A Different Perspective - by Ken Fickett

It has been a very interesting experience to track “Sea Glass” on SPOT and reading the Blog as she has made her way south. As the builder of Sea Glass, friend of the owner, employer of Eric, and father of Travis I have a seriously vested interest in seeing them all arrive successfully.

It was probably nearly four years ago that Travis and I were at Oshkosh for the biggest air show on earth when we discovered the SPOT Trackers being given away with the purchase of a one year service contract. That contract was pretty cheap, about 80 bucks or so as I recall, and I was hooked. Now I had real time info on exactly where a unit was and knew that the person carrying it could also trigger a “help” call if necessary. Trips such as the one Sea Glass is on have been much more heartburn-free than in the past.

Eric kept everybody pretty much up to speed on the trip until his departure from Sea Glass in the Turks and Caicos. Eric was replaced by Travis, my son, and that began the long wait for a reasonable weather window to head to the Dominican Republic. At the same time one of my old friends, Barry Terry, a retired British official with a bunch of ocean passage experience (and a DR resident), was contacted to help with making the passage and smoothing any potential issues with Dominican Customs and Immigration. That’s as good a team as you can get for this kind of trip. After nearly ten days of waiting, the guys finally got the weather window they were looking for and slipped around the west end of the Turks and Caicos headed south to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.

The SPOT system tracked flawlessly and it was nice to know at least the boat was moving along well. While in Provo (Turks and Caicos), Travis had been able to get the ICOM Single Sideband radio completely up and functional. This brand new weapon in Sea Glass’s communication arsenal allowed the guys to send and receive emails without being hooked up directly to the internet. They were also able to receive weather “faxes” from the radio that kept them abreast of moving fronts and sea conditions. A satellite phone was also available to connect them anywhere in the world and also to confer with Chris Parker, the very notable Caribbean weather forecaster and route planner.

Thirty-something hours later, Sea Glass arrived at Puerto Plata at the new Ocean World Marina (the marina showplace of the Dominican north coast.) In short order Mike and Fred were reunited with their wives who had flown into the DR in order to complete the trip with the guys. Clearing Customs, a great dinner, one night at the dock and it was off at 5PM the next day to make the long trip to Puerto Rico. Closely skirting the northern DR coast at night helped with sea conditions allowing Sea Glass to slide east past Samana and into the Mona Passage.

A few hours into the Mona Passage, typically one of the nastier crossings and also known for being one of the most heavily trafficked passages in the Caribbean – mostly in illegal immigrants going from the DR to Puerto Rico – the SPOT showed Sea Glass making a hard right hand turn. The turn caught my attention instantly as I watched the SPOT track unfold. But then SPOT went “dark” with no signal for several hours and my anxiety level clicked up a few notches. Finally the little orange icon popped up on the screen well south of the last signal and I blew a breath of relief.

From there on it was pretty basic; turn left at the south western tip of Puerto Rico and head East to Salinas on the south coast of PR. They dropped anchor in Salinas Harbour and began a Keystone Cops routine with Customs that I am going to leave to someone else to explain that was actually there.

Cell phone communications with Travis were excellent for much of the trip and the same was true in PR. That having been said it remains a mystery as to what went on when the guys tried to clear Customs, but it apparently precipitated a trip to “downtown” for Barry – the only “foreigner” on board. I hear that the food was great and all was well until everyone returned to the boat and discovered that the air conditioners were all inoperative. Just when I thought all was well and I was sound asleep, at 11:35PM, my phone rang and it was Travis asking for advice on troubleshooting the system. I guess whatever I said made sense to him, or not. Regardless, he called me back at midnight (gee thanks son!) to tell me that the A/C was now operational and all was well.

The next day the Sea Glass crew was off to Culebra, an island a little east of PR and one of the Spanish Virgin Islands with a colorful history. At this point the trip became a tour of the islands that Michael had come this far for. Caribbean Islands just a stones throw away from each other – one more beautiful then the next.

It has been great fun tracking the guys and talking when possible. My son, Travis, has been excited about the opportunity Michael gave him to come along and has managed to one up his “old man”. Congrats to all for a job well done.