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| AMARA going back in the water. |
Martin is in Australia while I remain in Utah. We decided that he go ahead and get AMARA ready in Brisbane while Lily and I wait a little longer until we join up with him and the crew. So, this past week, Martin has been working on AMARA in the boatyard for long hours getting her ready for the water. Luckily our crew, David and Sue, will be joining Martin this next weekend and I feel comforted knowing that Martin will finally have a good home cooked meal prepared by Sue. Yahoo! It will be nice to know that Sue will be there to finally feed him a proper meal. Martin, being the frugal man that he is, has been eating all the canned goods that he and his crew bought (before Sue's supervision) in France a year ago. I think it has been a lot of beans and more beans.
Another great thing about David and Sue coming is that David will be there to help Martin troubleshoot all the problems that AMARA has had due to her sitting in the boatyard, on the hard, for the past 4 months. I feel a great sense of relief knowing that they will soon be there to offer him help... and a little company.
Martin sent me an email today about the latest happenings with AMARA. I thought I would share the email with our readers.
In Martin's words:
"AMARA was supposed to be well protected here in Brisbane while we were home in Utah for the holidays. Instead, she had a rough time of it.
The temperature here reached 43.9 celsius, which is just over 111 degrees Fahrenheit and she sat sweating it out on the black asphalt. She also endured a hailstorm with golfball to orange-sized hail blowing in winds of 60 mph. In several places she looks like she has been through some type of military action with scars to match the story.
The worst of it was she had to endure another storm which caused a lightening strike to a nearby boat. AMARA happens
to have the tallest mast here in the boatyard. Although I haven’t been up the mast yet to check, I don’t think Amara
got a direct hit. However she did perform some Benjamin Franklin type experiments with static electricity. Nine of her
electronic control modules were wiped out. Fortunately, some of our other crucial electronics were off the boat for
servicing at the time of the storm. We are currently waiting for replacement modules from France.
The other thing that occurred was that AMARA, being a rather large girl and hard to move, got parked fairly close to the boat cleaning station for the other boats. As a result she was covered in a black grime. Every nook and cranny was filled with muck. We even had to sand her teak deck to help recover her shine. Now after 3 wash downs, she is starting to recover.
In spite of the recent endurance challenges, AMARA has been successfully launched and she still floats. She is happy to be back in the water where she belongs, and today she gets to wear some of her sails again and looks respectable for her crew who will arrive this weekend."
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| The famous electrical system on AMARA that got fried in the electrical storm. |
I know that I promised an itinerary, which I will work on and get posted in the next few days. It looks to be one fun sail! Check back in a few days and I will get it posted.
Right now I just feel assured knowing that AMARA is back where she belongs... in the water.
