Kelcey Chandler-Yates and Jim Yates present...

UnderSeaPhotoVideo.com

April 3rd 2002 - Pacific Ocean at Last

Well we are finally on the other side of the Panama Canal.  After 3 months in the beautiful San Blas islands it took us 1 and a half m (perfect name!) to get our new bimini sewn and then to have our engine rebuilt was another month as the parts seemed to be sent all over the states before arriving here in Panama!  We made the best of it however and made many friends, which were hard to leave once our time for transit of the canal came.  For an account of a passenger on our transit Click Here.-- mine follows!

The canal was awesome.  We had all done it before with other boats but in your own it was very freeing.  We expected the experience to be very stressful due to all the accidents that happen but were pleasantly surprised to get one of the best advisors.  The advisors are on your boat to make sure you do what you are supposed to do.  Some of them are just plain power hungry jerks but we were blessed this day with Manuel.  When not advising on small crafts, he is a tugboat operator.  He loves the small crafts and loves to drive!  Jim figured our boat with two engines was right up his alley and Chris had done a transit with a friend whose boat he drove through the canal.  While Manuel steered Jim was able to relax and make sure the rest of us were properly handling our respective ropes.  No problems other than having our anchor snag before we left but Jim went back and dove for it the next day with a float bag and dive tank a friend lent him.  We arrived in Flamenco anchorage around five pm after getting up at 4am.  It was great to arrive on the Pacific coast.  It was also wonderful to see many friends who had completed their transit weeks before.  The anchorage was full with boats awaiting parts and as it was 2 days before Easter, many were awaiting our arrival to get their last chance at buying Easter earrings for their sweethearts!  The earrings are like "the thing" here with the yacht women.  Everyone "has" to have at least two or three pairs---good for the boat kitty after all the work we had done and spare parts we bought!  Jim is quite the mechanic and has been able to help many with their mechanical problems while I taught the children, provisioned the boat with groceries for the next 6 months!  sold earrings and adjusted everyone after they spent hours in their bilge or engine compartments. It's amazing how hard the guys work keeping things up.  Just when everything is fixed something else breaks.  They key is to figure out how to jury rig or to have enough spares on the boat.  Everyone helps each other however and friendships form quickly.  Personally, I am looking forward the open sea.  Tired of dock life and really tired of the work that goes with it as black soot needs to be cleaned from the decks, ceilings floors etc each day in order to keep some notion of clean!

After having a small gathering of people (9) on our boat for a Mexican Easter, yesterday we said our good-byes and left--for a short time!  Our engine was leaking coolant!  --Back to the anchorage --Jim found the problem-they used too short of bolts on the heat exchange unit!  (Confidence builder!)  and we are currently waiting for the mechanics to arrive at the boat to reseat it with the proper bolts which Jim picked up yesterday while we did our "last?" sight seeing trip into Panama city!

If all goes well we will be in the Darien portion of Panama by weeks end.  This area is very remote and can only be accessed via boat.  The natives are right out of National Geographic --bare chests and loincloths with trading posts--I first read about them when I did a report in 8th grade so we will see how time has changed them.
Once finished with Darien we will meet friends in Cocos where we dove with the hammerhead sharks 3 years ago.  We are very excited to get the opportunity to take the kids down and get video of them with the sharks.  As this is a sleeping area for the sharks where they circle the islands literally half asleep during the day awaiting night time when they feed in squid, they are very docile so there is not the danger you might think.

Once done with photo opps.  At Cocos, we will go on to Galapagos winds permitting.  Then off to French Polynesia. We expect to see some of you there!  --Just contact us via e-mail so we can set time aside.  It's too good of an opportunity to miss if you can do it at all.  We will also be doing some limited Charter there so if you know a couple that wants to see remote areas have them contact us.

Well stay tuned and Enjoy--it is nice to be "floating" again at anchor and now that all the hard work of preparing the boat for the open ocean are done I should be able to keep up on my letters better. 

April 5 2002--Well after three weeks of waiting and waiting I finally feel at peace here on the open sea. We are all stocked up with 200 gallons of diesel, 10 lbs carrots, 50 lbs potatoes, 50 lbs onions, 10 cabbage, 100 grapefruit, 25 blocks of cheese, 50 lbs flour, 25 lbs rice, 10 cans powdered milk, 50 lbs of various pastas,10 lbs of dried beans, 5 lbs of garbanzo beans, 5 cauliflower and 5 broccoli, 10 lbs of popcorn, 10 lbs of chocolate!, 7 pineapples, 6 melons, 6 pumpkin 10 lbs of bird seed for Loreto the parrot, and cans galore of various veggies but mostly whole tomatoes, corn and peaches (we found the perfect firm ones for peach tarts!) and all cabinets not full after all this are stuffed with toilet paper. Naturally I have all the spices on hand for any dish you can imagine and we even were able to find A1 steak sauce!  Land is still present, looming along both sides as we travel between the Pearles Islands and mainland Panama eastward to the Darien where we hope to photograph the Embera and Wounaan Indians and trade some of our treasures for their beautiful baskets, tagua (palm nut) carvings and wood carvings. Yesterday was tumultuous with Nick and Chris hyper as usual when we first start a passage-- stir crazy I guess, but today brings a calmness to the whole crew. Homework is being done efficiently while fishing poles drag behind in some of the best fishing seas in the world. Unfortunately they are calm and flat so we don't expect too much. Jim bought me a new rod and real so I could catch "the big ones" but I can hardly stand and real the thing in so he will have to jury rig a belt for me to wear as any "big" one would pull me and the pole right in! Christopher's cut is healing well-- I probably didn't tell you about that incident! We were still in Colon on the dock when Nick comes running to the boat-- "Chris is hurt--BAD" Luckily Jim and I were both on the boat and went running over to the laundry room where I reached him standing looking at me once again with half his eye brow hanging over his eye!--I'm getting over my blood and guts fainting thing with him as my child!-- Always his face! Anyhow after looking for a plastic surgeon, once again, (his scars from his 100 stitches last year are barely noticeable) but this time not finding one close by, the kid who threw the "sword" (stick) got his mom to drive us to the hospital where a facial doctor met us at the door and promptly began sewing! All said and done after and hour he was doing fine and our pocket book was only 125$ short--we couldn't believe how cheap it was!!-- the doctors fee was only 50 bucks! I felt like giving him a tip! He now has an "s" shaped scar running up from his medial eye brow up at an angle giving him a queer "raised eyebrow" look.-- !! What's a mother to say--war stories for the women is what he has to say!! --love to all--Kelcey Jim Chris Nick and Loreeto the parrot

One Big Sailfish that we caught on the way to Cocos Island.