A Surprise Visit

Mon, Feb 8, 2010

Saturday 6 February 2010:

Over the last 2 days I received many calls from my Dutch friend Geert van der Kolk, via a satellite phone from a boat. He is a journalist, writer who lives in Washington DC. He is also a very good sailor, and has made many trips to Jakmel on his sailboat in the past.

He asked for my help, because he was on his way to Jakmel on a big sailboat / schooner with as captain Jared Talarski, and was unable to get in touch with any of his local contacts, or the mayor’s office to receive them.

They were coming in on saturday morning around 10 AM. They had left Miami 8 days ago and had sailed non-stop to reach Jakmel with all sorts of aid.

If you would like to follow their journey check out their blog http://www.libertyschooner.com

I managed to reach the right people for them, to help them unload and make sure the distribution was handled correctly. Tiffany Keenan was essential in this whole process, I was very happy she was there for them.

It was great to see my friend Geert, he ran into Jakmel quickly to have a look of all the damage, but then went back on board. The ship was not staying in Jakmel, but moving on to Jamaica, and due to the direction of the wind and the tide they had to move out quickly.

They did leave some people in Jakmel, who had made the trip to stay on the ground. Two of them came to visit us in the afternoon. Otho Campbell and Greg Bennick. The latter turned out to be a great entertainer with just 3 white balls. Our kids had a blast with him.