim made before we left Redding-I was able to get halfway through the thing while Chris organized the chain.  Jim brought the dinghy out to the float we tied to the anchor to mark it and he and Nick waited for us to come up when our bottom time expired.  After Chris and I surfaced, Jim went down to finish the job and fill the lift bag.  I retrieved the bag and the attached anchor while Jim did his safety stop.  It is not worth as much as we thought but it is a nice one that we can us. There is also a stainless steel shackle and swivel which will come in very handy-of course we have four anchors now! 5 including the dinghy one-- Jim says that we can give one away or sell it but I see no signs of that -If you run across us some time in a blustery bay you will know its us cuz we will have 6 lines running off the boat in 6 different directions.  I'm not saying anything though because the minute I do we will need it---I don't want to be in the Pacific in a hurricane, need them and hear "I told you so"!! Anyhow, it took diving yesterday and today to get all the chain and the anchor up.  They were lying at 83 feet and the lift bag was not quite large enough for the 300 foot of ½ inch chain.  Unfortunately, we had to leave it.  It would have been good to give to someone around here for mooring chain.  Tonight Nick came up with pot stickers as a dinner request---you know like the ones you get at Costco in the bag frozen. Well let us just say that we ended up with very tasty won ton soup! There were no leftovers and many happy stomachs after being chilled from diving. Glad it was Nick's night to do the kitchen cleanup!