Joseph P. Ferry, 57, resident of Springfield, Delaware County, is planning to set sail from Philadelphia to Ireland this summer. Ferrys voyage will begin on July 4th, from Ocean City, New Jersey and he expects his voyage will take 30-45 days to travel the Atlantic Ocean in his 32 foot sailboat.
Ocean City, NJ (PRWEB) May 17, 2004 -- Joseph P. Ferry, 57, resident of Springfield, Delaware County, is planning to set sail from Philadelphia to Ireland this summer. Ferrys voyage will begin on July 4th, from Ocean City, New Jersey and he expects his voyage will take 30-45 days to travel the Atlantic Ocean in his 32 foot sailboat.
Ferry chose July as his departure date because it is the safest time of the year for a small boat to cross the North Atlantic – well past the time of the spring gales, and before the onset of the hurricane season.
Ferrys father was born on a farm that fronts the Atlantic coast, outside the village of Falcarragh in Country Donegal in the Republic of Ireland. Joe Ferry and his wife, Kitty Gallagher Ferry, once owned a small farm in the Derryveagh mountains of Donegal that overlook the sea.
Making a living in Ireland at that time proved to be a challenge, so Ferry and his wife moved back to Philadelphia where he became a parochial school teacher, then a social worker for the City of Philadelphia. They raised three children, Kathleen (30), Jody (28) and Danny (25).
Ferry has been planning this trip across the Atlantic since 2002, charting his course, researching weather patterns, and studying the meanderings of the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Drift.
Some years ago, Ferry lived with Salmon fisherman on Inis Bo Finne, an island nears his Dads birthplace. The fisherman there expect Ferry to arrive by the Roarta Mor an Muire – the spring tides that fall on the feast of the Assumption. He is hoping they will guide him his last few miles of ocean, then over the bar of Ballyness Bay and to the Falcarraghs pier.
For additional information or photos contact: Joseph P. Ferry at 610.613.8287
Joseph P. Ferry currently teaches at Chestnut Hill College and Widener University. He is director of internet learning programs for the Institute for Caregiver Education, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Previously, he was the Executive Director of Bethesda Project in Philadelphia, and a social worker for the City of Philadelphia.
He is a long time member of Crescent Boat Club on Boathouse Row, and had been a delegate to the Schuylkill Navy. He was a sergeant in the United States Marine Corps from 1966-1968.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Joseph P. Ferry
610 328 7911
For further information and photos, please visit http://www.tenebrae.org/wanderings/voyage
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