by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer
Like many folks, Sewanee Spanish professor Angela Alvarez Jordan and her husband, Paul, traveled to visit relatives over the holidays, but the Jordans did things a little differently: they traveled to Columbia, South America, island-hopping in a four-passenger flying boat known as a lake amphibian.
It’s long been the couple’s tradition to visit Angela’s mother and other relatives in Columbia at Christmas time. And several years ago “this daunting idea” occurred to Paul. Rather than flying in a commercial plane, they could fly to Columbia, South America, in the flying boat they kept docked in a hangar at their home on Tims Ford Lake.
But when Paul mapped a route through the Caribbean, he discovered the amphibian’s 40-gallon fuel capacity was inadequate. Four hundred miles was the most they could travel on a single fill-up. With strong headwinds, they could run out of fuel on the 363-mile jaunt from La Romana to Aruba. After searching more than a year for auxiliary tanks, Paul settled for all he could find: two under-wing tanks salvaged from a wrecked plane.
The next hurdle came when the insurance company refused to insure the plane unless Paul acquired his instrument rating and upgraded the amphibian with GPS instrument navigation equipment. Paul turned 70 last year and with the instrument rating challenge behind him, he decided to put the amphibian Christmas trip at the top of what Angela calls his “bucket list.”
Months of careful planning followed, but there were still risks. Their fuel capacity was sufficient, but didn’t provide much wiggle room if bad weather dictated a route change. And while the amphibian was equipped for landing on calm inland water like a lake, the small craft could easily be capsized by seven-foot ocean waves. Angela’s mother, Elena Gomez, advised her daughter, “Don’t do it!” Paul suggested that Angela could fly in a commercial jet and meet him there. Undaunted, Angela insisted on flying with him.
The Jordans count Dec. 18 as the day their journey officially began, flying from Ft. Lauderdale to the Bahamas. On day two they traveled to Turks and Caicos. Day three they planned to land at La Romana in the Dominican Republic, but “things didn’t work out,” Paul said.
Anticipating fair weather, Paul didn’t file an instrument plan. When cloud cover forced them to fly below the clouds, head winds gobbled up their precious fuel. Using the GPS, they found a nearby airport of entry and received permission to land. They spent the next two days in El Catey waiting for the weather to clear. On Dec. 22 they set out for La Romana a second time. When cloud cover moved in again, they veered off course and followed the coast rather than risk flying below the clouds at a mere 500 feet above the mountaintops. They arrived in La Romana without incident.
On Dec. 23, they completed the longest leg of the trip from La Romana to Aruba, and they were back in the air again early on the morning of Dec. 24. “There it is,” Paul announced triumphantly, just 45 minutes after they’d taken off. “You can see Columbia!,” Angela recalled, the memory of the excitement bright in her voice. A little over two hours later they landed in Barranquilla, Angela’s place of birth. When they touched down, they were both yelling, “We made it!”
Angela kept her family informed of their progress via group messaging. She said her mother “stayed close to the computer,” anxious about their safety. “You should never get it in your mind that you need to get to a place by a certain day,” Paul insisted. Safety trumps timeliness.
An electrical engineer specializing in cable car inspection and repair, Paul has frequent business in Puerto Rico, and the Jordans stopped there to visit friends on the return trip. The detour added a 400-mile leg to their journey. “We used 42 gallons of fuel,” Paul said, more gas than the amphibian held before he modified the craft adding two extra tanks.
In mid-January the Jordans celebrated Paul’s 71st birthday and their 35th wedding anniversary. It was an especially joyous occasion for the couple.
“The trip brought us closer,” Angela said. “Getting to each country was an accomplishment we shared.”
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