I have been putting a full court press on the new business and have not had much time to do those things that I want to do, including write a short bio about what I am doing .
I guess the first question is why would anyone in their mid (late?) 50's buy a boat as old as they are and start a cargo business? The answer for me has been a sense of urgency to transition from the high-tech world I have been in for the past 15 years and to do something that I really have wanted to do for years, but could not afford to. My wife, JoAnn, and I decided to "downsize" by selling our house and building a cottage on adjacent property. This freed up some equity, however, I am not able to retire and still want to do meaningful work, but found the world of high-tech becoming less and less fulfilling. My new business is very rewarding in that my customers truly appreciate what I do and are willing to pay a premium for the level of service I provide. My freight rates work out to almost $400 per ton or $6 per cubic foot, whichever is greater, The niche market consists of the private islands in the Bahamas, owned by very wealthy people who value reliable service and honesty.
At this point, I have traveled almost 10,000 miles in a T-Boat and have hauled many tons of cargo to the Bahamas ranging from food to building supplies. It has been a year of building the business and deciding how to transition the business to something that is sustainable over the long term.
Just wanted to touch base with you to keep the conversation going - I will start to put together an article that outlines what I have been up to. It is a bit of a "follow-your-dream" story along with some observations about my experiences in the West Indies and the Bahamas.
The attached pictures are before and after shots of M/V Retriever at the Cruise Ship Dock in Nassau. The before picture is where I left the boat while I went to clear customs (a 15 min job in most instances). Four hours later, I came back to find Retriever dwarfed by the cruise ship shown.
Best regards,
Ron
Ron Beck
President
Island Transit, Inc.
P.O. Box 545853
Surfside, FL 33154-5853
26 Jul 2003
OK ok. We just sold our home in Tampa and moved into a much smaller one since there are just the two of us. We also bought a condo in Sarasota where we will hopefully retire in a few years. In the meantime we'll go there on weekends, such as the last one, and maybe rent it out to defray some expenses.
With the college football season here again I'm busy with the Outback Bowl. I'm the 2d VP this year so in two years I'll be the Chairman of the whole thing. Each year we bring in about 40 million to the community and get a lot of favorable publicity to the area. Plus for me its a total blast. I was at the Big Ten meeting in Chicago in July and sat at dinner with Joe Paterno...The guy has a million stories!
Cindy teaches at a small private school in Tampa. She teaches 7th and 8th grade history and english and also is basically the head of the middle school. I will have to drag her bodily out of there when its retirement time.
Meredith went through the travails of a divorce a year ago and moved back to Tampa from Baton Rouge. She got a job as a paralegal at a law firm and the bug bit her despite entreaties from the old man that she was crazy to get into the law business. She started night classes at Stetson law school here in St Pete while part timing it still at the law firm.
After floundering for a while Andy has settled in as the manager of the Thrifty Car Rental operation at the Tampa Airport. He works all the wrong hours of course but he has signed up for a couple classes at the local CC. Some kids take longer than others to get it together.
Meredith and Andy took me out for my birthday to a place called the Green Iguana in Tampa. They have a blues jam there every Monday night and the players, as I found out since I'd not been there before, come from all over and are pretty darn good. The kids told the manager that it was my birthday and that I played the harmonica. He was skeptical but eventually called me up and introduced me to the crowd. I asked him what song we were playing (he played piano) and he said "you'll find out" I asked him to at least tell me what key we were in and after thinking about that for a bit said "you'll need your C harp," So I got up there and off they went! It took me a while to catch up but I ended up jamming for 10 15 minutes with them and held my own - or at least that's what the guy said.
Looking forward to the next reunion already since I couldn't get to the last one. There WILL BE a Gents reunion there!
Posted 02 Sep 2003
I guess it is only fair to go ahead myself, having asked others to update us.
My family is doing fabulously these days. Who would have thought? Here we all are at a wedding last summer. (Dave, Doug, Chris, Claire (DIL), Sue, Jen)
Our son Chris found his calling, went back to school, and graduated from Emory this year with an MBA. He is working for a management consulting firm. Chris is the family musician. A friend of his gave him some studio time as a Christmas present and here are links to a couple of songs he recorded:
(Caution - these are pretty big files.) This is a photo of Chris taken during a coffee house session.
Our eldest Son, Dave, took a leisurely seven years to graduate from college. He is now a network engineer. Married. Just got his license as a race car driver. I spent a great weekend with Dave at the Virginia International Raceway this summer. Here is a pic of his race car #20 at VIR, snuggled in between a couple of Porches in the short turns.
Our daughter, Jen, is slaving away in research on the way to her PHD in plant genetics at Yale. She surprised us this summer - authored a chapter in a genetics textbook. It is something of an honor for her to be working in the lab where the double helix was discovered 50 years ago. (Yep - In OUR life times! - Feel old?)
My second career as a programmer and systems analyst/consultant helps pay the bills. Sue tells me I can quit working in two more years. Ha! We'll see.
I'm also looking forward to the next class reunion.
Posted 02 Sep 2003
