Patrizio Roversi writes about Lowara participation in ADRIATICA project
20/09/2006
Dear Friends,
The adventure you had during your week “In the Wake of a Dream” was truly a philosophical provocation! But was it an adventure or a MIS-adventure? As a sailor by long chance, I am almost tempted to envy you! You only spent a few hours onboard the Adriatica, just long enough to realize how narrow the bunks are, no matter how large and comfortable the sailboat may be. You slept ashore, so you suffered no seasickness, and then you proceeded to Los Roques - one of the most beautiful places on Earth - where you enjoyed the comforts of Italian-Venezuelan posadas, where the cooking is Italian and the beauty Venezuelan. You slept in nice cosy beds, enjoyed the ocean during comfortable rides on fast motorboats (quite a different thing from the slowness of a sailboat!) and went back on shore in the evening to enjoy a real shower and eat a real dinner! And to top it off, you also enjoyed the thrill of a mini cruise on a sailing ship, but without having to face the discomforts of a real crossing.
I’m joking, of course, and personally I am very upset by the whole thing. Since there’s a six hours’ difference between Venezuela and Italy, Sandro and I were up all night during the last few days talking on the phone to Caracas. I really hope that our efforts to make up for the totally unpredictable mishap encountered by the Adriatica made it possible for you to spend a comfortable and interesting vacation.
To tell you the truth, everything would have been much more inconvenient onboard the Adriatica, but it would have been a far different experience, in harmony with the meaning of the operation in which you took part. An operation that, up to that point, had proceeded smoothly and without any hitches.
We owe you an explanation, which is both simple and complicated at the same time. It was all due to a conflict of jurisdiction between different authorities, a purely bureaucratic mix-up. Obviously, the Adriatica had a valid permit to sail in Venezuelan waters, particularly inside the Marine Park, a permit that had been requested and granted several months prior. The names of all the guests had been submitted and everything had been done according to regulations. In fact, everything went fine during the weeks prior to your arrival. Then suddenly there was this hitch due to a conflict of authority, totally unexpected and unpredictable, especially by the Agency we depended on - a very reliable and well-established firm staffed by Italian-Venezuelans with whom we had filmed a documentary in Caracas a little while back, a firm which is even accredited as a member of our Embassy’s Crisis Unit in case our fellow countrymen should encounter any problems. As I write, the mix-up is already being solved in… “record time”. It only needed to reach the desk of an official with the necessary authority to smooth things out and clear up the misunderstanding. Except that, when bureaucracy is involved, particularly the bureaucracy of International Maritime rules and regulations, even the simplest operations can easily take a week. “Your” week, unfortunately.
We are extremely sorry, please accept our apologies. Together with the above-mentioned Agency (Macite), we did everything we could to make it up to you and make your stay a pleasant one. We hope we succeeded and that you will remember us kindly and have good memories of the Adriatica despite what happened. By the way, did you see how beautiful it is? Do you feel like having another go at it?
A big hug,
Patrizio Roversi (Sailor by Chance)
ITT-Lowara (www.lowara.com), headquarters of "Residential and Commercial Water - EMEA" part of the ITT Corporation and located in Montecchio Maggiore, Vicenza - Italy, is a leader in the manufacture of hydraulic pumps and water handling and control systems. It has 1.348 employees in Europe, 771 operating in Italy. In 2007 its consolidated sales totalled about 284 million euro, or over 390 million dollars.
ITT Corporation (www.itt.com) is a diversified high-technology engineering and manufacturing company dedicated to creating more livable environments, enabling communications and providing protection and safety. The company plays an important role in vital markets including water and fluids management, global defense and security, and motion and flow control. ITT employs approximately 40,000 people serving customers in more than 50 countries. Headquartered in White Plains, N.Y., the company generated $9 billion in 2007 sales.