Hot Meals and A New Crew!

Sue has arrived and a hot meal is finally on the menu!

I received an email early this morning from Sue with a photo of Martin enjoying his first hot meal in 2 weeks.  She was letting me know that Martin is finally off PBJ's and canned beans thanks to her being back in the kitchen.  FINALLY I can rest easy knowing that he is being taken care of by our sweet Sue.  A hot meal and a tall glass of water is all that man needs to be happy.  Plus a little greenery as a centerpiece is starting to make AMARA look like home again.  It also looks like Sue even brought Martin some easter treats.  Those were probably meant for me. :)

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Meet Our New Crew!

We have the luxury now of having more crew join us on certain legs of our voyage while we sail AMARA back to the Caribbean.  After a few presentations that we gave around town about our sailing adventures,  Martin and I had lots of people come up to us and ask if they could volunteer to help crew.  Martin and I were overwhelmed by the inquiries.  After a few dinners and conversations (and me sizing people up to make sure they weren't bonkers), we now have more crew that will be joining us on various legs of our journey! We are super excited that we get to share some of our adventures with other folks from Utah.  For the first leg (Brisbane, Australia to Sorong, Indonesia), John and Tamrika will be joining us.  They are in the air, as I type, on their way to meet Martin in Brisbane.

John and Tamrika are the owners of the famous Blue Plate Diner (featured on Food Network's, "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" hosted by Guy Fieri) in Sugar House—a suburb of Salt Lake City.  John is not only a foodie, but he is also a fellow sailor and lover of the ocean.  So, now Sue has someone to swap recipes with in the kitchen, and Martin has people that will finally want to stop with him and David at every single dive spot from Brisbane to Indonesia. AMARA is now set!

I made an early morning run to the Blue Plate Diner today.  

The timing couldn't have been more perfect for John and Tamrika to join us on this leg of the voyage.  To say the least, we are pretty psyched to have them on AMARA to mix things up a little bit.  We can always use more company.  The other added bonus is that more people will be available for watches—which is always welcomed when doing long legs.

Early this morning I was FaceTiming with Martin (he was going to bed on a Thursday, while I was just waking up on a Thursday...go figure the confusion in that!) and he asked me if I had purchased all the items that he had requested for me to send with John and Tamrika when they arrive on Saturday in Brisbane.  Then he mentioned, "You know, they are taking off this morning."  I was like, "What?  They are leaving today?"  For some reason, I thought they were leaving Friday, not Thursday!  I quickly blew Martin kisses over the phone and wrapped up the conversation.  Then I called John to see if I could make a run over to the diner to drop off the items that Martin needed.  I had to scramble!

John with my bag of goodies to take to Martin.

Luckily, John was at the diner (Tamrika was up at the University of Utah wrapping up some paperwork for her doctorate) and I was able to meet John with the items that Martin had requested.  Plus, I threw in my foul weather gear and my new swanky wetsuit (Both mine and Martin's wetsuits had slipped off our back deck 3 days before we arrived in Brisbane in November.  They were never recovered.)

I'll be sure to post some more photos of John AND Tamrika throughout the course of our journey.  That way you can get to know Tamrika as well.  She is just as great as John!

Martin hopes to get AMARA ready to go so that they can set sail early next week to start the first leg of a very long journey.  My plans are still pending but I am hoping to meet up with AMARA and crew in the next few weeks in Cairns, Australia.  I am getting antsy to join the group and hope that I can get things wrapped up here in Utah so that I can join in on all the fun aboard AMARA.