I’m a pirate. Ish. Sorta. I think.
Sometimes I sing, at the top of my voice
“Oh, better far to live and die
Under the brave black flag I fly
Than to play a sanctimonious part
With a pirate head and a pirate heart!”
(Pirates of Penzance, Gilbert & Sullivan.)
What is a pirate? The Greek root of pirate is peirates, “one who attacks.” The Wikipedia definitions of pirate is: “Someone who robs at sea or plunders the land from the sea without having a commission from any sovereign nation.” Synonyms: buccaneer, sea robber, sea rover.
A second definition is “Uses or reproduces (another’s work) for profit without permission, usually in contravention of patent or copyright.” Oh well, perhaps I’m not a pirate then, but another definition is “Someone who behaves in an immoral or illegal way.” Well, I try to avoid plagiarism, but I’ve been known to be naughty!
Perhaps a smuggler can be regarded as a pirate? That’s “…someone who takes goods or people into or out of a country illegally” Well, sometimes in disaster area operations like in Haiti there are no authorities at all to clear donated cargo and in fact if the mainland gangs get involved, it could become very dangerous, most NGOs have been forced to abandon Haiti because of the kidnappings and ransom demands.
Maybe now I can go and buy a brave black flag to fly from the truck of my mizzen mast!
I have sailed to Haiti well over a dozen voyages with medical and other supplies to a small island community I’ve served for a decade. In the past, if I were to declare donations to any authority, the import duty would have been made up on the spot by anyone in a uniform – with or without customs authority – who would have immediately pocketed the cash. Now that President Jovenal Moïse has been assassinated, gangs rule the mainland and the government has totally failed. This makes landing relief supplies in total secret even more vital to avoid the land-based gangs who would take an entire cargo for the black market, or worse – injure or kill the crew and take the boat. There is now also the very real risk of actual, properly naughty pirates at sea when attempting to close land. Yes, around Haiti that is now a very real thing.
In 2016, Hurricane Matthew was an extremely powerful Atlantic storm which caused catastrophic damage and a humanitarian crisis in Haiti, as well as widespread devastation in the southeastern United States. That’s just 6 years after the 2010 earthquake that reportedly killed 5% of the population.
Originating from a tropical wave that emerged off Africa on September 22 2016, Matthew developed into a tropical storm just east of the Lesser Antilles on September 28. It became a hurricane north of Venezuela and Colombia on September 29, before undergoing explosive intensification, ultimately reaching Category 5 intensity on October 1 with peak 1-minute sustained winds of 165 mph. The most significant impacts were felt in Haiti, with US$2.8 billion in damage and 546 deaths, making Matthew the worst disaster to affect the nation since the 2010 earthquake.
Apart from La Mole and the island of Gonave, the community International Rescue Group has aided most regularly over a decade is Ile a Vache, an island just to the southwest of Hispaniola and about 5 miles from the second largest mainland Haitian city, Les Cayes. We have regularly shipped medical, recycled sails for subsistence fishermen and other hard-to-obtain supplies to Ile a Vache.
Hurricane Matthew’s eye blew right across the little island of Ile a Vache hosting 17,000 people. IRG managed to direct a plane with emergency nutrition supplies to do an arial drop, then we arranged multiple boats to sail there with supplies. But it’s never enough.
In those circumstances, there are no official channels for emergency supplies except the island’s Mayors who were very grateful. So you can call me a pirate. I like that.
We are sailing soon on yet another relief mission with three tons of supplies including meds, 55 bicycles, $60,000 in seeds, a ton of food and over 100 recycled sails for subsistence fishermen and deliveries bound for orphanages and missions. Please help us, every dollar counts: GoFundMe https://gofund.me/7b06f681
PS Oh and I just remembered playing pirates with our esteemed editor Bob Bitchin, one bitchin’ cold night which just happened to be the Millennium 2000 when we were aboard the California Tall Ship Californian anchored in the Catalina Isthmus, here are photos of me and Bob by the wheel. Both of us were alcohol addled. And a historic picture of the Lost Soul next morning.
