OCTOBER 2023 HAMPTON, VIRGINIA: WAVY TV Channel 10 News reporting on our ship Zeepaard getting ready to sail to Haiti with aid supplies.

We now have 10 tons of aid supplies for Ile a Vache, Haiti and are ready to sail but our fundraiser is over $3,000 short – we need a machinery service and diesel fuel to depart on our 2,000 voyage, please help! PLEASE DONATE HERE!

For over 10 years, IRG has provided disaster relief programs by sea in the Caribbean and elsewhere, including many Haiti projects and hurricane humanitarian aid voyages to Dominica, British Virgin Islands and others. Our 97-foot gaff-rigged ketch has been called upon to carry medical supplies, food, make desalinated water and even transport relief troops when there were few ways of transporting from one location to another. For 2 years during the COVID pandemic we provided food aid to the Mangyan communities of the Philippines when they lost all their jobs.

After a major refit in Mexico and finishing with a replacement engine in Chesapeake Bay, our ship S/V Zeepaard is almost ready to sail again and our next mission is medical supplies relief to Ile a Vache, Haiti. PLEASE DONATE HERE!

IRG’s Asia Plan – Establishing a new base

Costs in the Caribbean are very high and our fundraising ability cannot keep up with infrastructure, maintenance and direct aid purchase expenses, so we are moving to the Philippines where we can hire local support people, help put money into a local community, and respond to aid missions much more frequently!

Our last aid voyage to Haiti departing Dec 2023

CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAIL: After the earthquake a few months ago and the total failure of government since the assassination of President Moïse, the entire country is in crisis with no public services. WE CAN HELP THE COMMUNITY WHO KNOW US WELL. The Ile a Vache hospital is the Foundation for Hope and Health in Haiti and we have received their urgent call for supplies. The hospital has NOTHING and many are suffering without help. We have over $50,000 in supplies but we need just $5,000 to sail with these supplies, please DONATE HERE!

We could not have succeeded without help from the Club de Yates de Yucatán! The encouragement and support we received in Progreso to enter port, find a marine yard and somewhere to dock has been truly heartwarming and Commodore Nacho Manzanilla has our deepest thanks! This is a delightful Yacht Club. Captain Ray and IRG recommend all yachts who wish to get work done, weather the hurricane season or simply stay in a beautiful Yucatan destination are welcome. The chart shows a cable across the port entrance but it is fine for vessels up to 75-feet height.