Kelcey Chandler-Yates and Jim Yates present...

UnderSeaPhotoVideo.com

September 20, 2001
Once again it has been a long time since I wrote.  You would think that when life was fast paced and wonderful, as well as not so, that I would write more not less.

I will not dwell on the devastation of New York as the talking heads of television can do that.  I will instead wish any and all our sympathy and support for loved ones involved.

We have been in Bonaire for a bit over a month now, have had two sets of family down and have hooked up with a most interesting couple to dive/film with.  Domenic worked with Cousteau for almost 20 years as his illustrator as well on the boat while filming.  He is currently here in Bonaire with his girlfriend Catherine, filming and putting together a film for French TV.  The Windjammer, which sits in 150-200 feet of water, is over 245 feet long and went down in 1907.  It fell to it's current position in 1912.  It is fully intact as well as encrusted with marine life with large jacks, grouper and snapper making their home within its hull.  Domenic and Catherine are also writing a book about the same.  Jim and I were asked to help with the gathering of footage as well as good images for the book.  We are having a blast while the kids are enjoying three blonde beauties from Belgium!  There are also several children here from Australia, Poland, San Francisco and Montreal, Canada.  We have become fast friends with all of the parents and have had up to 16 people on our boat for our now infamous pizza parties!  I have also been able to sell a fairly large quantity of earrings as well as bracelets to a wonderful shop as well as trading for haircuts and massages.

During my brothers stay we flew to Caracas for two days and then to Curacao for two days to get the taste of them.  Lots of fun was had as neither of us spoke much Spanish, much less Dutch!  We both speak much more now!  Caracas was the most interesting as it is such a large city filled with many museums and a huge amount of cultural experiences.  We decided after the first night to "get away from it all" and head into the national park along the coast.  The tour book describes it as full of primates and no people.  We took the road less traveled, worrying that we might be stuck in the wilderness with no place to stay except our car.  We were pleasantly surprised, for a short while, when we found a beach town with several establishments along the beach.  We found the only one with a room - first hint - and took it.  As we wandered around that eve we enjoyed the sights and sounds of a foreign culture.  Being quite tired from the previous night, we decided to pack it in around 10pm.  All was fairly calm on the streets except a few cars with blaring "BOOM BOOM BOOM."  Nothing we couldn't put up with as an occasional irritation - second hint!  As the night neared morning and the BOOM BOOM BOOM began to be constant along with loud swearing and bus engines revving as well as the neighbors laughing loudly continuously until 3 then 4 then 5 and still at 6 we came to the conclusion that the tour guide writing this book didn't spend the night!!! They make my days in college look like pre-game warm-ups in my grade school gymnasium! Words cannot do our amazement justice.  They were the loudest, most obnoxious, rude group of people I have ever heard.  Of course they didn't think so.  They were all that way.  So us gringos need to take our earplugs next time and have a few beers to loosen up a bit, cuz sleep is not what you do in those hotels!!!

After those four whirlwind days, I was happy to return to my nice, clean, quiet boat.  Ed stayed for another week and we enjoyed making jewelry together from the pounds of glass he brought with him (will I ever hear the end of that?) and diving the beautiful reefs around Bonaire (for all our similarities I never could explain to him underwater that that lobster had eggs under it's tail!).  Anyhow, lots of fun was had.  Even an expedition with Nick around the island on a moped to the beloved cave we found which just happened to be down a mile long dirt road (will Ed ever forgive us for that!) while we dove the wreck in the cool blue.

September 29, 2001
With tomorrow being the last day in Bonaire as well the last of the month I will say so long. We will head to Columbia in the next few weeks with stops in Curacao and Aruba, as well several stops along the Venezuelan and Columbian coast.