Sailing4handicaps : acting in first aid mission to Dominica after hurricane Maria

At the moment of the catastrophe, we were in the south of Martinique, in Le Marin, where we spent some hours monitoring the wind blowing in gusts with 60 knots. Once again we have been more lucky than other ones and felt like we needed to give our luck back. We decided to organize a first aid mission to help people with water, roofing material, hygienic products, baby milk and other goods. After asking around for donations, we got a great response from the generous people of Martinique, who are always ready to support people in need, as they did few weeks ago bringing help to Saint Martin, hardly touched by hurricane Irma. Somebody donated packs of water, clothes and several other goods. Another one donated roof material. Another company donated water, hygienic article. We could collect more the 1.5 tons of goods, loaded them on our new Imagine (Xquisite Yachts) and started the course to Dominica. The first sight of the island showed the big devastation waiting for us. Dominica looked like a desolated land: all what is left on the hills are trunks of what once were beautiful trees. No leaves are left, not even one building stands still, the most of them are seriously damaged, when not totally destroyed. We found a safe docking spot in Rosseau, between two army boats loaded with supplies. Then we found an extremely serious and polite woman, chef executive officer of an association active in Dominica to help people in need. Certain of her reliability, we put our donations in her hands and left the island with our hearts full of sadness for what we saw, but happy and full of hope that the island will soon be back on its feet.

Who: Elena & Wotjek
Where: Dominica, Carribeen islands
Boat: Xquisite Yachts
Blog: www.sailing4handicaps.de