Turning Dreams Into Reality

Occasionally I take the time to look through old journals I’ve written in that detail events in my life on both the professional and personal sides. I do so because I tend to forget some of the details regarding those events and I love to relive them through the writings I’ve made over the years.

Some of you have commented how you’ve enjoyed coming along with me in those articles, as I’ve sat back and wandered down through the memories I’ve made over the years and put pen to paper to share them with you. These wonderful opportunities to share them with you on these pages have become so special to me because I’ve had the honor to meet with so many of you, and you’ve shared your own special memories with me. 

Many of us dream about great adventures we would love to embark upon; we dream about accomplishments in both our personal, as well as our professional lives, and I think that is a healthy thing to do from time to time.

For some of us, it all remains just a fantasy or a dream too far, but for Ken Barton and his wife Lil, along with some of their friends, the dream began to turn into reality in January 2013 when Ken’s 52-foot Moonbeam pushed off from the dock at his home here on Marco. The 52’ Island Packet Cutter became` these brave sailors’ home for the almost three-year trip around the globe.

For on that day he began a journey to circumnavigate the globe, a trip he had planned for over a decade. Over the next three years I would have the honor to write about it as he kept me posted on his progress, as well as sharing a picture or two regarding his adventure.

When Ken departed in January of 2013, he traveled with Marco Islander Lee Henderson and a few sailing friends from Long Island. They sailed down to Guatemala to visit with a friend, and then pushed off to the Panama Canal. Ken’s wife Lil had joined him for the journey through the Panama Canal, which is an engineering wonder in its own right.

An accomplished sailor from Long Island, the trip was something they had always wanted to do while they still could, and about ten years ago they did it. They kept a photo journal of their travels which took about three years to conclude. The proof of their wonderful journey can be seen on their coffee table where the three books reside in their home here on Marco.

From Panama City, Ken’s wife would return to Marco, along with Lee Henderson, and the smaller group sailed to the Galapagos Islands, where they fueled and then pushed off on a 3,000-mile run west to the Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific.

It was around the first week of May that Lil rejoined her husband Ken and the others, as they explored the unspoiled raw beauty of what few will ever have the opportunity understand. They spent four months sailing through the volcanic islands of the South Pacific pulling into small ports throughout this beautiful area of the South Pacific islands; Tahiti, Fiji, the Cook Islands, Bora-Bora, Tonga and so many more exquisite ports of calls in an unspoiled area of the world so few get to enjoy. 

In September, Lil returned home, as did several of the others. Rob Reiley, another adventurous Marco Islander, flew into Fiji to join Ken for the 1,200-mile leg to New Zealand, where the boat found a temporary port at Bay of the Islands, while Ken and Reiley returned home to Marco for a short stay.

While at Port Opua in Bay of the Islands, the boat received some TLC and new bottom paint to take on the next leg of the trip.

After a little R&R on Marco and a gathering of Ken and Lil Barton’s friends, it was time to say bon voyage to their globe-trotting friend. Barton flew out on Sunday to rejoin with his boat Moonbeam at Port Opua and supervise the final work before he would be reunited with his good friend Rob Reiley, who rejoined Barton for a 1,300-mile sail across the Tasman Sea over to Brisbane, Australia.

In Brisbane, Lil rejoined her husband for the cruise up the coast of Australia and inside the world-famous Great Barrier Reef. They joined with another group of experienced sailors, and they all sailed along the northern coast of Australia and past New Guinea and Indonesia.

Of course, no trip would be complete if they didn’t get to go into the majestic port of Bali and experience the wonders of Singapore, as they headed for their final destination in Thailand, sometime in early November.

Barton then made the decision to have the boat loaded onto a freighter, which would allow it to bypass the pirates off the coast of Somalia, while making a peaceful journey up past Yemen and through the Suez Canal, exiting into the Mediterranean Sea and safe dockage in Turkey.

Taking their time, they meandered through the Mediterranean enjoying the warm rays of sunshine and beautiful small and secluded ports of call throughout the idyllic Greek Islands. It was a true dream of any sailor, with the light winds and warm breezes at their backs, before they exited the Mediterranean Sea and headed southerly down the coast of Africa before fueling and taking on provisions for a final push across the Atlantic and into the Bahamas.

This was the final push and last leg of their journey, which took them across the Florida Bay and the final turn into the mouth of the Marco River where they were met by a group of friends, the  Marco Island Fire Rescue Boat, the Marco P.D. Dive Rescue Vessel as well as a number Collier County Sheriff’s boats and helicopter, which provided them with a special welcome home befitting this great accomplishment.

Moonbeam no longer sits quietly at Ken and Lil’s dock; she’s been sold to another adventurer. But the memories of the Barton’s great adventure will live on in the memories of their great friends, and those new friends they made during their passage around the world.

I will always have my memories sitting here and following their great voyage and reporting on it from time to time and being there to welcome them home. I will always cherish those memories and the friendship I have the privilege to have shared with the Bartons.

Ken and Lil,  “May you always have fair winds ad following seas in all your days yet to come,” and thank you for friendship.