Sunday Best

Martin at the top of the Mast.  I really love this photo of Martin.

Sunday proved to be a fruitful day.  Martin and Garry started out the day looking for a place to go to church.

Luckily, there was a local LDS branch (congregation) in the Canaries.  Unfortunately, Martin forgot to pack a white shirt (No worries. I got that covered).

Martin at the local Mormon church in the Canaries.

While Martin and Garry were there, they met a wonderful missionary couple from Colorado, Elder and Sister Buhler.  The Buhler's are serving an 18-month mission for the Mormon church in the Canaries.

Of course, once Martin met the Buhler's, he invited them over for dinner on Monday night.  This would be Amara's first hosting event and the crew cooked up a fabulous meal of fresh tuna, potatoes, and a green salad.  Martin said that Patrice seared the tuna just right and as I type this, it's making my mouth water. Tuna happens to be one of my very favorite meals!

Elder and Sister Buhler

Martin really enjoyed his time that he spent with the Buhler's.  He was especially glad that they were the first ones of many more fast friends to help break in Amara.  One of the reasons we are going on this adventure is to meet lots of people from all over, and all walks of life, to help us enjoy Amara and all the lovely sunsets we foresee her bringing.

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Today, along with preparing dinner for our first guests, Martin and his crew did some more provisioning. This time they had to make sure that they would have enough food to last them for the next 17 days.  I can't even imaging shopping for 3 hungry men.  Martin admitted to me today that Lily's allotted bedroom on Amara is now a storage and provisioning room stacked with spare parts and food.  (I was afraid that was going to happen.)

After provisioning the boat, Martin and Garry took off and went on a tour of the city and visited Christopher Columbus' home and saw the route that he took on his first voyage in 1492 to the New World. It goes without saying that I would have loved to have seen the Canaries.   I served a LDS (Mormon) mission to Madrid, Spain 24 years ago, and it was always my desire to get the Canaries.  Bummer that I'm not there and couldn't take advantage of seeing the sites.

It looks like the team will be taking off in the morning.  Patrice thinks there will be a break in the weather, but it's still not set in stone.  I hope it happens because that means that Lily and I are a few days closer to seeing Martin.  Finger's crossed!

On their Way to Las Palmas!

Martin at the top of the mast while underway to Las Palmas.

They are finally off!  There was a break in the weather early this morning and Amara and crew are headed for the Canaries (Las Palmas).

Martin was very anxious last night and ready to leave Gibraltar.  Looking at the weather reports, they did see a break on Sunday giving them the chance to leave and head to the Canaries (Las Palmas). However, Patrice was watching the water and he felt that even though all the weather reports were reading a definite break, he told Martin that he just felt that the wind was going to pick up more than the reports were indicating.  So they decided to "sit still" in Gibraltar for another day.  Sure enough, about an hour after they made the decision to stay, the wind really picked up.  It was howling so hard that when Martin called me from the dock, I could barely hear him on the phone.  Martin said that it really was much stronger than what any of the reports were reporting and that he respected Patrice's excellent sailing skills and seaman's intuition.

The skies looming over Amara in Gibraltar.

Dinner last night with a delivery captain (a captain who is delivering a boat to an owner down in the Caribbean).  He is also planning to leave Gibraltar today.  Of course, Martin made friends with him at the dock and invited him to dinner.  What's new?  He makes friends everywhere he goes.

Martin buying provisions for the long 5 days ahead.

...and then they took off early this morning.

Martin at the helm while Patrice pulls in the lines.

...and then, Garry at the helm.

Goodbye, monkeys!

Oh, and goodbye, Gibraltar.