Our cruising plan for 2017-2018 had been to set sail for St Martin, and cruise the Caribbean island chain from there. St Martin is known for fabulous marine services, duty free parts, easy logistics, and fine French provisioning; it’s worked very well for us on previous passages.

In the wake of disasters left by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, two Category 5 hurricanes that ravaged the Leewards, Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico in September 2017, we had real concerns about setting sail for a season in the Caribbean. What would be left of the islands? Was it safe – from navigation, health or security standpoints? Could we render assistance, or would we be in the way of relief efforts? Would we be using up the islands’ limited resources? As a charter broker, I was very aware of the damage to yachts and marine facilities in many of the islands (not to mention public services, utilities, and homes), and was busy helping my clients to cancel, postpone or move their Caribbean charters to less-affected locations.

Andy and I followed a number of news and disaster relief sites, cruisers and charter forums, and decided that making landfall in the Virgin Islands or St Martin was just not feasible. However, we could reasonably head for Antigua, and cruise most of the island chain from Antigua to Grenada. Except for Dominica, most of these islands fared well through the disastrous hurricane season. We had already planned to install a generator, and decided to add a watermaker to our cruising inventory, to be more self-sufficient. Perhaps we could lend assistance, and the sooner we could pump money into the local economies, the better.

We adjusted our passage plans, and our crewmembers were onboard with the change in destination. Hopefully we’ll be able to visit St Martin and the Virgin Islands later in the season on our way back to the Chesapeake. But meanwhile – we’ll set sail for Antigua.