After 2 months and 10 days Capt. Billy and crew pulled into Samana this morning at 7 AM in the Lady Laura. The trip certainly took a lot longer than anyone anticipated as there was the wait for Billy’s surgery in Salt Lake City, his recovery time, the amount of work that had to be done to prepare the Lady Laura for the trip and then the numerous weather delays throughout the trip. All last week as he sat out the fronts in Caicos, we watched the computer models as the most dangerous part of the trip was just ahead. Finally, there were green lights across the board and they headed out for the north coast of the Dominican Republic early Sunday morning, hopefully non-stop for Samana. The computer models were right and they pulled into a calm Samana harbor early Monday morning having experienced no treacherous seas. One day per year there are 3 cruise ships here at the same time and today was the day so I radioed Billy to warn him and his response was that they had better get those big boats outta the way cuz he was comin’ in! Roberto and Domingo were also very anxious to get home and they became instant celebrities as they talked to everyone about their experiences in the USA – Seeing New York’s Times Square, experiencing snow for the first time, going to an NBA game, watching a Space Shuttle launch, traveling by boat from Florida to Samana and many more experiences which will certainly become legends in time.
Having the Lady Laura here will prove to be invaluable as Deep Blue undertakes the next venture. It is highly maneuverable and drafts just 3 feet so it will allow us to get into tighter situations than the Tracy – important for surveying. It certainly allows us to also be in 2 places at one time, which could be very helpful this year.
Stay tuned for more and check out the pictures of Capt. Billy’s return in the Pictures page.