May 6, 2006

Welcome to the New Richie Sowa's Spiral Island webportal - we are currently adding all things associated with Richie Sowa's Spiral Island, including history, stories, and photos, and in the next few weeks we will be adding a number of slideshows of photos for your enjoyment. Please tell your friends to visit us here at: http://spiralisland.westkootenayunplugged.com/

In 1998, Richie Sowa, a British expatriate began building Spiral Island, a 66 x 54 foot floating artificial island in a lagoon near Puerto Aventuras, in the state of Quintana Roo on the East coast of Mexico, 120 miles south of Cancún.

Richie (or "Reishee" as he is known)  filled discarded and donated fishermen's nets with empty discarded plastic bottles to support a structure of plywood and bamboo, on which he poured tons of virgin white beach sand where he planted numerous plants, including mangrove trees.

Spiral Island in 2001

Richie Sowa was formerly a musician, artist, and carpenter from Britian before he decided to venture to the Yucatan peninsula to build his floating island vision tropical paradise. He is now in his fifties, he is an avid environmentalist who believes in recycling and low-impact living, and he has survived a few hurricanes and many storms even though his beloved island has not.

Richie used some 250,000 bottles and stuffed them into fisherman's nets to build his 66-by-54-foot structure. The whole process of building the island has evolved over the years from 1998 to 2005. The island was featured in an episode of the Ripley's Believe It or Not! TV show, but in late 2005 it was destroyed by the violent hurricane that swept through the Yucatan peninsula area. Richie is a hardly soul and he is going to rebuild his island dream soon.

Spiral Island Out to Sea March 2001

Back in March of 2001, Richie Sowa gathered his many friends and island vistors as he had decided that it was time to move his island as requested by the Puerto Aventuras authorities. RandyMac, a good friend of Richie's gave him a 9.9 Mercury outboard motor to help with the move of the 60 ton island. Carlos Yuescas and Kenny Coleman manned the ropes to help guide the island down the lagoon out to the enterance of the open sea. And a number of Columbian Band members who had played in Playa Del Carmen the evening before showed up to help. Richie was fianlly able to move his tennis court sized island out into the sea, but with strong winds, the manpower on shore manning the guide ropes could not hold onto the island which was being caught by the wind. 

Spiral Island being moved March 2001

The island started to drift out inot the open sea, as the little 9.9 Mercury outboard motor got caught up in some of the netting from under the island, which had ripped away when the island got hung up for a moment on the shore reef. Spiral Island and 14 people including Richie Sowa were adrift, out into the Caribbean, destination unknown.

As the island drifted, with the Columbian driven bongo drums playing in the background, people were chirping about a trip throughout the Caribbean islands aboard a floating party barge.

Drifting aimlessly out to sea

Spectacular beaches lined the mainland, with Puerto Aventuras in the distance, showing ever smaller outlines of people swimming and walking along the pure white sand, and the once sweating anchor men waving to us as we sailed off into the distance, beach properties dotting the mainland further from eyesight and saftey.

No longer were we safe in the shores of Puerto Aventuras, but captive by the ocean currents and the breeze that was picking up as each 100 yards passed, with only open sea in our sights eye.

As if sent by prayers a local Parasail boat came by the island, and we all waved to show the captain that we were in distress on the drifting platform that once was anchored safely in the lagoon a kilometer onthe mainland. RandyMac talked the captain of the Parasail boat to tow Spiral Island into shore by waving a handful of pesos. After tethering the island's heavy guide ropes to the back of the Parasail boat, it took 1 and a half hours to finally drag the once drifting island into the destination lagoon to the south of Puerto Aventuras.  More later...

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I was wondering if you might be interested in collaborating on inventive ways to use high strength, light weight BioRock , to build floating islands similar to the one displayed on TV's 'Stargate Atlantis', but more beautiful, of organic, curvilinear designs. My group is eager to help island nations at risk from rising water levels around them, and the impending loss of their island homes. I intend to build floating, artificial islands with vertical farms to raise food and fiber crops, as well as cellulosic material to refine biofuels. -- Please, visit my site above, and see what you think of our chances, thanks. September 14, 2008 capt. : CAPT, BANANA cool project CAPT. BANANA www.cqimissions.org December 21, 2007 ... : Susan MacAulay Hello Richie: I had the pleasure of meeting you at Peurto Aventuras, in July of this year. I drove down with my friend who lives in Playa. We had come to swim with the dolphins and decided to have an early dinner at Gringo Dave's, which is where I had the pleasure of meeting you. I was totally fascinated by what you are doing, as I try to be a very respectful recycler, as well. I finally had the chance to go on your site and was totally mesmerized by what you have accomplished. It is so exciting to see someone with such a vision and then be able to make it come to life. Please keep on doing what you are doing and I only hope that someday our paths will cross again, so that I can learn more about your dream. August 31, 2007 ... : Emma Payne HI, I met you in Puerto Aventuras Mexico august last year. I was on holiday with my mum when we met you. You were very interesting and recently i saw a write up about you in a magazine for range rover! How are the new plans going? Emma Payne April 16, 2007 spiral island update : euan is there any news about richie's plan to rebuild the island since the 2005 hurricane? February 13, 2007 Thanks for the inspiration. : Cor : http://www.actionheronetwork.net I smiled wide thinking of this island ... bouncing around other islands... floating freely. Could have been bad of course. Reminds me of the floating island the boy found in the novel, The Life of Pie. I know of a place on the west coast of Mexico that could be perfect for another island like this. Thanks for the inspiration. December 15, 2006 Research Project : Jennifer Martin i am doing a biology research project about the island and i was wondering if anyone knew how to get in touch with richie or email him to ask him some questions for an interview. if you can please help email me: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it September 18, 2006 ... : Sharon Canady July 03, 2006 How far is Puerto Aventuras from Cancun? : a guest I've been to Cancun, but never to Puerto Aventuras. How far is it, and does the bus go there? I would like to visit that area some day. I hear they have dolphins in the marina, that you can swim with. Joe May 07, 2006

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