Nautical odyssey for stranded Sourcefire staff

Twelve European employees hope to make it back from the US by next Wednesday

Sourcefire's stranded European staff are about halfway through their epic nine-day voyage

The Icelandic volcano saga has forced a dozen of Sourcefire’s European staff to make their way back from the US by boat.

A third of the security vendor’s regional team, including European managing director Graham Welch and EMEA channel director Anthony Perridge, were stranded in Miami after attending a global sales conference last week.

They are now mid-way through a nine-day voyage from Fort Lauderdale to Lisbon, where they are scheduled to arrive next Wednesday.

Talking to ChannelWeb, Welch said he believed the decision to sail rather than sit tight for a flight had been the right call. They were due to fly home last Sunday.

“We had to make a horrendous decision in light of the fact we had no idea when the volcano would stop spewing ash and when the airports would open," he said. "I still feel comfortable with the decision we made as we could have been stuck out there for two or three weeks.”

Welch stressed that his team are still working normal hours using costly on-board satellite communication technology.

The vendor has also made contingency plans for Infosec claiming there will still be enough heads left in Europe to run its stand at the giant IT security fair.

“It will be interesting to see if this has an impact on numbers at Infosec for the people that travel from further afield,” he said.

Other firms impacted by the volcano ash debacle include Intel, which held its annual European partner summit in Dubai last week and Mitel, whose chief executive Graham Bevington is currently stranded in Abu Dhabi on a family holiday.