Meet Me in Maumere

It's official, I am finally off to go meet up with Martin and Doug in Indonesia.  It has been one crazy week trying to get the house settled and get ready to meet them in Maumere.  I am so excited to see Martin!

The week leading up to seeing him, however, hasn't been quite as pleasant.  Like all good wives of husbands that have big boats, I am lugging more boat parts with me than I am sunscreen!  In fact, I think I was close to a mental breakdown on the ven diagram of emotional health just trying to pull these parts in from all corners of the US.  I got to be VERY good friends with a Yanmar distributor, who now recognizes my voice before I even introduce myself on the phone.  Words like mixing elbow, turbo pumps, oil plugs, cylinders, filters (for generator and water maker) and injectors now easily slip off my tongue.  I have looked at more diagrams of engines than I ever thought was possible.  My bag is H.E.A.V.Y!

My trip to get to Martin will be more like a planes, trains and automobiles kind of trip.  We are talking 52+ hours of travel before I even meet up with him on the island of Maumere.  Currently, Martin and Doug are racing to get to me (a five day trip for them) by Saturday.  From there we will head to the Banda Islands and go see the Kamodo dragons on the island of Kamodo (they waited for me to join them).

Well, I am off to Tokyo (where I have a 15-hour layover) and then onto Bali.  Then I'll eventually catch a little puddle jumper to meet up with Martin on Maumere.

Wish us luck!

Check back in a few days!

Whale Sharks!

Martin swimming with whale sharks.

Martin and crew had an amazing experience last week.  They were able to go to Cenderwasih Bay and swim with the elusive whale sharks.  This has been a dream of Martin's for so long and I am so happy that he was able to finally swim with the huge creatures.   

Martin hired a dive master, Tommy, to take them through many of the famous
dive sites in Indonesia.  This being one of them.

It was very tricky for them to get to this site because there is a lot of red tape to get to this marine park.  While in the park, you have to host a ranger on your boat the entire time.  So everywhere Amara went, the ranger went with them even spending the night on Amara for the week while they were there.

Doug getting a closer look.

Trevor filming from above the whale shark.

Martin said that when he first jumped in the water to see the whale sharks they were right there in front of him.  They were just as curious about Martin as he was about them.  He said they came right for him and he said that for a moment, he got a little startled.  Quickly, he remembered that they don't have any teeth so he knew he was pretty much safe.  He couldn't get out of the water after that point knowing that they were so close to him and wanting to play.

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Martin and crew got fuel for Amara in early June and have been paying a price for purchasing REALLY BAD fuel ever since.  In the picture below, you can see visible layers or water, dirt and fuel.  Martin says that the quality of the fuel purchased is probably the worst fuel that he has ever seen, and they have been paying a price dealing with the effects that this horrible fuel has had on the engines.  They were finally able to refuel in Sorong this week and are HOPING that it isn't as bad as what they got before.  As Doug said, "Cruising off the beaten path has its advantages but it also has it's disadvantages."  Bad fuel is one of them.

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Martin and Doug are the only crew left on Amara at the moment.  They left Sarong today and are making their way to the Kamodo islands to go and see the famous Kamodo dragons.  It should take them about two days of sailing to arrive.

The great news is that Lily and I are going out next week to meet Martin.  I know, I know, he is in paradise and I am home doing who knows what?  Actually, I have been handling a lot of things here and have finally seen a window where I can come up for air, so Lily and I are taking advantage of this and heading to Bali to meet Martin, Doug and Amara.  The reunion will be grand.

Since I'll be back on Amara next week, I am hoping to keep our blog updated more, so keep checking back as I continue to write about Amara's adventures.