Kelcey Chandler-Yates and Jim Yates present...

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April 7th 2001 - The islands of St. Kitts and Nevis.
We left St. Martin 3 days ago.  St. Kitts was our first destination.  The island is knockout gorgeous from the water and seems to go on forever - especially when you are headed dead into the wind at 3:45 and customs closes at 4:00!  We finally got to the one port you are allowed to check in at and long before resolved ourselves that going on the island was not going to happen that night.  The harbor is torn up from the aftermath of the last hurricane 1.5 years ago with rebar and bare concrete pilings dominating its waters.  I wanted to take a swim very much only to be turned away by a floating diaper passing by.  In the morning after checking in, we went to town.  As nice as the locals were, the streets of filth daunted us.  Sewage meanders down the gently sloping streets to flow into the sea.  Shopping was oh so familiar with the same goods we had seen on several other islands but more expensive (the cruise ships come here first).  After spending a few hours on shore and comparing it to years before when I visited, we came to the unanimous conclusion to leave.  However, not until the Kids flew their kite for a good hour in a field left abandoned by the hurricane.

Nevis was a welcomed surprise.  Two miles of beautiful beach lined with palm trees as deep as you can see.  Behind, rising in the near distance, is a 3,000ft volcano with fluffy white clouds persistently clinging to its top.  By evening, we were graced with the rise of the moon over its crater during sunset amid a crimson glow. The water calm and pristinely clear, the boys spent the evening diving off the dinghy's thirty-horse engine. This is truly paradise and we are not the only ones to notice as beyond the sparsely boated anchorage is the Four Seasons Resort with it's two pools and waterfalls as well as a beautiful hot tub made to look like a natural spring.  Today we went ashore to sit by poolside as all the resorts we have been to welcome yachties as we bring ambiance for their guests. The atmosphere brought memories of Maui and I ordered a piña colada.  It arrived 15 minutes later in a lovely florescent green plastic cup with a slice of canned pineapple and a bill for US$10.03!  I have been to many a posh resort in my life with the many seminars I have attended but never have I spent $10 on a drink.  After stifling my surprise, I handed her a 20.  Thirty minutes later, I had to ask for my change.  Either tipping is superb at this resort or the help is lame.  No matter, drinks will definitely be taken on the boat for the rest of this stay as no drink is worth ten bucks!

This evening I was treated with reprieve from the kitchen.  Nick took over.  At ten, he has helped in the galley many a night but never has he done it on his own.  This was a pleasant surprise.  He began by filtering through the many recipes I have scanned into the computer for the past 4 months.  He is especially attracted to Chinese food.  He decided on cashew beef since we had had chicken the night before.  Half an hour later, he comes up from the galley with a very perplexed tone, " Mom, it said to brown half the beef but I don't know what to do with the rest of it!"  Jim and I looked at each other suppressing a chuckle.  "Nick I think you need to cook it too!"  It was just "Oh" and back down he went making a wonderfully tasty meal to rival any China Town establishment.  As if that was not enough Chris did the dishes and then Nick made oatmeal cookies and even cleaned up the galley afterwards. Such is life in paradise - I will not tell you about the boys incessant fighting lately over the stupidest things.  I think secretively they are challenging each other for the dumbest thing to be ticked at the other about! And life goes on.

April 9th
After swimming at the Four Seasons all day and enjoying the "fresh" water more than you land lubbers can imagine we awoke at five this am and took off for St. Barths.  Our goal was to dive a beautiful wall we were turned on too by a fellow boater on the northwest corner of the island where Rockefeller had an estate years ago.  The remains are still present after several hurricanes have blown out many of the windows-it still stands in simple elegance-lets say a rustic stone and glass cabin for the rich as many of his estates were built.  On the way we caught two good size Spanish mackerels which Chris cleaned promptly and tossed into the refer for grilling this evening as well as two large barracuda who we promptly swore at and retrieved our hook both time from between impressive shiny white teeth! I lost count how many we have caught but each time we curse and let them go as in these waters they are full of a toxic poison which effects your nervous system for years after ingesting it.  They always seem to be around 5 foot long too!  We pulled in to the anchorage around three and were on the wall diving by four.  It was short but soooo sweet especially after so long for me not diving. (The ribs are much better by the way).  Huge grouper, barracudas, French angels etc. along with great macro and huge schools of grunt and sergeant majors-as well pretty good visibility. I died and went to heaven, nothing compared to Indonesia but hey, I'm here not there! Showered and dried with the boys off peddling earrings to the charter boats.  I think I will grab my book and enjoy the sunset.

April 10^th -- CHRIS'S 14^th BIRTHDAY
We left St. Barths to dive groupers, a small group of craggy rocks a third of the way to St. Martin.  When we arrived, the current and waves were fierce so we continued on to St. Martin.  Before we got to Simpson bay Jim and Chris dove the HMS Proselyte while Nick and I made Christopher his cake.  Chocolate with homemade butter cream frosting just like grandma taught me-yummy!  The guys had a great time searching for the 13 canons and 3 anchors.  The found all the anchors as well 10 of the thirteen canons, most of which were in very good condition for an older wreck.  We guess around the 1860's.  After anchoring and clearing in at customs, Jim went to the gourmet food shop on the French side and found a couple of luscious steaks.  The choice of dinner was Chris's!  With a few baked potatoes and cake for desert, we felt as if we were in heaven.  Good steak is hard to come by

April 11th.
After cleaning the boat all morning and finding the equivalent of a Costco this afternoon, we are ready for down island.  We are still waiting for our part from Trinidad but hey, they can ship it to us somewhere else if the customs down there ever lets it out!  It's off to do the dive Chris and Jim did again with Nick and I then to St. Barts for the afternoon.  Winds prevailing we will then do an all night sail to Barbuda.  Dinner is served via chef Chris so I will write more when we explore Barbuda.

April 13, 2001
Well we woke this am to high winds, radical chop and 5 foot swells.  The dive site was out of the question.  Not that we couldn't have dove it - underwater would have been fine - but getting back onto the boat would have been a challenge I chose not to do with newly pain free ribs and a fairly new bee of a child diver. As far as St. Barths - we decided to forgo it and head straight to Antigua as the wind direction was perfect for a direct route. We will have to sail to Barbuda during our time in Antigua.  Right now, we are 40 nautical miles out from Antigua.  It has been a rough sail with the chop being so erratic, a north swell and winds approaching 25 knots.  Naturally, the winds shifted just past St. Barths to put us just off sailing straight into the wind.  For you non-sailors, this means bumpy, slam bang all the way to our destination.  Normally I love going fast, surfing the waves with the wind in my face, but today it was salt spray in a four-wheel drive!  As the sun set beautifully over majestic Saba off in the distance the winds calmed to a tolerable 18 knots.