The Fletchers’
AFLOAT - A SUMMER SERIES - R.I. 'stopover' changed global tour's course
By AMANDA MILKOVITS September 11, 2006 Publication: Providence Journal (RI)
WICKFORD COVE - They were young and in love, and feeling trapped as they watched their friends having children and settling down.
Not yet, thought Gordon and Sharon Fletcher. There must be more than this.
Gordon dreamed about sailing around the world, a dream that took on deeper meaning when his father died, at 62.
Death had cheated his hard-working father of enjoying his short retirement. But his father had given Gordon a gift when he taught him how to sail as a boy.
Sharon had never sailed until she began dating Gordon, but she liked the idea of escape.
He was 32. She was 26. They were newlyweds in Durban, South Africa, where they'd met at an accounting firm. They planned to spend two years at sea, heading west and continuing around the globe. It would be just the two of them, in a 28-foot sailboat they built. They had charts, a radio and a red book titled World Cruising Routes, which they bought when they married, in March 1992.
They'd start off from South Africa's Wild Coast, an area so treacherous that vessels with experienced crews had disappeared there. They'd see Saldanha Bay, where Gordon had served in the South African navy. They'd follow the trade winds, visit islands so remote that only boaters could reach them, and join sailing races along the way. They'd return to South Africa after a few years and settle down.
But destiny had another course in mind, to another place that the couple had never heard of, where the settled life they were fleeing was waiting for them.
In Rhode Island.
IN 1990, after they'd been dating about a year, Gordon found the hull of a Van der Stadt-designed boat sitting up on tires in a boatyard.
It needed everything -- a mast, an engine, wiring, sails, rigging, inside cabinetry. But it was a good boat, by the same designer of the sailboat that legendary South African sailor Bertie Reed competed with for 20 years. For the next two years, the Fletchers' dates revolved around building this sailboat. "It was very romantic," Gordon joked.
Friends helped with building a mast and rigging. The Fletchers did the wiring and finish work and painted the sailboat white with red stripes.
They were halfway into the project when Gordon's father died, in 1991. They gave their sailboat his nickname: The Ferret.
They prepared to sail in December 1992. They had canned food to last for six months and planned to buy fresh fruit and vegetables at ports.
They budgeted no more than $10 a day and planned to pick up odd jobs at ports along the way. They had two fishing lures and books that Sharon collected for lazy days at sea. They had tools and spare equipment for repairs.
They set off for good on Jan. 13, 1993, with one goal: see the world.
They snorkled with tropical fish in the clear South Atlantic and saw a whale flip its tail at them. Sharon caught a large shark that slammed his head against the boat and dove away free. Some days, Gordon raised the spinnaker and let the trade winds carry The Ferret along.
They stopped at ports along the southern-most end of South Africa and sailed 700 miles to St. Helena, a remote island in the South Atlantic where Napolean had been exiled. Two weeks under sail brought them to Fernando de Noronha, off Brazil. They went to Barbados and on to Antigua, where Gordon crewed on the MBG Flyer II in the Antigua Race, and continued up to the Virgin Islands.
Along the way, the Fletchers had joined a community of other sailors on the same kind of trip. Gordon spoke to them on the boat's radio each morning -- Northmore, Venture, Featherbed and Meridian.
The other sailors radioed congratulations, and one couple serenaded them, on the Fletchers' first anniversary. The sailors were one another's guides and reassurance. They also guided the Fletchers' fate.
In June 1993, the start of hurricane season, the Fletchers knew they had to get out of the Caribbean. The Northmore's owners were from Hartford, Conn., and they suggested that the Fletchers follow them to Rhode Island.
"I didn't know what Rhode Island was," Gordon said. Why not? they thought.
They reached Rhode Island Sound in the middle of the night on July 1, guided by the lights of Castle Hill in Newport and Beavertail in Jamestown, and the Newport bridge.
Unsure in an unfamiliar place, they tied up alongside Northmore. It was 3:30 in the morning, a few days before Independence Day.
They didn't know it then, but they were home.
THE FLETCHERS were in one of the most expensive cities in New England with just $86 in cash and $500 in travelers checks. "Now it's funny, but it wasn't at the time," Gordon says.
They were helped by the community of sailors. One offered his mooring in Newport Harbor for the summer. Others played tour guide and took them to the Bristol Fourth of July parade, to the Poconos and New York City. The couple showered at the Seaman's Insitute and the Newport Yacht Club.
As the weather grew colder, the Fletchers realized they'd have to stay.
Gordon got a job in construction accounting for the Rhode Island Airport Corporation and obtained a three-year work visa. They found an apartment in Newport and leased a car.
Then, their first son, Stephen, was born. They bought a house in North Kingstown and renewed Gordon's visa. Their second son, Michael, arrived three years later. Gordon worked on his green card.
All the while, they talked about when they'd sail off again. But life intervened.
"It seems we were destined to stay," Sharon said.
ON A RECENT summer evening, two barefoot boys scampered like monkeys on the deck of the sailboat Riptide. Gordon and Sharon were in the cockpit, as the boat sailed under a cloud-filled sky on Narragansett Bay.
Stephen, 11, took his father's place at the helm, steering the sailboat out of Wickford Harbor for the Wickford Yacht Club's Wednesday night races. Michael, now 8, pointed out a rainbow in the sky.
They've been on sailboats since they were infants, either in car seats below deck or bouncing in child swings attached to the boom. They race in the Wickford Sailing Program, and sail their own Optimist sailboats, 8-foot wooden dinghies that Gordon built.
This is how Gordon grew up. Sailing has built their confidence and independence, he said. "And when they're out on the water, they're not up to mischief," Sharon said.
They sold The Ferret years ago to another young couple who wanted to sail around the world. Now, the family owns Riptide, a Beneteau 40.7 that they've sailed to first and second place in their class in the Figawi Hyannis-to-Nantucket race, and second place in their class in this year's Newport-to-Bermuda race.
Gordon is now chief financial officer for Arden Engineering and sits on the boards of the Wickford Yacht Club and its sailing program. Sharon is a controller at George H. Fuller & Sons jewelers, in Pawtucket.
Last week, Gordon flipped through the photo album of pictures taken from that around-the-world trip. The album ends with pictures of the Bristol parade, the Statue of Liberty, and the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.
They say that people living here don't seem to appreciate the opportunities they have. "When they say there's an American dream, when you take an opportunity and work hard, it's true," Gordon said.
Rhode Island is not their last stop. In 10 years, after launching both sons off to college, Gordon and Sharon say, they will set sail again.
And continue their journey around the world.
Riptide
Make and model: 2001 Beneteau 40.7, a racer/cruiser
Sail number: 93082
Top speed: 16.2 knots
Length: 40.7 feet
Beam: 12 feet
Draft: 7 feet, 9 inches
Engine: 30-hp diesel
Purchased: 2001 (second owner)
Best boating moment: Watching their sons sailing on their own. "As long as they're out there having fun," Gordon says.
Worst boating moment: When the Ferret disappeared in Antigua Bay during their around-the-world trip. The Fletchers were on shore when another boat disturbed the Ferret's mooring and set it adrift - carrying all of the couple's possessions, passports and money left on board. The couple rode around in their dinghy searching among about 300 other boats and found their boat after what felt like hours, but was actually a half-hour.
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Gordon and Sharon Fletcher in the cockpit of their sailboat, Riptide, head out of Wickford Harbor for a recent evening race. With them are sons Michael, 8, and Stephen, 11.
* * *
Michael Fletcher and his brother, Stephen, of North Kingstown, are on the bow of the family boat, Riptide, as they race off Wickford harbor.
