end of the storm

After what has seemed like months of churning, Hurricane Irma is no more. Downgraded to a Tropical Storm on her inland jaunt through Trump country, Irma’s legacy will be years of rebuilding throughout the Caribbean and Florida.  While most of the Sunshine State escaped the worst-case scenarios, we all understand that a small shift in her track could have decimated the built-up centers of Tampa or Miami on an unprecedented scale.
Unfortunately, that decimation happened in St. Martin, Anguilla, Barbuda, St. Barts, the Turks and Caicos, and the US and British Virgins (and a few other islands), and the effort is just getting underway to help people who won’t have communications, power or water for weeks. We’ve been following several relief efforts, but the most awesome info comes from Gunboat exec Nils Ericson and the folks at East Island Excursions, who’ve organized a Virgin Islands to Puerto Rico evacuation effort they’ve nicknamed ‘Operation Dunkirk’.  Please donate here to help the effort, and here’s an update from last night.  UPDATE: The New York Times picked up the PR rescue story here. UPDATE 2: A smaller effort led by yacht hauler John Woodruff is on its way south to begin digging out Florida boats and yacht clubs; donate money or gear here.
By today’s end we will have organized a total of 7 trips to STT/STJ, delivering over $20k in supplies and evacuating about 300 people. Tomorrow, we have 6 (!) more boats delivering supplies and evacuating another +/-300 folks.
We have set up tents to serve as staging areas for supplies. If anyone wants to send supplies, send it to us here at Puerto del Rey marina in Fajardo. We’ll make sure it gets to the right island. We depart daily around 8am and can transport whatever or whoever is going (more or less). PM me for details.

Alright St. John, we are coming to get you! We have departures organized throughout the day, and throughout the week. Be patient, be kind, work together, women and children first. You will ALL get off, we aren’t stopping until everyone is safe and secure. To stateside family, do what you can to spread the word to your loved ones on island. If anyone on island gets this message, spread the word. We won’t get everyone at one time, so please be patient. We want to fill every seat, but we want it to be a safe process for everyone. Love city.