Operation:
SEA RELIEF
| SEA RELIEF/SUB SEA RESEARCH |
The phone rang. It was Gary Burris of publiceyestv.org He had heard through the grapevine about our ship M/V diamond in Key West Florida. As he started telling me about the victims of Katrina still without aid, my heart sank. I had donated to the Salvation Army, but that was just money. What could I do, sitting in my office here in Maine? Out of site, out of mind? As he continued talking to me about the people in the fishing communities in the lower Mississippi Gulf Region, about how one town that had 1700 homes, and now had 5 left standing, I knew I had to do more. Gary explained how he was trying to organize a sea effort to bring much needed supplies to some of the hardest hit areas, the mouth of the Mississippi river. He explained what he had done up to now, but needed to go a lot further. He needed our ship. He needed the technology we had aboard to scan the river's bottom so the relief ships wouldn't sink, hitting submerged objects from the storm. A big task to perform in such a short time. I agreed, but would have to confirm with my partner first, knowing what his answer would be. It was a go. He knew as I did; we need to do all that we can to save those poor souls still without aid of any kind. Now, how to pull it all off? We had been working off the coast of Massachusetts in our 65' vessel, M/V Sub Sea Surveyor, Capt Mark Palmer and Capt Kai Morton were on their way up to Maine to assist in the operations here. I called Capt Mark on his cell phone and explained the situation to him. "We have to do it" was his reply. He was then in Memphis, so instead of taking a left to Maine, he took a right to Key West. The ship needed to be prepped for the trip. There was lots to do. There was money to get, food and supplies for the boat, fuel, crew to assemble, and move our newest surveying equipment to Florida. All of which seemed impossible to accomplish in a short time. Could we do it? Would we be too late? Lots of questions, very few answers. Still, we had to give it 150%. Then another call came, it was Josh Tickell of veggievan.org. He had been speaking with Gary Burris also, and had joined with us to get the much needed aid to its destination. He had a donation of several thousand gallons of Bio diesel to fuel us for the trip. He had gotten the donation from West Central. I thought, Bio diesel? What was that? He explained to me the details about it, but I was not sure we could use it in our 4, 12V71's aboard the Diamond. I told him I would get back to him. I made several calls to find out more about this fuel. I was told it was good fuel, but should be put in clean tanks. We had been buying our fuel while the ship was in Haiti, not always the cleanest fuel. Would we have problems? We'd find out soon. Capt Mark Palmer, Capt Kai Morton and Norman Laskey took Diamond from Key West to Ft. Myers Beach, Florida to the staging point of Sea Relief. Short handed, they arrived safely. Meanwhile, Brian Ryder and myself unloaded all the newest surveying equipment from Sub Sea Surveyor and loaded it into our trailer and Expedition. A full day of dismantling the electronics and packing them for the long road voyage to Ft. Myers Beach. Thirty hours after finishing the packing we arrived there. One hell of a long drive. I had keep in phone contact with both Gary Burris and Josh Tickell as well as many others trying to coordinate this huge effort. Things were slowly coming together. We had fuel, we had equipment and electronics, we had crew. We needed food and cash, to feed the crew and pay them. We would not profit in any form for doing this, it was to help and that was that. The crew need to be paid, I didn't. Josh came through again, he had promised to come up with the money for the crew. Still, we needed more, there was oil and charts, food, impellers, filters and other supplies needed for the ship in order to make a safe crossing of the Gulf. Where would we get the money? Exhausted from the trip from Maine, there was still lots of things to do. No rest yet. There was a media frenzy about what we were about to do. There must have been 10-15 TV stations with live feeds as well as several newspapers covering our effort. They were there with us for three days, until we departed Ft. Myers. The media helped out by requesting donations for the victims of Katrina, stop by and drop off supplies at the ship, was their main message. It worked! All said and done, we had collected tons and tons of drinking water, baby supplies, soap, food, rice and beans, bug spray, first aid kits, power bars, etc, and a pallet of Rice Krispies Treats. A large amount of the supplies came from Harry Chapin Food Banks. Thank you all for your generous contributions. It was time to go! Our ship was loaded, the shrimp boat Equalizer was loaded. We departed at high tide, about 11 am, and headed out into the gulf for our 500 mile trip. The weather was hot, the seas calm. There was a lot of excitement aboard that morning. We were all eager to get to where we were going to deliver the supplies that were so desperately needed. We had 11 people aboard. A bit crowded, but we would make do. It was grilled hot dogs for lunch, easy to make and not a bad first meal. Everyone chipped in and the daily work went much easier than we expected. The next day we stopped to wait on the Equalizer, she had fallen back about 20 miles, she was much slower than Diamond. While we waited, we all jumped overboard for a pleasant swim in the clear waters of the gulf. We were in 17,000 feet of water. It was a refreshing break and everyone enjoyed the time spent together. Fifty hours after departing we arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi river. We had passed hundreds of oil platforms which dot the gulf on our way. Several were partially destroyed, but the rest seemed like they were up and running, a good thing. As we motored into the Mississippi, everyone was on deck, silently watching the shoreline. As we headed up the river, it became very apparent that we were in the place Katrina came ashore. The devastation was massive. Bark had been ripped from several miles of trees, barges weighting hundreds of tons were thrown upon the shore like they were matchsticks, houses were everywhere along the levees, thrown there against their will, smashed, cars and boats, ships and trees, all demolished. No one said much as we went further up the river. It was like an atomic bomb had leveled the area. Mile after mile, total devastation. After 80 miles we came to the first somewhat active place we had seen, Belle Chasse, Louisiana. We rafted up with a disabled ferry boat. We had made it to our destination. This small town was feeding 2000 misplaced families, they needed the supplies, and we were there for that reason. It didn't take long to unload both vessels. Everyone helped. Pallet after pallet was unloaded by hand. It was hot and everyone was soaking wet with sweat, but no one complained. The people were great, and very thankful for our efforts. I just wish we could have done more. This is when we heard about Hurricane Rita. She was following us across the gulf, staying far enough behind us so we didn't know she was there. The evacuations had begun again! What were we going to do now! We decided to stay put and wait. If she headed our way anymore, we'd head upriver and try to outrun her. Thank God she continued on her course. We had heavy rain and wind, but we survived her. We stayed over 10 days after our arrival. I went to New Orleans to the airport, along the way I passed the scenes we all saw on TV, the Super Dome, the flooded streets, the destroyed homes, and some of the victims. My heart was sad. As people told me their stories, I cried with them. Some had lost all hope, most did not. The human sprit is strong in these people, and they will be back. The seas were calming some, it is time to leave, but not forget. Greg Brooks VIDEO - 65 Megs Trip up the Mississippi River DIVX VIEWER - Small file
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