Friday, February 22, 2008

Intruder One to cross the Atlantic



For Details Go To http://www.crosstheatlantic.com/



We are taking the same boat, Intruder One, to Europe. We will be changing the name of the vessel to: "The Great American Spirit" or to "The Spirit of Florida", the final decision has not been made yet. We may go with "a name provided by a sponsor". We are waiting to find that particular sponsor.

Lord Willing, we will be the first in world history to cross the Atlantic in a flats boat. Large areas of shallow water are called "Flats". Boats designed to operate in these shallow waters are called "Flats Boats". Generally they are low profile open fishing boats.

We believe the Intruder is the "World's Most Seaworthy Flats Boat". What do you think? On the last trip we went 1547 miles and encountered some rather large waves with winds in excess of 30 mph. We never felt like we were in danger. We had estimated the waves at 6 - 8 feet, the reports said 3 meter ( 9 & 1/2 feet). When I asked Bob if he wanted to come again, he thought about it for about two seconds. He responded, "I am all over that."


The trip is tentatively planned for a June 27, 2009 with a departure from Tampa, Florida. The current plan is to stop in Ft Meyers; Key Largo; Ft Lauderdale; Cape Canaveral; Jacksonville; Savannah, Ga; Morehead City, N.C.; Norfolk, Va; New York,NY; Boston,Ma; three stops in Canada; Greenland; Iceland; Scotland; Ireland; London: Paris; and Hamburg Germany. The total trip is approximately 6,200 miles and will take approximately 26 days, depending upon the weather and how adventurous we are we may stop for fishing, surfing, skiing etc.

We are currently talking with two groups about making a reality adventure TV show out of the trip. There is a tremendous market for that kind of real life danger. More details can be seen at http://www.crosstheatlantic.com/



We will be wearing Mustang Survival Suits. No emergency kit is complete without survival suits. http://www.mustangsurvival.com/


We plan to have a "Google Earth" gps tracking device link so that you can follow our exact location at the time of departure. As it gets closer we will update this blog.

On the last trip we lived off of Del Monte Fruit Cocktail, Granola Bars, and Gatorade.
We are attempting to get them as sponsors. If you have a inside contact, please forward it to me. They make great survival foods.

No, I do not know what the Las Vegas odds makers are saying.
I I believe the odds are 100% that we will make it, Lord Willing, of course. We are guaranteed to have problems. We don't even know what the problems will be. We plan to handle them and go on. That being said, Please keep us in your prayers!

We are still looking for sponsors, as it is expected that this trip will make the national media stage. Contact me at: ralph@dreamboats.net
Or Call Ralph at 352-346-2365


or go to the web page: http://www.thegreatamericanspirit.net/