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SAILORS HELPING OTHERS

Written by Captains Mark and Sharon Noneman of Calypso Sailing Life, and Commodores of the Ocean Reach division of Hope Fleet

Are you heading to the Bahamas this season?  Maybe you’re joining the Salty Dawg’s January Jump Rally. As cruisers, we enjoy a unique way of life that takes us directly to people and communities in need.  If you’re heading there anyway, why not give them a little help?  Read on to see how Hope Fleet can help you help communities in the Bahamas and beyond.

In June, 2019, Sharon and I took ownership of our first boat, a Leopard 39 catamaran in Rhode Island we renamed Calypso.  While we were making our way south on the ICW, Dorian, a category 5 hurricane, smashed into Elbow Cay in the Abaco Islands of the Bahamas on September 1st with 185mph sustained winds, gusting over 220mph, slowly grinding out destruction and homelessness to thousands of people across the Abacos and Grand Bahama.

We had been planning to sail to the Bahamas in December.  Maybe we could help … but how?  With our catamaran, we had plenty of room to carry much needed relief supplies.

Organizations like Samaritan’s Purse and World Central Kitchen arrived quickly after Dorian.  We quickly discovered that they have their own well organized supply chains and were not interested in supplies from boaters.  By November, they had more volunteers than they knew what to do with and declined our offer to volunteer in December.  A good problem for them to have, I suppose, but many people were still posting a lack of help and resources on the barrier islands outside of Marsh Harbour.

We struggled to make direct contact with anyone in the Abacos community.  We didn’t know exactly what they needed and we had no idea how to get materials to the people who needed it most.  Finally, Sharon found Pete C. in a Facebook post and we were able to make contact on Messenger.  He was able to provide a very specific list of items needed in the community of Hope Town on Elbow Cay.  So in December, with the help of some friends, we purchased hundreds of pounds of tools and supplies, loaded them into Calypso in Riviera Beach Florida, and started to make our way to The Abacos. Luckily, the Bahamian government had waived duty on all disaster relief supplies brought in by private yacht, greatly simplifying the entry process.

Due to typical weather in December, we did not arrive in Hope Town until New Year’s Eve day.  But we finally made our way to a makeshift cargo dock, dodging sunken boats and debris, and delivered the supplies directly to Pete.  Even though there had been a lot of cleanup since September, there was still no electricity and most buildings had only blue tarps as roofs.  Nevertheless, the community invited us to their New Year’s Eve celebration with live local musicians accompanied by the sound of generators!

From that experience, we understood we would need three things to be able to help others in the future:

  1. A reputable local contact who knows what the community really needs and can ensure the supplies get to the right people.
  2. A specific list of needed materials (for example, not just any rechargeable battery will do, Elbow Cay needed batteries and chargers for DeWalt 20V Max cordless tools).
  3. Coordination with local government agencies (mainly Customs) to ensure that charitably donated goods can be delivered duty free. This may be the hardest part of all.

Those three requirements make it difficult for ordinary sailors to help.

Late in 2020, we discovered an organization working to provide exactly those 3 things!  Hope Fleet is a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded by Danny Moroney and a crew of others focused on connecting donated money and supplies with volunteer boaters to deliver to communities in the Bahamas and beyond.  They call the fleet of boaters “Ocean Reach” and you can join the fleet on their website.  They have gradually built partnerships with local community leaders in the Abacos and Exumas Bahamas, Samaná DR, Union Island SVG, Grenada, and most recently, Rio Dulce Guatemala.  And crucially, they have reached agreements and procedures with customs and immigration agencies in those countries to allow Ocean Reach members to bring in supplies duty-free.  Ocean Reach volunteers often join local community events bringing skills and tools the local people may be lacking.  (Full disclosure, we are now volunteer “Commodores” of the Ocean Reach division of Hope Fleet.) 

Our first voyage with Hope Fleet was in June of 2021 to provide building supplies for the tiny community of Sweetings Cay on Grand Bahama.  They experienced the same devastation from Hurricane Dorian nearly 2 years earlier; only the Ebenezer Baptist church building remained standing and was severely damaged.

We had just upgraded our boat to a larger catamaran (also renamed Calypso).  Danny and Caitlin of Hope Fleet met us at Las Olas Marina in Ft Lauderdale to load up Calypso with donations of tools, batteries, compressors, generators, screws, nails, ladders, and more into seemingly every available nook and cranny.  Danny handed us a signed cover letter for Bahamas Customs along with a manifest and other documents; the duty-free waiver for Dorian disaster relief ended in 2020.  Two days later, we arrived in West End, Grand Bahama.  Although the Customs officer had not been informed of our Hope Fleet delivery, the cover letter provided government ministry names and phone numbers.  After a few calls, he cleared us into the Bahamas with no duty paid.  The next day, Pastor Lorenzo, the Hope Fleet local contact for the Northern Bahamas, and his family loaded all the supplies into (and on top of) their 2 small vehicles for the long drive to Sweetings Cay.

Our first Hope Fleet experience was easy and allowed Sweetings Cay to rebuild their church and community center.  So easy, in fact, we have been able to make other Hope Fleet deliveries with community enrichment supplies to Marsh Harbour Abacos, George Town Exumas, and Samaná Dominican Republic with 2 more deliveries planned in 2026.  Hope Fleet organized dozens of boaters to bring relief supplies and fresh water to Carriacou and Union Island in the aftermath of hurricane Beryl in July 2024.  Hope Fleet provides everything Ocean Reach members need to deliver supplies to children and communities in the Bahamas and the Caribbean.

Our own contribution has been but a small part of Ocean Reach’s 150+ members who have helped to deliver over 150,000 pounds of supplies, to over 28,000 people, in 11 ports of call in 6 countries.  From emergency disaster relief to enriching local schools and communities, Hope Fleet makes it easy for you to help, too.  Even the smallest Ocean Reach boats have found room for a box of school supplies.  Check out Hope Fleet and if you’d like to deliver supplies, join Ocean Reach or contact us at [email protected].

 

 

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