Kelcey Chandler-Yates and Jim Yates present...

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August 2, 2002
Yesterday we dove further down the reef and we were not disappointed.  Along with the usual beautiful reef we ran into a grouping of five mauve colored carpet anemone with their resident clown fish and a school of over 200 parrotfish.  I didn't know they schooled and was pleasantly surprised by their numbers and beauty.  Many photos were taken and happy I was until when riding back in the dinghy we hit a wave just wrong and my neck did it's spasm thing.  That was the end of my fun for the day other than a short snorkel with Mr. Napoleon wrasse.  We fed him leftover ravioli and he enjoyed it immensely.

Today after a long radio conversation with Doeann on Bali hi we went to the reef across the motu from the boat.  Huge spectacular elk horn coral were everywhere.  A tuna as big as Nick swam with us down the reef and the resident grey reef shark joined in for awhile too.  After we came back we ate our favorite hairy noodles (basically tuna salad with thyme, roasted pine nuts and pasta) and then enjoyed our home made peach ice cream.  Delicious!  Now it's off to Djarka to look at photos we took with Sarah's camera.

August 2, 2002 - PM
The dive today was great - Jim and I went out by ourselves to get some photos of the elk horn coral.  Were we surprised.  After taking about 10 photos of Jim and the coral for a magazine article we are writing, I ran into a cubera snapper who was intrigued by my strobes.  At over 40lbs I was intrigued by him too and no less than a little intimidated also!  The more I photographed him the closer he got to me.  At one time he brushed against me and then came so close to my mask he was out of focus to my 42-year-old eyes! -That is 43-year-old eyes!  Anyhow it got to be obnoxious so I had Jim get between the snapper and me.  After spending the rest of the role on the two of them I packed up my strobes and went home to the dinghy!  Great dive once again - I wonder how long we can get away staying here!

Once we returned home we found Chris with a great grin and three spider conks to show for his lagoon dive.  They will make great chowder and the shells great Christmas presents.  Nick and I fixed up a cabbage and steak salad with home made peach ice cream for dessert and it is off to Djarka for a game or two of dominoes before we retire to do it all over again tomorrow.

August 9, 2002
After days of diving and then more of rain with 30 knot winds in the anchorage while enjoying the company of Ventana and Djarka it was time to part ways yesterday.  Ventana is moving on to Rarotonga and then Tahiti.  We will see them again in the spring when both of us return from the States.  Djarka, on the other hand were leaving for Tahiti and soon will be departing French Polynesia for the Cooks, Tonga and then New Zealand, where they plan to stay for a few seasons.  Since we have no plans for New Zealand we have no plans to see them so the separation after these long months together was hard. We are currently on our way to Fakarava.  Moving a whopping 3.3 knots by choice as we can not go through the passé until 10 am and the atoll is only 23 miles away.  As it is we will get there early.  These slow one night sails are hell.  Chris did the whole last watch to Tahanea (he had a great computer game he has since conquered!) so Jim and I are splitting up this one.  Nick, sound asleep on the floor, stayed up with me until midnight.