January
2006 - A life at sea sounds like a dream to many. Others would wish
for a mixture of land and ocean.
Ferrying people and cargo between Antigua and Barbuda, Greg Urlwin has
found the perfect blend. In the early 80's, Urlwin decided he wanted to
follow in his uncle's wake, and sail to the Caribbean. Before that,
he says, he had been in a university in New Hampshire, studying "everything
and nothing". "I came down here for a year," he says, "and stayed,
two, went home, and was even less interested in being there than I had
been before. "I realised that all this university was getting in
the way of my education, so I came back here." He made a 20-year
career sailing yachts from Antigua to Europe, Alaska, the US coast and
the Panama Canal. But that too eventually grew dull, and Urlwin wanted
something new.
Today,
he's the captain of the Barbuda Express, the only passenger sea link between
sister islands Antigua and Barbuda. Setting up the business was no
easy feat, however. "Banks, they hate financing boats," he
says of the significant barriers to entry in this field. "Added to that,
knowledge of boats and the ability to pay for them are two of the most
mutually exclusive activities on the planet."
Eventually, Urlwin got backing from
a family member and two friends to purchase a second-hand wave-piercing
Catamaran from Florida.
Though not the most profitable business
in the world, he says, "It was something I knew that I could do, and I
could do well.
You try to find a business that you
want to start: swim with the dolphins, a new golf course, and there's always
someone that's against you.
I knew this was something that they
wanted, nobody was going to be against me; it just seemed like a natural
fit." Previous attempts to bridge the distance over the years had
failed.
Urlwin
credits his success to the type of boat he uses. Instead of being carried
by the waves in the notoriously unsettled channel, the Cat goes through
them, making for a much smoother ride.
Passengers range from cricket teams
to construction workers, to sightseers and hotel workers. In addition,
he ships produce, sporting gear.
The vessel makes the 180-minute round
trip daily, leaving Urlwin little time to do anything else but run his
business.
"What do you do in your spare time?"
I ask.
"For leisure?" he replies. "When
I get some leisure time, I'll tell you."
His love for the Caribbean is made
up of simple things: "I think the more relaxed lifestyle, the climate,
the people, the fact that in Antigua, we have people from all over the
world, and people from all over the world visit here.
"It's an unpretentious lifestyle
here, nobody really cares what you drive, which is so much different from
the States, where it's all about what you drive and what you wear. There,
it's work every minute of your life and accumulate a whole bunch of toys
and have no time to enjoy yourself.
It's
he who dies with the most toys wins." The last year for him, he admits
though, has been gruelling. Finding a licensed ferry captain to assist
him was a major task.
"It's been a ridiculous amount of
work," he concedes.
"But on the plus side, the only way
that you can really understand how the whole thing works is to do it yourself."
He describes his daily responsibilities
as "keeping all the balls in the air."
"I'm a problem solver," Urlwin says,
"so when I look at starting a business, I'm looking to solve problems.
And one of the big problems this
whole region faces competitively is the transportation problem. If you're
in Miami, and you need to do something in West Palm Beach or wherever,
you get in the car and you drive there.
"But if you're here in Antigua, and
you need to do something in Barbuda, you need to get on to some type of
transportation. So to me, a business that solves that problem is a good
business."
His original plans included running
a ferry between St Vincent and the Grenadines, or Antigua and French island-territory
Guadeloupe. The latter he still firmly intends to do. A larger, faster
boat would be needed. Meanwhile, he says there's nothing he longs for within
the shores of North America. He spends his days between the sister islands,
and most nights rests his head on the relatively untouched Barbuda, home
to around 1,500 people.
The only thing he says might make
him move back to the States - and this only temporarily - would be if his
other half decides to further her studies there.
In the meantime, he's content with
doing what he loves, in a place where he's happy.
The following is Susan's first article
for the magazine:
January
2006 - A life at sea sounds like a dream to many. Others would wish
for a mixture of land and ocean.
Ferrying people and cargo between Antigua and Barbuda, Greg Urlwin has
found the perfect blend. In the early 80's, Urlwin decided he wanted to
follow in his uncle's wake, and sail to the Caribbean. Before that,
he says, he had been in a university in New Hampshire, studying "everything
and nothing". "I came down here for a year," he says, "and stayed,
two, went home, and was even less interested in being there than I had
been before. "I realised that all this university was getting in
the way of my education, so I came back here." He made a 20-year
career sailing yachts from Antigua to Europe, Alaska, the US coast and
the Panama Canal. But that too eventually grew dull, and Urlwin wanted
something new. 
