Tropical getaway behind the story

TROPICAL GETAWAY–
Inspired by a real life tragedy, transformed into fiction

In November of 1998, I faced one of the most emotional, gut-wrenching and difficult challenges I'd ever known as a professional. I was asked to join a team of communications and damage control experts to manage the media coverage following the horrible loss of a passenger sailing cruise ship. The S/V Fantome, part of the world famous Windjammer Barefoot Cruise fleet, had disembarked its passengers in Belize at the first signs of Hurricane Mitch. Thirty-one men stayed on board with the plan to do what sailing vessels always do in a hurricane — chart a path in the opposite direction and make a hasty retreat. Unfortunately, Hurricane Mitch changed its course, defying meteorologists as it turned south — the first hurricane in recorded history to do so in the Gulf of Mexico. With the turn, the hurricane headed straight for the Fantome and the crew received a devastating death sentence, joining the hundreds of victims in Honduras who died as a result of the storm.

Immediately following the loss of the ship, attorneys began to circle the cruise company looking for blood and retribution. Accusations that the company deliberately navigated the ship to its certain death were made, teasing the grieving families of the victims with dreams of million dollar lawsuits. As part of the team set up to defend the company's actions to the media, I spent weeks researching and understanding the issues surrounding the tragedy. Eventually, all lawsuits were dropped and the little cruise company could finally try to heal from its gaping wound. As a professional, I was left with the utmost respect for the executives of Windjammer Barefoot Cruises. As a person, the story of the Fantome haunted me as much as its name, which is French for ghost.

From the devastating loss of the Fantome, I was inspired to write TROPICAL GETAWAY. In fiction, there is love, hope and answers. My own real-life experience of losing my home in Hurricane Andrew in 1992 added to my ability to describe the results of such devastation. I would like to have avoided living through my own hurricane and I wish I could have imagined the story without a real tragedy that sparked the idea. More than anything, I pray that the thirty-one souls lost on the Fantome are at peace and their loved ones have found comfort in memories. My story is completely fictional. My characters are from my imagination. My ending, more than anything, is far happier than reality.