Welcome to our site!
My name is Farley Cox and I would like to tell my story: I am a father of two fine children ,Cameron and Ariel, a former Marine and the owner and Captain of “Wandia”, a majestic 100ft, two masted wooden sailing schooner.
As I write this, I am sitting in the wheelhouse of this marvelous and remarkable ship. Like everyone who visits “Wandia” I remain amazed at the fine craftsmanship and attention to detail that was built into her by the man that built “Wandia”. She was built, in 1984, by one man, Hans Peter Newe. Newe cut every tree and milled every plank and timber that she is built from. He ventured into the sweltering rain forest of Belize and chose each and every tree to fall then drug them out of the forest to his mill in the town of Orange Walk. There he cut and cured these timbers and chose which one would be her keel and which one would be her gar-board plank. He used nothing but the finest hard woods in the world.
“Wandia” is as much a fine work of art as she is a great sailing vessel. She was originally designed to carry cargo (exotic woods) from the Central American coast to the Eastern seaboard of the United States.
My wife, Jo Anne, and I purchased her in Nantucket in 2001 with the dream of placing her into dive charter service. We sailed her from Massachusetts to my home town, Gulfport, Mississippi. After two years of restoration and conversion to a charter vessel with 5 staterooms, generator, water maker and heads, we returned with her to Belize. We started our dream, a dive charter business in paradise. This was a difficult business to make money in at the time but slowly we began to see profit.
My wife had returned to the States to check on some medical issues and I was working the business. We seemed to have turned the corner, things were looking up until I received a phone call from Jo Anne. She told me that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
I immediately placed our business in the hands of our crew and a local captain and returned to the States to be with my wife to fight this horrible disease. We fought the fight, pouring every dollar and ounce of energy into beating the cancer. After two hard years Jo Anne went home, she passed away. The cancer had taken her from me and our two children. I thought that this was as bad as it could get…. but I was wrong.
The captain that I had left “Wandia”with had taken her and she was nowhere to be found. Our business, our dream, was also gone. Between the medical costs, the pirating of “Wandia” and my attempt to maintain some normalcy for my children I was broke, busted flat.
I decided to get her back at any cost and I did. I hunted her down and took her from the pirates that had stolen our dream. I won’t go into detail on just how I got her back, but I got her back. She was stripped of anything they could remove but she was still intact enough to sail to the Rio Dulce in Guatemala. The Rio Dulce is the safest hurricane hole in the Caribbean. I found a private dock large enough to tie her up and made a deal with the owner. I had saved her but I was devastated financially, I had only enough money to take me back to my children in Gulfport.
By now Hurricane Katrina had destroyed the Gulf Coast and the recession that followed gave me no hope to ever get “Wandia” back to the States. As I continued to raise my two children I sent meager amounts of money to the Rio to keep her afloat and cover the dock charges. My former position as a realtor was gone, as were most of the properties after the hurricane vandalize our coast. I worked odd jobs and kept food on our table and roof over our heads, but that was about it.
Having a wooden boat sitting in a fresh water river can be bad news. Wood is susceptible to rot if it does not have salt in it. The environment of the river was brutal on her and I had to get her out of the Rio, but with no money….how? It took eleven long years to build a nest egg, but finally on Fathers Day 2016 she sailed into the Gulfport Marina where she sits today.
A toll has been take on this fine lady of the sea, much like my history, she has been ravaged by time and circumstances but she is only down, NOT out.
I am once again at her helm my son Cam and daughter Ariel by my side. We are spending our days bringing “Wandia” back to her glorious self. We are doing all that we can do ourselves but there are major repairs that need to be done.
My children and friends are helping restore “Wandia” but we need help. The costs for the haul-out and hull restoration are beyond me. The need to use a ships-wright, professional electrician, sail makers and diesel mechanics are costs that I need help with.
Once restored “Wandia” will become a training ship for the Maritime Museum, a training ship for “At Risk Youth”, a Sea Scout Post and an over night charter vessel exploring the beautiful barrier islands of the Mississippi Sound.
Your help in funding our dream will assure the completion of a task that means more to me than I can ever express. Your donation will bring her back and keep her working to achieve her name sake.
“Wandia” means “Harmony and Balance” in Celtic. Something we strive for along our Gulf Coast.