PADI.................?

So yesterday I started something very, very, very, very, very, very, (okay I think you get it) fun. Okay, I'll give you clues, and you have to guess what I started. 1. It is a type of school, 2. you are in the water for a long time, 3. you have a book, take tests, watch movies, have a BCD, and have lots of fun.  Did you get it right? I started scuba diving!!! It's amazingly fun, and it started on Monday and will end at Wednesday. Each day starts at 8:30 each morning, an hour to hour and a half lunch break from 12:00 to 1:00, and we end at 4:30. I am being certified for PADI diving. PADI stands for Professional Association of Diving Instructors. Today we did our second dive at the reef right below the boat. We have learned all the equipment, and how to set it up. We have also learned what to do in an emergency, and how to prevent them. Oh yeah, the most important rule of diving is.....................keep breathing! I know it sounds really hard, but when you are in a difficult situation, it's hard not to hold your breath. Why should you always hold your breath? Easy, if you start ascending, you lungs will expand. If you keep going up, you lungs will expand so far they will explode. I'm not kidding. Okay, so you want to know a difficult situation where you want to hold your breath. If your regulator (the thing you breath through) is knocked out of your head, you have to  blow out little bubbles while you recover your regulator. I know it sounds super simple, but sometimes it isn't. Okay, so here are some definitions for diving: Regulator-the thing you breath through,  BCD- (Buoyancy Control Device) kind of like a life jacket that you can blow up to make you go either up and down in the water, also holds up your tank,   Octopus-your extra regulator attached to your tank for buddy breathing,    Buddy Breathing-using your octopus to give to your buddy if he/she runs out of air. Okay I think that's everything new. I also found out that Cole and I are only allowed to dive to 40 feet. Today with our instructor Carolyn, we dove to 32 feet and got to see tons of fish and even a baby octopus! It was really fun and we even got to swim underneath Zen and Someday Came. I really loved it. Okay, we are going to go out for some type of Asian food for dinner (yummy!). Bye!

 

Finally in Bonaire

Trick-or-treat, and happy Halloween!
Hello, and welcome to Bonaire (a.k.a. Grandma Heaven...I'll talk about this
later). It is now 1:45 and we are just rounding the very point of the
island. Oh cool, Daddy just pointed out some really cool red, white and
orange statue things on the shore. Here is the story of them: hundreds of
years ago, ships would come in to the land to harvest salt from the island.
When they saw the orange, white and red person-tall pyramids on the shore,
they knew where they could anchor. Next to the pyramids were tiny little
houses. These were for the slaves that came from the mainland. They walked
seven hours to go to work on Monday, and back to their homes on Friday to
get the weekend off. But before they left, the ships would go to a huge
conveyor belt-looking-like thing to get the salt on board the ship. Then off
they went to deliver it somewhere. Cool huh? Okay, so I know you want to
know why I call Bonaire Grandma Heaven right? Here is the answer: As we
started to round the corner we saw huge mounds of what looked like perfect,
white sand. This was not true. Daddy and Mommy soon told us that the
mountains of 'stuff' was all salt. Okay, still doesn't make sense right?
Well, Grandma loves salt. Anyways, Mommy said that parts of the island were
totally devoted to getting the salt, while others are quite cosmopolitan.
Ooh! We are just passing some mountains of salt now. They are pure white,
and almost perfect triangles. There is about seven different piles, but only
two are really big. Wow, I can even see trucks taking the salt from place to
place. This is really cool! Now we are rounding another corner, and I can
see the cosmopolitan part of the island. The hills are covered in bright
colors which I'm guessing are houses and buildings. There even seems to be a
small city. Okay, enough with Bonaire, we're moving on to Someday Came. They
were keeping up with us well until they caught another sail fish! This one,
they said, was the biggest fish they ever got on board, and was a whopping
six feet long! This one they got pictures of and we can't wait to see them.
Sad but true though, was that after catching the fish they slowed down and
disappeared on the horizon. Oh well, Daddy says they will most likely arrive
at the anchorage around 5 to 6:00 tonight, which will still give us plenty
of time for our party. Oh, I forgot! We are going to have a party with
Someday Came tonight for Halloween. Someday Came is making cake, and
gingerbread cookies and Mommy, Cole and I are going to make brownies and
Mommy's famous home-made pizza. We are all going to wear our costumes, and
will probably meet up on Zen to eat the goodies. After dinner we are going
to jump in the dinghy and go to each boat to trick-or-treat. We also have
lights that we decorated the boat with for Christmas last year that we might
use tonight. Oh and Cole is going to be Tom Brady from the Patriots. He has
a great costume, but we are not sure what knee he blew out, so we are just
going to wrap up his right. It should be very funny. Okay, after Halloween
fun is over (tomorrow), we are going to explore the island to find a diving
place where one of our friends on a boat named Constance told me to go to
get certified for diving. I'm really excited. The people said that it takes
3-5 days to get certified which is a perfect amount of time. Also, Bonaire
has a KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken)! I know it isn't the best restaurant in
the world, but since Cole and I haven't had it so long, we are very excited
to go there, and see what it is like (I hope that they have the same food as
back at home). So now we are fully engulfed in the waterfront town, and it
looks a lot like the island Antigua. The chart says 15 minutes and 7 seconds
until we arrive at the anchorage/marina. Yippee! I'm going to go sit on the
bow. Bye!

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From Los Roques to the Aves and Soon to Bonaire

So today we left Los Roques and we just arrived in the Aves. Someday Came
and us both decided that since the bug issue in Roques was no better at any
anchorage (the mosquitoes were horrible and would swarm the back deck
starting at 4:00 pm), we would leave for the Aves and then onto Bonaire
tomorrow since the people there speak English (yippee! English speaking
people!)and celebrate Halloween (Trick-or-treating here we come!). Anyways,
we left at around 8:30 this morning and put up our Code Zero sail (kind of
like the spinnaker). Someday Came left a little bit after us and so we
weren't able to sail next to them as I had hoped. Oh well. The sail was
about six hours long, and we just arrived at 2:30. Someday Came is behind us
because they caught a fish called a sail fish (?). They had to turn around
and....OH MY GOODNESS HERE THEY COME! Oh yeah, so they had to turn the boat
around into the wind to try to reel in the fish to take pictures because
they said that it too big to catch and eat. Daddy says that most sail fish
are 8-10 feet long. I know that this blog was not very interesting, but I
didn't know what to do so I decided to write this. Oh wait, I have something
somewhat interesting! I changed my costume idea. I'm going to wear a really
colorful bathing suit top, and a couple of Mommy's colorful scarf/bandanas
to wrap around my stomach. I'm going to wear the same bottoms though, and I
might make colorful patches of cloth and sow them to the shorts as pockets
or patches. It's going to be so much fun! I think I'll go swimming. Bye!

Los Roques

So right now Someday Came and us are in a little cove with two other
sailboats and a yacht. We came here yesterday because of the horrible role
in the other anchorage. Although we are a catamaran, the role was still
pushing us from side to side, and back and forth. It got so bad one time
that I fell backwards into the table when the boat pulled really hard on the
anchor. So after school and lunch was over we headed out. Oh and guess what?
Caroline got to come with us on our hour sail, and we watched her movie
called Princess Diaries! It was a really good movie and by the time the
movie was over, the anchor was down and we were ready to swim, knee board,
or tube for the rest of the day (it was about 3:00). So we pumped up the
tube while Mommy and Daddy went to check out the depth of the water and find
good spots to "tear us around". When they came back they took a quick run to
Someday Came and asked if we could use the knee board, and if anyone wanted
to come. Shannon jumped in the dinghy with the knee board, tow rope and
snorkeling gear (?) and they came back to Zen. Daddy then told me to grab
our snorkeling gear and put the board and tow rope on the deck (hmm, didn't
know we were going snorkeling). After a 45 minute lobster hunt at this pool
thing surrounded by corral, it was 5:00. It wasn't very interesting, but we
did get a little, tiny lobster. We decided that it was kind of late now and
we only got to tube for two turns each. Oh well, I was hoping we could knee
board, but I guess that will happen today. I'm just glad that there is no
more rolling. Gotta go do school, bye!

The Daily Cammi News

Hi everybody! Today I have lots of news. Number one: It's Mommy and Daddy's
anniversary on the 12th, and my piano happened to have the song they walked
down the aisle to when they got married, called Joy of Man. So, I'm going to
memorize the song and play it for them. They already know that I'm going to
play it, because they heard me practicing it, and asked if that's what I was
going to play for them. Oh well. I already know the right hand part, and I'm
working on the left.
Number two: When Caroline was over yesterday, I was teaching her the song
Titanic (I's one of her favorite songs). When she got bored I asked her if
she wanted to go through the pianos' memory and see if she knew any of the
songs on her violin. Luckily, we found one. I forget the name, but I know
that it is really hard and will take me a while to learn it.
Number three: After two days of yuck and rain, we finally have a sunny day!
The water is turquoise from the white sand, the sky is blue and there is a
beautiful breeze which makes the mosquitoes go away (note to self-that is
another thing to talk about). Also, this means that we have the possibility
of going wind scurfing, knee boarding (scurfing on your knees, on a
different type of board with special spots on it for your knees), tubing, or
spinnaker flying (when the spinnaker (the biggest sail on the boat that you
use when going downwind) is attached to a harness and you are attached to
the harness and then the spinnaker is left to fly off the back of the boat,
and it brings you really high).
Number four: Today we are leaving the outside anchorage and are going to an
anchorage 2 hours away (still part of Roques). This is where we might be
able to do all those awesome activities with Someday Came.
Number five: I have finally figured out what I'm going to be for
Halloween......................a Who! A Who is a character in the Dr. Sues
musical, Suesical (I don't know if I spelled that right). They are the tiny
people who live on a speck of dust. Horton the elephant finds them and tries
to protect them. He gets in all sorts of trouble, but still saves the
Whoville. I was a Who in the Summer camp I did called Camp Broadway in 2007.
The idea is that we are going to be a Who family. I'm going to wear a bright
magenta short sleeve, long shirt, a lime green tank top over that, and neon
blue shorts as my costume. I'm also going to put my hair up really crazy
with bright and colorful elastics. I can't wait for Halloween!
Number six: Yesterday, after dinner, Someday Came took their dinghy over to
watch a movie and have pop-corn with us. The kids ended up watching a movie
called Blank Check and the adults watched another movie. I really liked the
movie it was about a kid who got a blank check and filled it out for
$1,000,000 dollars. Then he spent it all by buying this huge house, and any
other toys he wanted. He pulled it off by pretending that he was working for
this guy called Macintosh, when he was Macintosh. It was really cool.
Number seven: A couple days ago I started a list of all the books I've read
so far on the computer. I figured that if I had a list of all the books I
read, then when looking for other books, I would know the authors of the
really good books I've already read.
Well, Daddy is working on the bow sprit, Cole is going back and forth from
helping Daddy to lying down on the saloon couch, and Mommy is doing laundry.
I'm off to practice Joy of Man, bye!

To the Rainforest!

So a couple days ago we did yet another adventure with Jorge and Male.
Except that this adventure was a little different though. Luna, Jorge and
Males' deaf Dalmatian would be coming with us. After getting picked up at
9:30 a.m. we drove to the mountain called Santa Fay. The drive was probably
an hour and a half or so to get to Santa Fay. Once at the foot of the
mountain it was another hour to the top. Finally, we made it! The view from
the top of the mountain was absolutely amazing, and we could see all the way
to Margarita. When we finished looking at the view we drove about five
minutes to a restaurant/zoo/place where they give tours. As we drove up we
saw a monkey, about a foot long, holding onto a girl's leg. It was so
adorable and was a reddish orange color. Then a person from came out and
opened the gate for us. Once we were in the place, Jorge went up to a worker
who gives tours and asked what tours there were. They talked in Spanish for
a while, and then came to a conclusion. The idea was to go to the river and
three waterfalls. Yes, Luna would come on the hike too. So we headed out
onto the road to get to the trail. It started as a really easy little path.
It was very green, and had lots of purple, pink and orange flowers. As we
got farther into the rainforest it became a little bit harder. Now there
were big logs to go under and over. After 20 minutes of walking we could
hear the river. Now, this whole time Luna would run ahead, and then come
back to make sure everyone was following. When we heard the river though,
Luna ran ahead and didn't come bounding back. When we got to the river 2
minutes later we found Luna taking a bath in the shallow river. We all
laughed and walked around in the river that was only ankle deep. Then our
tour guide told us that we had to keep going. Okay we said and got out of
the river and back on the path. Now we were walking either uphill or
downhill, there was no in between. We then came to a spot where there was
two paths. The tour guide then asked if we wanted to take the long way and
see more or the short way. Of course, we chose the long way. Soon enough, we
saw a really cool waterfall. Our tour guide walked right up the side and
threw down a rope. Since I was first in line, I was first to climb up. I
grabbed the rope and the vines and climbed to the top. After each person
went, we had to get Luna up. So Jorge went down and pushed Luna up the
rocks. It was quite the sight. After climbing up another waterfall, we came
to a falls, no one wanted to climb. It started in a pool a couple feet deep
at the bottom. Then it went up and up and up...............then at the top
it slanted outwards! It was really cool. After we swam in the pool for a
while, we got onto the path (luckily, we didn't have to climb the waterfall)
and started our uphill hike back to the restaurant/zoo/place where they give
tours. About five minutes into our hike, it started to rain. Big surprise
for a rainforest right? Well, I (lucky me) wore my heaviest tank top. When
we finally got back to the zoo place, everyone was completely drenched.
Since it was around 1:00, we sat down to have lunch. Since we were all wet,
Jorge came up with the wonderful idea to get us all blankets. They were
really soft, and definitely kept us dry. After a really good lunch of
chicken, French fries and salad, we jumped in the car and headed home. But,
the journey doesn't end there. When we got back to the town, Male pulled
into a restaurant thing, and bought everyone a drink called a coco frio
(frio is cold in Spanish). It was amazing. It was made up of basically
coconut, ice and a little bit of condensed milk. I loved it. It was really
filling though, so I only had about half of it, and gave Daddy the rest.
After coco frio, we went back to the boat. It was a really fun day.

Tortuga , a Little Island and Roques

The day before yesterday we arrived in Tortuga. The original plan was to
sail with Someday Came to Tortuga, and then to Roques a couple days later.
Well, Someday Came had some problems, and so they had to wait an extra 2
days. Caroline and I are very sad that we couldn't sail next to each other.
Well, when we got to Tortuga, we weren't attacked by bugs like we were last
time, but they didn't disappear completely. That night we decided that we
probably wanted to leave on Thursday, early in the morning, to go to Roques
because of the bugs. The next morning we discovered that there was a bunch
of other boats from PLC that we know, and are going to take almost the same
path as us to Roques. After talking with a boat called Living the Dream on
the VHF for a while, we found out that they, and another boat called Migo,
are going to a little island only 10 miles away to shorten the length of our
trip to Roques. So that evening us, Migo, Living the Dream and a bunch of
other boats headed out for the little island. We left a little bit later
than our friends, but we saw two other cats up in front of us. As our speed
picked up to 9 knots, we started to gain on the two boats. Before we knew
it, it became a race to see which boat could put its anchor down first at
the little island. As we flew by the two boats, I realized that I knew the
girl on the "yellow cat". Cool, I thought, we might be able to sail with
them. All of a sudden, my casual parents turned into racers and we pulled
the main down in about 5 seconds (not really, but you get the point). Next
we weaved our way through the reefs and dropped the anchor in the first spot
we found. Yes! We made it! As I looked around at the anchorage I saw an
American flag on a boat for the first time in a while. Also, there was some
people wake boarding and swimmers going from boat to boat. "This is really
nice", I thought "to bad we have to leave at 2:00 tomorrow morning". And
yes, we did leave at 2:00 this morning. Since the anchor is pulled up right
next to my head, I also woke up at 2:00 this morning. Luckily though, I fell
back asleep once we got under way. Our trip was supposed to be a 12 hour
trip, but ended up to be a 10 and a half hour trip because of the high
winds. We arrived at around 12:45, and had lunch right after putting the
anchor down behind a little island and next to two other boats. One freaky
part though, is the wreck of what looks like an old, wooden, fishing boat.
It's bow is high out of the water and its' stern is totally sunken in the
reef. It looks very weathered, and really creepy. Well, now I am drinking
Grenadian coco tea, Daddy and Cole are swimming, and Mommy is making dough
for home-made pizza tonight (my request). Hope all is well at home, bye!

Caroline-hope you had a great trip from PLC to here. If you didn't like it,
the water here will make up for it.

Three Really Good Books-part 2

Okay, so I finished book 3 of the Ember series yesterday, but I didn't have any time to write the blog.  Here is a quick summery for anyone interested in the series.

Book 3-The Prophet of Yonwood

This book is a prequel of The People of Sparks. It is about a girl named Nickie, and her life when she was 11. It was the time in the story right before the "disaster". It isn't as good as the first two books, and not nearly as interesting. I was hoping that it would be about the "disaster" but it wasn't. Oh yeah, the prophet of Yonwood, California was am old woman named Althea Towers. Althea saw into the future from a vision, and became sick for a very long time. She would mumble things such as "no sinnies" which people thought meant no sinners. This actually meant no cities, because in her vision she saw the world on fire with no cities. That is about as interesting as it gets.

 I read it because I didn't have anything else to read. Oh well, there are other books in this world that I can read. Caroline is sick today, so I am doing school by myself tomorrow. Gotta go, bye!

An Interesting Visit to a Storm-2

These rules are for anyone who has never been on a power boat (or cat) that doesn't have a roof, or any living area.
Rule #1-Always wear sunglasses or glasses of some sort (if you wanted to get really funky you could wear those science goggle things)

Example-Picture yourself going down the highway, in a convertible at 60 MPH, with no wind shield. You would want glasses so that you eyes can stay open. Due to the wind, your eyes are either fully open or closed tight without glasses.
Rule #2-Hold on for dear life

Example-When we were going 60 MPH, if you didn't hold on, you would fly away! Especially when you are on the side of a huge storm, with 40 kts. of wind, and waves too. Oh, and less important, when Cole is driving (which did happen).

Rule #3-Go at full throttle the whole time

Example-When you need to go somewhere, it makes more sense to go fast. Such as when you are tyring to get back to land without getting hit by a really big storm.

Rule #4-Never be scared

Example-If you become scared, you will probably let go, and think of other things you could be doing. Oh yeah, and then you would break rule #2.

 

 

Okay, so now I will tell you the story of the ride in the power cat. So, when we got on the cat, Jorge told Cole and I to get on the bow and pull out the line that is around the cleat, and attached to the mooring in front of us. Once outside the dock area, Daddy looked at Cole and I, and said "wow, it's really calm today, it will be nice to test this ride out". So as we accelerated through the harbour, a storm was working it's was to PLC. Well, we got up to 60 MPH and zoomed past Jorges' friends on their boat. It was really funny to be on a really fast power boat, going really fast by a sailboat. After circling the sailboat we saw the huge storm coming at us. Since the storm was kind of far away, Jorge decided to take us to a really cool island. He pulled the boat inches away from jagged rock, and told us to get off and look in the cave. So I hopped off, then Cole, the Daddy. Jorge stayed on the boat and went back and forth as we checked out this really cool cave. It was a really deep pool of water that was surrounded by really tall rocks. The water must have been 50 feet deep, but you couldn't see the bottom. So after we saw the cave, we came around the little island and saw that the storm was very close now, and we had to run from the rain. So we decided to go to the outside of the storm, away from the land. We then saw that one storm, had turned into two. So we ended up getting half way to Margarita, an island about 50 miles away from Venezuela. When we went around to the far side of the storm, we all wished that we had gone closer to land. It looked like a 30 minute ride would turn out to be a 2 hour storm dodger. After arriving around the storm, we started to feel the 40 knts. of wind turn cold. Daddy said that the bigger the temperature difference in the wind, the bigger the storm. Well, to explain the difference, I got cold. Even with the spray in my face, rain, 35 kts. of wind, and waves, I never once regretted going. Finally, we could see land again, and the wind died. Jorge then took us to a really cool spot with over 20 power boats inside it. After a quick tour of that, he asked me if I wanted to drive the boat. "No" I said. Well he really wanted me to drive, so he kept asking and asking. Thankfully Daddy jumped in and said "that's okay you don't have to drive if you don't want to". Then he asked if he could drive, and so Daddy drove us back to the PLC dock. After we got back, we waited for Mommy to arrive, and had a really good dinner. 

Well Daddy is working in the engine room, Cole is reading his book for school, and Mommy is eating cereal on our back table. That's all for today, bye!  

An Interesting Visit to a Storm-1

Today was very eventful. It started at 8:00 a.m. with Cole telling me that I had to "stop reading that wierd book", and get out of bed to get ready (getting ready includes brushing my teeth, washing my face, making my bed, getting dressed, and cleaning my room). So I crawled out of my bed, taking as much time as needed and got ready. After an amazing breakfast of..................guess what............cereal, I was informed that we would be picked up soon by these really nice people: Jorge and Maralena, who would take us on their power cat, for a test run. Now let me tell you that this catamaran is a third of the size of Zen. Well, one thng led to another, and Jorge cut his hand, and had to go to the hospital. Ouch, right? Well even though he cut his hand, he insisted that he take us out. So while Mommy when with Maralena to go shopping for the third time this week (I guess we are stocking up for our one month period with no big provisioning places), Daddy, Cole and I went with Jorge on his power cat. To be continued (it's to long of a story to put in one blog), I'll put the rest of the story in the next blog.

Three Really Good Books

So, we are still in PLC, and it is "Africa hot" as Daddy says. Luckily, there is a nice pool that me, Cole, and Caroline go to together every day after school at the Zen academy. Yes, Caroline is doing school with us, at Zen, every morning!! It is really fun, and we get to do awesome projects now that there is more than one person in my grade. Anyways, to the book topic. Caroline brought me two books that are really cool. They are part of a series so, here is a quick summery of each book.

Book 1-The City of Ember

The city of Ember is a city that is underground. It was built because the human race was in danger, and so we had to find another place to live. The book is about how Ember was starting to run out of supplies, electricity, and food. The two main characters, Lina and Doon, are really good friends and both love adventure. One day, after a "black-out" (when all the electricity goes away for a couple minutes), Lina finds directions on how to get out of Ember. So, she and Doon set out to decode the directions and try to get out of Ember. When they successfully escape, Lina wrote legible instructions, and dropped it into Ember. 

Book 2-The People of Sparks

After the people of Ember arrive in the real world, they come up to find out that there is nothing in sight. No people, villages, or cars, although they did see a road. The road leads to a small town called Sparks. Sparks is an old fashioned village, in the future. This means that they had no electricity, running water, or sewage. The Emberities soon found out from the Sparks that there had been something called "the disaster". This was when there was three plagues and four wars, and it almost wiped out human race. The only things left from how we live now are toys. When the 417 Emberities enter the village, the Sparks are terrified. They haven't seen so many people their whole lives, and don't know what to do with them. They are forced to all live together, and this doesn't go over well. The Sparks treat the Emberities horribly, and so the Emberities decide to fight back. Since there is nothing around the village, the Emberities decide that they can't go and must make peace with the Sparks so that they can stay in the small village. After a huge explosion, Lina and Doon, help to save the Sparks town from being burnt down. The Sparks realize that without Lina and Doon, their city would be destroyed, and so they decided that the Emberities were allowed to stay.

Book 3-The Prophet of Yonwood

This is the book I am reading so I can't explain it yet, but it is about the "disaster" I told you about in book 2. Once I finish it, I'll give you a quick summery of it.

 

 

Well that's all for now. We're off with one of Daddy's friends who is going to take us out to dinner. I'm really excited. The people are really nice, and are designing an amazing boat. Gotta go, Bye!

 

ps. Darlene-I think Kak might need these books before Christmas.

Twin water spouts...yikes!

So today we left Tortuga at around 6:00 a.m. and plan to get to PLC at about 2:00 p.m. The trip started off wonderfully. It was flat calm, and we were motoring. The first two and a half hours of the trip were very boring. Breakfast, play DS, sit around and wait for something interesting to happen. Well finally something did happen. Something I have never experienced before. First off, Daddy spotted a 810 foot long ship that would come much to close to our liking if we didn't change course. So from 9:30 to 10:00 we all stood on the deck looking for the ship. "I see it! Over here!" Daddy yelled at the first sight of the monster ship. Let me tell you that not only was it super long, it was extremely wide and tall too. As it got closer and closer everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at it in awe. Then, Mommy decided to go to the stern (the back) of the boat. When she got outside, she looked over our fishing lines to see if we had a fish. "FISH ON!" she yelled. So Daddy went outside to pull the fish in, while Cole and I looked out the hatches (windows) to see  the fish. The fish happened to be dead already. It was half eaten by a baracuda or something. All of a sudden the blue sky turned black and it started to rain. After yelling "batten down the hatches" about a million times while we closed all the hatches, everyone came back outside with bathing suits on. Then I looked at Cole's face. He looked absolutely petrified. "Mommy," he said in a shaky voice "what's that?". We all followed his gaze and saw two twin water spouts in the storm miles behind us. A water spout is just like a tornado, made of water. The water from a cloud forms a funnel and goes down to meet the ocean. If you are ever near a water spout, prepare for 180 knots (knots is kind of like MPH) of wind. Since we were so far away we didn't get this crazy wind. Just really loud thunder and lots of awesome lightning. The rain lasted for about 20 minutes, I think (I'm not sure because I was so sucked into the sight of the water spout). Soon the twins vanished, and another one appeared. This one we got to watch it form, and disappear. At first I was absolutely petrified, but when Daddy told me that we were going away from them, I felt much more comfortable. This was probably the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Just picture a black sky, pouring rain, the chaos of getting a fish on onboard, two water spouts behind you, and a huge ship passing across our bow. Yes, it was crazy. Well, the sky turned blue, with some wight fluff, and everything went back to normal. Daddy then taught Cole and I how we are going to tie the boat to the dock, piling, or moring and had us to multiple drills. Basically what we do every time we come to a dock. Now it is 12:25 and I'm going to go have lunch. bye!

Our trip from Blanquilla to Tortuga

Finally, we have left Blanquilla! I was starting to get bored there. Now we are in a little island called Tortuga. It took us about 12 hours to get here. This (on a good day) would normally be very slow for us, but due to weather, waves and wind direction, this all changed. 

When I woke up on the 8th, I thought we were underway, so I went up to the main salon to look at where we are. It turned out to be a squall, with lots of wind and waves, LOTS OF WAVES. Daddy, Mommy, and Cole were already up and were looking at the charts and wondering if we should leave to Tortuga. After hearing Chris Parker, a guy who does the weather on our SSB (Single Side Band radio), we decided that this would be the perfect time to leave this rocking and rolling place. 

If you have ever been on the little kid rides (sometimes called the pirate ship) that go up and down, and back and forth, you know how I felt that whole trip. Chris and Daddy's weather charts both said that the wind should change throughout our trip (a good thing). This never happened. The waves were huge, the wind never changed, but luckily, no one got even close to sea sick. "Yes" I thought, when I looked at the chart and saw that we should be in our anchorage at Tortuga at 7:00 p.m. Well, 7:00 came, and I couldn't even see Tortuga. 8, 9, 10:00, still nothing. Then, at 10:30, land came up on the radar. Cole and I were so excited and ran outside to see it. Since it was dark though, we couldn't see a thing. 11:00 came, and we were finally in the anchorage, just about to drop the anchor, when suddenly we got attacked by mosquitos. Everyone ran inside to close up the boat and put on bug spray. Cole and I decided to stay inside and spray the whole inside of the boat with Baygon (our trusty bug killer). When we thought that all the bugs were dead, and the anchor was down, everyone came inside and said goodnight. Mommy and Daddy were really tired and went to bed right away, but they said that I could finish the anklet I was working on (the anklet is pink, yellow, and of course, purple), and then go to bed. Finally, I went to bed. When I woke up that morning I went to the salon and looked around. When I went to step onto the salon floor I was totally grossed out at the number of dead mosquitos lying on the floor. I quickly went and got Mommy and Daddy, who cleaned the salon. When I finally got a chance to look around, I found out that we were in an anchorage with more that 20 boats, and there was a beach that surrounded us, a little, one house fishing village, and a couple fishing boats. It was a very nice anchorage, but we decided to go around the island to get away from the mosquitos. After breakfast, as we lifted the anchor we spotted a boat from PORTSMOUTH, RI! So we went over to them and talked with the guy who lives on it. He gave us really good information on PLC (our next stop, on the coast of Venezuela). Then, Mommy said that she was going to make bread in the pressure cooker when we were underway (not something she has done before). We were all very excited to have home made bread for  lunch, and thought this was a great idea. The bread was done ten minutes before we go to the other anchorage, but Cole and I had lunch anyways because we wanted fresh, hot bread. I can't even start to explain how good chicken salad/ currie is with homemade bread. When we arrived at the entrance to the anchorage, we discovered how shallow it really is. We went from 100 ft to 8 ft in about 10 seconds (don't worry, we draw 3 ft). When we got into the actual anchorage, we saw two boats rafted and another boat that had left the other anchorage an hour before us. The water wasn't beautiful there, but it didn't make us stop from swimming. But, before we jumped in the water, we came up with a wonderful idea. The idea was to make cake in the pressure cooker. It turned out wonderfully. It was a somewhat healthy chocolate cake with Mommy-made icing on top. It was amazing!!! It was more like chocolate fudge because of the texture, but it was still really good anyways. Mommy is now talking to a person in PLC to make sure that we have a slip at the dock (we do), in what Cole and I call Spantaliano (a mixture of Spanish and Italian). Tomorrow we will be leaving for PLC, and on the twelfth I'm going to meet the girl on the boat Someday Came. I am so excited. Her name is Caroline, we do the exact same homeschooling, and will sail with each other all the way to Australia and New Zealand! I am really excited to meet her. I'll write about our trip, and meeting Caroline in a couple days, but for now that's all. Bye!

I am writing in Tortuga right now, but since I don't have internet connection, it will be sent in PLC. 

The Past Two or Three Days

Yesterday I went to my first beach fire! It was so much fun. After
snorkeling with Indi, we went to another boat with kids we know called Free
Will, to ask if they wanted to come help us find fire wood on the beach. The
kids said they would, so we all went ashore. Collecting the wood lasted only
about 20 minutes before we all decided to go swimming. After we went back to
our boats, we had dinner and then went to light the fire. We brought candy
necklaces for all the kids, paper plates, and a torch to light the fire.
Indi brought marshmallows!! The marshmallows were so good! We all ran
around the beach and looked for sticks as we waited for the fire to cool
down a bit. Once we all had a stick, we feasted on marshmallows and candy
necklaces. We had hoped that more boats would come, but it ended up to be
only the boats that helped look for fire wood: us, Indi and Free Will. After
we finished the marshmallows, we went on a hunt for huge hermit crabs (not
to catch them). They were really cool. We found about three on the beach.
The fire ended when the rain came, and everyone had to run to their boats to
shut hatches, but it was really fun.

We met two other boats! We met them in Blanquilla, since that's still where
we are. They are both French and have one kid aboard. A 4 year-old girl,
named Dune lives on Igloo, and an 11 year-old boy named Remy, lives on
another boat (I don't know how to spell or pronounce the name). Neither kid
speaks much English and Cole and I only speak a tiny bit of French, but we
can understand each other. Another catamaran with kids on it came in a
couple days ago, and we are probably going to invite them to go tubing with
us today. We haven't met them yet.

The weather has been kind of yucky the past two days, but it looks as if it
is clearing up today. Daddy and Otis from Indi, caught a lobster two days
ago! It was small, but really yummy. We made lobster salad, and split it in
half between the two boats. Daddy and Otis tried to catch another one
yesterday, but had no luck. The idea was that it could be a snack before the
beach fire, but that never happened. Mommy's making pancakes this morning.
Yummy! I've got to go eat breakfast. Bye!

Blanquilla

Pinch and a punch (for anyone who has no clue what that means, it is just
something funny my grade did last year on the first day of every month).
Wow, I can't believe that it is already October. The weather here hasn't
changed much, but I know that in RI, you guys are probably wearing pants and
sweaters. Anyways, so now we are in an island called Blanquilla. The only
inhabitants are donkeys (that remind us we have to go to bed every night at
8:00), and lots of plants (cactus' come into the story later). If
Independence was not with us, I would probably be very bored. As
entertainment yesterday, we all went to a bay called Americano Bay, named
after and American man, who lived here years ago. The bay is known for its'
amazing caves and snorkeling, and boy is that true. When we first came in on
the dinghy, we saw tons of really cool caves that we could take the dinghy
into. After seeing multiple caves we came around a little point. Around the
point were two small, but beautiful beaches. So we beached the dinghy and
swam for a while. When we got bored of that, we all put on snorkel gear
and snorkeled underneath a really cool bridge made of rock. At first it was
scary. Swimming in the shade, where it was kind of hard to see, and rocks
came out of nowhere. Finally, I got used to it and had a great time. When we
got back to the beach we all climbed over the rocks to the second beach. It
was really cool until I stepped on a broken piece of a cactus and Mommy had
to pull it out of my foot. Next, we all swam around to the other beach
again. After playing for a while and watching Sammy, the little two
year-old, laugh his head off as he was thrown into the waves by his dad, we
decided it was time to go back to the boat. Yesterday was so much fun and I
can't wait to go to Americano Bay again today, but before I go I must tell
you a couple more things. After catching two huge tuna on our way here, I am
totally fished out! I think that Mommy and Jenny on Indi, has made every
type of tuna possible. Of course, we had dinner on Indi two nights ago, so I
have tasted all of them. I don't think I will be eating fish for another
week or so, unless it is the only thing we have (very unlikely)! Tonight or
Saturday we might leave for Venezuela. I'm very excited. Lunch is on! Gotta
go, bye!

Our Beach/Sand dune Adventure

Now we are officially in Los Testigos. There is a cute little town right off
our bow with about two or three houses. Independence successfully made it
into the harbor, last night around dinner time. So now that both boats are
together again, we decided to go on a little adventure to the sand dune.
Indi (Independence) were in an area that was really rolly, so they went to
re-set their anchor, while we started looking for a path near the village.
We came across a man who spoke only Spanish. So we spoke Spanish/English and
he spoke Spanish, and he finally figured out that we wanted to know if there
was a trail to the sand dune. He said kind of and showed us how to get
there. After pointing us in the right direction, he went back to his little
town and we started on the trail. For a while it was just a little path with
a couple plants sticking up here and there. About half way it started to get
a little rougher. ¾ of the way it got pretty bad with lots of rocks,
cactuses, and plants we weren't supposed to touch because they made you
itch. Finally, we could see the sand dune, which made us know that we were
still on the path. At last, we made it. The sand was about a zillion
degrees, and it was on a pretty good slope, that was hard to climb up. At
first I started to think that the hike was totally not worth it and this was
going to be super boring. But then I saw a path and decided to go down it.
When I got to the other side, my thoughts of the sand dune totally changed.
Before me was a huge beach/sand dune. For a while I climbed on the roots of
a tree with Cole and waited for Mommy and Daddy. Once they got there we all
went full blast into the perfectly clear water. The bottom was just sand,
and there were awesome waves, but no undertow. Soon Mommy and Daddy said
that we had to start heading back to the boat. Of course no one wanted to go
back on the trail, so we hoped that we might be able to get to the ocean and
swim back. Luckily, there was a path leading strait towards the ocean. There
were a bunch of rocks at first, but then it turned to sand. About half way
there, we saw the Indi crew walking on the path! We were so excited to see
them that after talking for a while (more like yelling) we decided to go
back and hang out for a while with them on the dune. After playing and
swimming some more, we had to go back. So we went down the trail and jumped
in the water. After swim/walking for a while it started to get deep and more
like a reef. So we found a floating piece of Styrofoam and put Sammy (the
two year- old on Indi) and Indi's back pack. Soon we got to a place where we
could go ashore from rocks sticking out of the water. Then we found a little
goat trail to get back to the little village where we had both beached the
dinghies. Now we are back on the boat and Mommy is cooking a fish that Indi
gave us since they caught so many. Gotta go. Bye!

9/25/08

Today started with waking up at 4:30 am. I woke up to the sound of the
engines, and Daddy closing my hatch. First I freaked out, but then I
remembered that today is the day we sail to Los Testigos. (Los Testigos is a
bunch of small islands off of Venezuela. They are totally deserted except
for one, that has a coast guard station.) Our plan was to sail along side
Independence, one of our friends, all the way there. This all changed when
at about 4:45 am, they informed us over the radio that they were having
difficulty lifting their anchor (this is called a fowled anchor). Since our
goal was to get there before night came, we had to leave them in the harbor.
Since we had no success calling them over the SSB, or long distance radio,
we don't know when they left, and how far behind us they are. Daddy guessed
about 4 hours. Any ways, when the sun finally rose, I could see that the
trip was going to be really calm with enough wind. Perfect weather for
sailing fast. The weather lasted for about half the trip. Then the wind
died, and we had to put up our light wind sail, the code zero. This sail is
absolutely huge, and is perfect in light winds (and blocking the sun, so you
get some shade). Cole and I soon got bored, and so we went to watch a movie.
On my way down, Daddy told me to run and get a water pump, bucket, and
sponge, because he overflowed the starboard water tank. So for the next half
an hour Cole and I mopped, pumped and sponged all the overflowed water.
Finally, I get to watch the movie. About fifteen minutes into the movie we
had to take the DVD out because Mommy's computer (what we were watching the
movie on) had 9 minutes of battery power left. As soon as we went upstairs,
we were given sandwiches and yogurts for lunch. When I went outside to eat
on the trampoline, I was so happy to see Los Testigos, even though it was
really far away. Now, at 4:40 pm we are in between all the islands and 25
minutes away from the anchorage. Daddy has to use the chart on the computer
now, so I have to go. Bye!

Video Chat

One of our favorite forms of entertainment is video chatting with our
really close friends. After we come back from a day full of
watersports, we check on Skype to see who's online. Next, we connect
with them online. If they are able, we do a video chat. This is when
your screen is kind of like a television and you can see the people
you are talking to. Sometimes it's really confusing when everyone
talks at once or if you move really fast and then the screen gets
fuzzy. But, it's really fun because it's the closest thing to talking
face-to-face. I have been hoping to set up the computer and put it
near the dinner table so we can eat dinner with our friends. But
momma and daddy don't like that idea because it uses up all the
laptop's battery. Daddy just said, "How much do you guys think I
weigh?" Cole said, "Six hundred and ninety nine pounds." Of course,
we all know it was a mistake, but it was really funny. He actually
weighs 188 lbs. That was kind of strange, totally off subject, but
that's OK. For the next 2 weeks, we are going to be doing lots of
sailing. But, we are going to new places and out of Grenada, we have
been for the past month. Much longer than I ever thought we'd be
here. Today we started school really early so we could have a full
day of playing with our friends on Beach Magic and Panache, since it's
our last day with them. I ended up doing extra school work since Cole
was still going, but I still got to play for a long time. I'll
probably send another blog in a couple days after we get to Los
Testigos. Bye to Laurianne, Max, Marshall and Parker!!! We'll miss
you!!!

9/16/08

Today was a really fun day. I got up at around 7:30, and played my DS for a little while before Daddy came down to tell us to start school. Math and history each took about half an hour to 20 minutes. Reading took a long time because I did two lesons, and finished my book. It was really good. In art history I read a chapter and drew a picture of a helmet. Finally for composition I finished my news article and put it on the blog. After school we had a great lunch of tuna casserole and lots of fruits. I was about to start a bracelet, when the kids from the boat Beach Magic drove up in their dinghy. They said that they wanted us to come over to their boat, but when Daddy said that Max was allowed to wind surf, that plan was canceled. So for a while we swam around and jumped off the back of the boat. All of a sudden we saw Panache drive into the anchorage. After a lot more swimming Cole went to Panache to ask the kids if they wanted to come over and swim. Of course, Cole came back with both boys in the dinghy. When Max was done wind surfing, we all jumped in the dinghy to go tubing. It was so much fun. Everyone decided to just laugh at the people in the tube while they were in the dinghy, but Marshal and I decided to laughed at. After I went, Parker, the driver of the dinghy, said that he was going to pull Marshal at full speed. He deffinitly did. We were all laughing so hard when he wiped out (more like flipped out). When we went back to Zen, Marshal and Parkers' parents were there too. As soon as we got aboard, Mommy brought out a bunch of homemade pretzels. They were amazing! Before we knew it, it was 6:30, and everyone had to leave. Today was a great day.

Another School Project

Here is another school project that I had to do. It is a newspaper article on the chocolate factory I wrote a blog about a while ago.

 

 

     Belmont Plantation Chocolate Factory

If you have ever wondered how or where chocolate is made, here are some of the answers. At the Belmont Plantation, in Grenada, chocolate is all anyone thinks about.

 

Starting 360 years ago, by the Swiss, sugar cane was grown. When the Swiss left, the French took over with coffee, then the British with nutmeg, and finally the Indian, who still own the plantation now, started chocolate.

 

A while after the Indian took over, they started growing all different fruits and vegetables. All the new products were then distributed around the island.

 

Most visitors of the plantation agreed that it was a very educational event. Monique Burgess says "It was very educational, and I loved how everything is done by hand."

 

When you come to plantation you can first be given a tour, and watch a quick movie on how the chocolate is made. After the film is done you are given a free sample of the chocolate, and an opportunity to get your own bar.

 

"The chocolate is awesome," says Cole Burgess "and I have never seen so many different fruits and vegetables."