Kelcey Chandler-Yates and Jim Yates present...

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October 3, 2001
In Curacao now with our friends from Belgium on Nyantja.  Last night we stayed on Klein Curacao which in Dutch means Little Curacao.  It is a beautiful little island about 10 miles off the "big" Curacao.  We had beautiful diving - once again better than anything in the Caribbean so far!!  Large walls of huge fish and beautiful sponges we could swim into!  And the island had a wonderful light-house the kids explored while we dove.

October 5, 2001
My birthday-very windy here so no diving.  Where we are anchored is a great hurricane hole called Spanish waters but it is a mile in from the open water and the waves at the narrow entrance are not some I enjoyed in the big boat much less the dinghy!  Jim and I went to town and bought some veggies from the Venezuelan people and had a good time exploring the Punda.  Jim bought me a new water maker today.  Can't beat it - I got a toilet for mothers day and a new water maker for my birthday.  I wonder what's for Christmas!  The girls on Nyantja baked me a cake and gave me a cute little gift and then for dinner Jim cooked for me and Nicholas made me a beautiful cake with pink frosting and even pinker writing.  We invited the girls over and they helped us eat it and watched a movie with us.  Jim and I will go out for dinner tomorrow night to celebrate both my birthday and our anniversary which was the fourth.

October 11, 2001
Finally we left that windy dirty place!!  Lots of great people there, but it's finally off to Aruba.  Right at the moment we are at the north west end of Curacao anchored for the night and will leave at sunrise for Aruba.  It is a beautiful anchorage with steep cliffs undercut by erosion.  Great lobster habitat!!  And yes, they were delicious!  It's off for a good nights sleep, that is if I can put down my book.  I'm finally reading the Hobbit - all these years and never took the time.  Hope all is well for all of you that read this site.

October 12, 2001 - Night
Here we sit in Aruba. It was a long sail and after catching 5 tuna it's time for bed.  A 40lb, 30lb and various other sizes but the two big ones were yellow tail.  Yummmm, was that sashimi good.  I made the fatal mistake of inviting all three boat loads of people over for fresh tuna steaks and sashimi after catching those monsters and by the time we finally anchored I was beat.  No rest however as then it was time to clean the boat (it's always a mess after a long sail due to salt spray) and then to prep dinner.  It was all a big hit and well worth the effort.  Everyone enjoyed the food and wine and was kind enough to leave early!  And the kids did the dishes so not so much work as I thought!  I am so glad those teens were on board or I wouldn't have a clue what to do with all the meat we have!

October 15, 2001
It is currently 10pm and I am on my first watch of the eve.  It's been a long 4 days.  Once arriving in Aruba we proceeded to rent a car.  Being that the anchorage was at the "other" end of the island, Chris and I hitch hiked to????  Well, we really didn't know where we were going as the lady who picked us up didn't speak any English and I didn't speak Papiamento which is the combo of French, Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese.  Finally my charades worked however and she was kind enough to take us directly to the rental car agency.  Once again our luck was with us and we were able to rent the last car available in the fleet.  Off we went in search of our windsurfer.  We found a new sail for $50 dollars from a kid that needed money to get back to California.  Then the board we found supposedly never had seen water but we saw over spray on a sticker that was on it but for a carbon fiber board we were able to practically steal it, too.  The mast and boom came out of a rental fleet and off we went with everything tied on top of that itty-bitty car!  Another fun morning.  Next it was off to the boat to go diving and for Chris to try out the new equipment in the 15 knot wind that had built during the morning.  Off to sea he went.  After a few tacks we dragged him and the gear back to the boat, donned our dive equipment along with the other kids that wanted to go, and dove the two wrecks at that end of the island.  No problem getting everyone to eat dinner and get to bed - we were exhausted!  The next day was spent windsurfing and exploring the island as well as shopping for provisions for our next 5 days at sea.  This morning it was up and at 'em to tie everything down and prepare for our overnight sail to our first stop in Columbia.

October 16, 2001
We currently sit in Cabo de la Vela, our first anchorage along the Columbian coast.  So far we have had two fishing boats come alongside us to sell us fish and I have off loaded a few tuna to them!  The last one I asked to give us directions to the wreck which sits in 50 foot of water just at the entrance to the bay we are anchored in.  You should have heard that conversation.  Me and my lack of Spanish and them with a few words of English.  Finally we got the message across and agreed on 10$ as their payment.  They were to show up at 1:30 and at 3:00 my guys took off to find it.  I stayed on the boat due to the fact that the compressor is on strike and we had limited full tanks.  Besides, it gave me a chance to clean the boat - again!  So around 3:30 here comes the fishing boat and off they went out to the guys and then a half an hour later return to my boat wanting $20 dollars!!!  I told them no way, you will have to come back and talk to my husband!!  That will be futile!  And so it goes here in Columbia!

Tonight was another party on our boat.  The catamarans are the best for large groups of people.  Now that we all know each other well enough, the kids do most of the dishes and everyone knows where the drinks and glasses are kept, so life is much more casual within this crowd any how!  It was grilled Wahoo with a rosemary garlic marinade, red cabbage salad and a corn, avocado and cucumber salad.  Then the girls made chocolate muffins and I made apple pie with fresh whipped cream.  Still eating well!!

From Jim--
The dive of the wreck at Cabo de la Villa was definitely an adventure.  It began with negotiations with the Spanish speaking fishing boat guys to take us to the wreck.  Since we didn't speak enough English we sent them over to Ryan on Dolphin Spirit who at 14 is the designated translator.  He arranged for ten to take us out.  Since he did that, Kelcey gave up her tank so he could go. I was having problems with the compressor so I downloaded air from two full 120 CU foot tanks into two others so we had enough air for four of us to dive.  When the fishermen arrived they had us follow them about 1.5 miles offshore, circle once and said the wreck is right here.  Sure enough, as I looked overboard, there was the stern in 50 feet of water.  How they found it, I will never know.  I bailed off with a rope and my tank and tied us to the propeller shaft.  The wreck is completely upside down with the stern facing to the west.

While waiting for the three boys to come down the mooring line I stuffed a couple of lobsters in my BCD pockets, an omen to a spectacular dive.  As we dove along the starboard side of the ship, we found where the vessel had been broken in half.  As Nick and I came around the hull and peered inside we were greeted by about 30 Cubera Snappers that were about 100 lbs each.  I have never seen so many large fish in one place in the entire Caribbean.  Many of them lingered so Chris and I were able to get within a foot of them.  Of course I left my spear gun on the boat.  We had no room for more fish as the refrigerators and freezer were full.  The center of the wreck was broken apart and lies strung to the east for about 100 yards.  Schools of snappers, angle fish and groupers hang around and dart in and out of the wreckage.  On the way back to the mooring line Nick found a rather large octopus in a hole in the hull, with is pile of clam and oyster shells surrounding his hole.  We played with him until our air ran low.  As we travel along the Columbian coast, the boy's job will be to ask the local fisherman where the sunken wrecks are so more fun can be had.

October 17, 2001
When we awoke it was 9:30A.M.!  I haven't slept like that in years but in the middle of the night the sky let loose with thunder and lightning in huge bolts and booms.  It was quite awhile before we were struck with buckets upon buckets of water with winds gusting to 40 knots.  As we hobby horsed over the wind induced waves coming from shore we dragged anchor and quickly had to start the engines. As we slowed our backwards speed with forward thrust our anchor was able to reset itself none to soon.  We stopped within fifty feet of our friends on Dolphin Spirit.  The winds died.  The rains stopped and we snuggled back into our beds.  A little excitement to make us sleep a bit sounder.

After readying the boat for our next 125 mile passage we left the anchorage at 12P.M.  Out went the fishing lines and in came 7 tuna in the span of 2 hours, only this time they kept getting bigger and bigger.  Finally I told Jim my arm was falling off from reeling and we couldn't possibly eat any more that were damaged so we couldn't release them.  Out of the 7 we released 3 and I made a huge tuna stew out of the three medium ones.  The smallest one the boys threw on the grill whole and ate for lunch.  The rest of the afternoon was filled with school work and taking pictures of our friends on Nyantja during the copper early sunset light.  And here we sit swaying gently in the rolling sea as darkness envelops us.