In October of 2023, at the Annapolis Boat Show, I headed over to see my friend Kerry Gonzalez at her AMG Insurance booth. She casually introduced me to the guy she was chatting with, a soft-spoken individual wearing a shirt that said “Hope Fleet.” With a little prodding on Kerry’s part, Tim opened up about what Hope Fleet was and how boaters can help.

I’m sure I’m getting details wrong, so correct them in the comments!

After one hurricane or other in the Caribbean, a concerned boater wondered what he could do to help children (in particular) who might not be getting essential supplies. The original concept was to buy a big boat to carry lots of goods to where they were needed, but this idea quickly morphed into using multiple smaller boats to each carry smaller amounts of stuff. They may still be working on buying/fixing up a larger boat to serve as the main cargo ship, but meanwhile . . .

Cruising boats tend to go places a bit more off the beaten path. By nature, we’re resourceful individuals. We often have a bit of free time on our hands. The islands we visit have a piece of our hearts - it’s human nature to want to assist where we can.

As sailors on a very small boat, we’re frequently left out of any conversation that involves carrying supplies on humanitarian missions. My interest was piqued when Tim shared a photo of one of the Hope Fleet boats, bound for the Bahamas, proudly loading up 2 buckets (a former project involved “garden in a bucket” - soil, seeds, and watering can) because that’s what they could fit on board. You mean we don’t need to be able to take 400 board feet of lumber to be able to assist? Sign me up!

Last year we got moving too quickly to take on any supplies. This year, after reconnecting with Tim at the show, I was determined not to lose the opportunity. We went through the background check process, coordinated a loading time, and got boxes (4 of formula, 1 of books) on board for delivery to the Bahamas.

So what was the process like?

An aside: Hope Fleet is a Christian non-profit organization. My experience with people in this organization (because we’ve spent time with others in Hope Fleet too, not just Tim) is that their faith is just part of who they are. It’s not something to be foisted on others. Their faith means they want to help (which I think really is the best version of the Bible and other religious texts); there’s no pushing of an agenda in the process.

1. Go onto HopeFleet.org and click on “get involved”. We’ve become members of Ocean Reach. There is a background check required, which has a $19 fee. 

2. Coordinate the pick up (called loading) with whomever your contact is at Hope Fleet. Ours was Tim. They’ll work with you in terms of where you’re located and what your timing is. It’s best to give them some leeway so the loading can be done in accordance with their logistics and yours; that said, they worked hard to make it work on our schedule.

3. Danny (another officer of Hope Fleet) contacted us to fine tune the loading. He came to West Palm at a prearranged time, one that worked with our schedule. We walked with him to the van to take as many boxes as we thought we could carry, then we all schlepped the boxes to the dinghy. It was really gratifying to be thanked for what we could take, rather than pressured into taking more or made to feel inferior because we can’t carry a lot.

4. Paperwork: Each box of supplies is associated with a certain project Hope Fleet has officially coordinated on. Each box has a number. There’s careful recording of the box number. We have an official manifest with information to share with customs when we clear in. Hope Fleet encouraged us to open the boxes to check what’s inside.

5. There’s also legal paperwork to sign. Hope Fleet gets a copy and so do we. 

We shared our tracker with Tim and were in contact with him, updating plans as they became clear. We let him know when we cleared the breakwater off of Lake Worth, when we were anchored in Green Turtle Cay, and once we’d cleared customs there. Meanwhile, he’d been in touch with Hope Fleet’s partner in the Bahamas and set up a WhatsApp group chat with the 3 of us so we could easily be in direct contact with Pastor Earlyn.

Handoff could not have been easier. We coordinated on a dock where we could pull in for offloading; Pastor Earlyn secured permission from the business. We brought the boat in, tied up long enough to pass over the boxes and paperwork, had a lovely quick conversation about how much the supplies would mean to those who would receive them, and we were off to make our way to an anchorage a bit further south. Before we left, Pastor asked if he could pray for us. So we all held hands and were sent off with a blessing for safe passage. 

Safety is their primary concern. They want boats/cruisers to be safe (so sharing the tracker means another set of eyes on our location). They also want kids to be safe - hence the background check process in case we want to participate on the ground when we arrive. We appreciated the thoroughness and complete aboveboard way of operating; Pastor Earlyn had even gone so far as to call the customs woman in Green Turtle so she knew we were coming.

All in all, it feels good to be able to participate in a very small way towards making life perhaps a bit better for someone in the Bahamas, a place we love. Thanks to Hope Fleet for making this possible.

Okay, another disclaimer, as it were. I know there are lots of places in the world (heck, in the US too) where goods are more scarce than they are in the Bahamas. Where people need food and basics. I could spend all day playing the “who’s worse off than who” game and feel guilty that I’m not able to do more, that I’m just using my “yacht” to take a very small number of supplies donated by tax-evading people to an island known for its beaches and blue water. Whoooo pat myself on the back for doing approximately nothing in the scheme of things.

Maybe, though, the 4 cases of formula will mean one baby can get enough supplemental nutrition to thrive. Maybe the box of paperback picture books means a student can have a book of their very own, or a school can build a library. Maybe that “nothing” in the scheme of things means “something” fairly big to the person on the receiving end. 

Imagine if we all did something.