We met John Potter a couple of years ago in Singapore. His Explorers Club credentials were impressive, his personal story was touching, his interests were varied and his British accent was charming, like listening to Hugh Grant. He and Caroline sailed across the Pacific in a small sailboat with their two (at the time) young sons, survived a de-masting in a storm and conducted research in the Indian Ocean. When we learned he splits his time between Singapore and a Tuscan vineyard, we were determined to track him and his family down when we got to Italy, no matter how hard they tried to avoid us.
John and Caroline have since moved from the vineyard to a funky work-in-progress home with a million euro view of the famous marble quarry in Carrara and from Lerici across the harbor to Portovenere near the La Spezia naval base where he works for NATO. Caroline is a cute Dutch lass who, like here British husband, hasn't been "home" for nearly 20 years. Their sons are now grown, one lives at the vineyard apartment and attends the International School in Firenze and the other is interning with the Marine Mammal Institute in Gulfport, Mississippi.
We had dinner with them and their friends, Jim and Lisa, at a fantastic harbor-side restaurant in Lerici on Thursday night. John did all the ordering in his flawless Italian (he can even change dialects) and we sated ourselves with fresh seafood, good wine and amazing conversation.
John is encouraging Jim to apply for membership in the Explorers Club. We can understand his reluctance (we felt the same way) but he and Lisa definitely have the qualifications. They have been climbing rangers on Denali, have cycled all over the world, kayaked both Greenland and Antarctica and are planning a motorcycle trip from Cairo to Capetown. Jim, who works with John, has even been involved in North Pole scuba exploration under the ice. Connie and I were a bit out of our league!
While Caroline cooked dinner for us on Friday our conversations ranged from food, wine, house renovation, travels, physical mishaps and the earthquake we all felt earlier to John's scheduled surgery on Saturday to repair a detached retina. He was pretty mellow about the whole thing but the wine probably helped.
