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.

Making a Splash and Other Updates

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."

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.  

Gearing Up

{The packing has begun!}

Tap, tap, tap... Is this thing on?

Sorry.  So sorry... It's been way too long.  I've missed you all.  I never meant to be away for so long but life has a way of gulping you up.  Then every time I opened my laptop to give you all an update, I would go blank.

What I can tell you is that we are getting ready, I mean REALLY ready to board AMARA at the end of this month.  We are excited, nervous, feeling overwhelmed and organized.  Bags are getting packed, Amazon has been continually dropping off packages at our front door, and tourist visa's are getting applied for.  We are gearing up fast and honestly, I still don't know if I'll be ready.

I swore, SWORE to myself that I was not going to pack as many clothes as I brought last time.  Somehow though, the pile is getting higher and higher.  I mean, no one is really going to see me, and those that will, could care less, and yet I still keep adding to my pile.  I need an intervention.

Martin has been pretty much stuck in his office day in and day out writing out our sailing itinerary, applying for cruising permits, securing crew and making sure our boat insurance is current.  All of which take a lot of time.  I can't wait to get back on the boat just so we can have a normal conversation again.  Time together on the boat really kept us close and in sync.  Being home keeps us going in different directions.  All of which is to be expected, seeing that Martin does have to go to work and I have my own responsibilities going on around me.  But boy, it will be nice for us to step back onto AMARA's deck.

Check back soon and I will be posting our new itinerary.  WE ARE GOING PLACES!