From the Atlantic to Haiti: Captain Ray Thackeray's Voyage of Resilience and Philanthropy

Join us as we venture into the enthralling life journey of Captain Ray Thackeray. From setting up his company in the UK to relocating to the US during the hard-hitting financial crash of 2008, Ray's life has been nothing short of a thrilling roller-coaster ride. A wave of nostalgia hits, as Ray reminisces about his passion for boating that was sparked in the Lake District. His tales of youthful days spent on the sand dunes and swimming in the Irish Sea have a vivid charm that's hard to resist.

Captain Thackeray's tales of the Atlantic will have you on the edge of your seat - the white squall, the fuel crisis, and the ensuing struggle for survival. Amid these high tides of life, Ray's spirit only soared higher as he founded a non-profit organization for disaster relief by boat. Learn about his special vessel, an old Dutch Barge Ketchmrig from the 1960s, and his current mission to sail to Haiti with tons of supplies. Ray's resilience and commitment are bound to inspire.

The Captain's philanthropic soul shines brightly as he recounts his work in Haiti since the 2010 earthquake. The challenges are daunting - the pandemic, decreased donations, extreme poverty, and hunger. Yet, Ray’s commitment remains unbroken, and his story is a testament to the indomitable human spirit. Join us to hear about his phenomenal journey and learn how you can contribute to his organization, making a positive impact in the world. Brace yourselves as Ray's life story unfolds - it’s not just about survival and adventure, it's about resilience, generosity, and humanity.

Merrill Charette

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SHIPSHAPE.PRO - Innovative platform that bridges the gap in marine repair

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MIDA.PRO - Marine Industry Digital Agency - Web dev / Marketing

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Welcome aboard the Ship Shape podcast, your ultimate destination for marine wisdom and expertise. Our skilled crew, comprised of top-boating journalists and experts, is committed to delivering informative and captivating content week after week. We're eager to connect with and learn from our fellow mariners, and we encourage you to share our podcast with your friends. Remember, word of mouth is our lifeblood, and if you enjoy an episode, please leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. By doing so, you're helping us forge a robust community of mariners who can learn, collaborate and exchange their experiences out on the water.

Speaker 2: 0:49

Welcome to the Ship Shape podcast. Today on our show we have Captain Ray Thackeray, who has been around the world. He grew up in the UK, now he's living in the US and he makes frequent trips around the Caribbean islands and the BVI and Haiti and other islands that need assistance and delivers them supplies, and he's going to be telling us his story today. Your host today Tala Bhatti I'm in Virginia and Farah, who is sitting in the UK. Welcome to the show, guys.

Speaker 3: 1:22

Thank you, Tala. Thanks for introducing myself and Ray. My name is Farah and I've been working with Tala on the Ship Shape podcast for the last year or more and we've been amazingly interviewing these incredible, incredible people. Ray, thank you so much for being on the show. We are so excited to have you as our guest.

Speaker 4: 1:40

Thank you very much.

Speaker 3: 1:42

Where are you?

Speaker 4: 1:44

Right now I'm in a parking lot, as they say, or in English we say a car park Somewhere in Norfolk, virginia, not far from Tala, where I'm looking at a Walmart right now, and in fact I had to stop for this podcast, and so this is going over Senniginoradio, straight across the Sapper Lights and over to England.

Speaker 2: 2:09

Now you're picking up supplies. What are you doing?

Speaker 4: 2:12

I'm actually shipping a UPS transmission, our old transmission that somebody's bought in Rhode Island. So I've got to get this thing packed up and shipped. So that's why I'm here and I've got to get to the UPS a few minutes after this conversation. But please, there is no hurry. As soon as we finish talking I've got plenty of time to get to the UPS. And then, tala, I'll be walking right past your boat to get back to our boat later on this evening to carry on installing our new engine.

Speaker 3: 2:40

Before we talk about Ray passing by Tala's boat. Ray, why aren't you passing by my accommodation? Because it sounds very clearly like you've been living in the UK. I mean, you should be my neighbour at this point. What are you doing in the US? How did you end up there? There must be a story behind this.

Speaker 4: 2:55

Well, actually, the last time I was in the UK, I was not far off being your neighbour. You're in Bromley in Kent and I was on the M25 in a little town called Ashtead, which is near Leatherhead in Surrey, which you must know. I was there for about 10 years but I moved back to the States about the time of the financial crash about 2008. But I'm originally from Merseyside, or, as they say, where I'm from, originally Merseyside and it sometimes comes out when I say where's my shirt? But I did live in Hampshire.

Speaker 4: 3:26

I'm sorry for most of my life and when I went to university I was in North Wales, in Bangor. That's where I was in the UK. I'm from a little town called Formby, which is near Southport in England, and it's actually I started out when I was born at Lancashire there, because Southport was inside Lancashire, but they changed the borders and Southport suddenly became part of the Sefton ward of Merseyside and I knew it had happened, because my IQ dropped 20 points and I started stealing things immediately.

Speaker 3: 4:04

Where's my tea, ray?

Speaker 2: 4:09

How long has this obsession with the ocean been like? Did you grow up sailing? Were your parents go sailing? Like what got involved in this at all?

Speaker 4: 4:18

Not at all. But Southport is absolutely on the coast on the Irish Sea, and I was literally born and lived my life walking on the sand dunes and swimming in the ocean, which is, by the way, horribly cold, because you have to do it, otherwise you never swim. So that's what we did as we were kids. But no, my parents never were in the ocean at all. I got into the boating side of it with friends in the Lake District, usually water skiing and motorboats. But when I got to the States, what brought you here, though?

Speaker 2: 4:50

What brought you to the States?

Speaker 4: 4:52

I was trying to set up a company and I needed venture capital money, and venture capital money in the early 80s was actually very difficult to get and in fact I ended up with about the only venture capital firm in the whole of the UK at the time. It was called Anglo-American Venture Management and that was run by partially by the Department of Trade and Industry under Tony Wedgwood Ben in those days and an American venture capitalist who came in to you know, set up the American style VC business. So they messed me around for about two years and I wasted a stack of money trying to convince them of a computer graphics business idea that I had at the time and eventually said oh well, we decided not to invest in your company after basically saying it was a done deal for you know nearly a year.

Speaker 4: 5:42

So I got patently upset with the idea of it was just almost impossible for somebody who wasn't born with the title Baronette or Earl or Lord to get, you know, consider of some of the money to set up a company. You know Richard Branson is one of the few who really did it right, yeah, so I decided that's it, I'm going to America. And so I started in Canada staying with friends and I got a job with an American company in Ontario, in Ottawa, and within a year they moved me to headquarters in Massachusetts, in Marlborough, massachusetts, and I know, talar, you've heard of the company. Most people haven't anymore. In its time it was the second biggest computer company in the world, next to IBM. We were digital equipment corporation and I was there the longest time I was with any company in the world in my whole life eight years based out of Massachusetts, and it was a great eight years, a great company to work for.

Speaker 2: 6:33

What sort of work was that?

Speaker 4: 6:35

I was in basically computer development and eventually marketing and consulting.

Speaker 3: 6:41

It's very different to being on a boat. I mean, that's such a dump, isn't it? It's a huge leap.

Speaker 4: 6:46

Yeah. Well, that company eventually got acquired by Compact, which you may have heard of, which is now Hewlett-Backeye, and they gave me a year's pay to go away. So I thought, what do I do with a year's pay? Well, got to buy a boat. So I started hunting for a boat and decided to buy a boat. In the end, after searching for about six months, I bought a William Garden Offshore catch 51 foot. I lived aboard that boat for about eight years. I'm starting in Charlestown, harvard in Boston.

Speaker 2: 7:17

Eight years on the same boat and the same boat and like zero experience before this, like you didn't mention any sailing and etc. Before this.

Speaker 4: 7:29

Well, funny is to say that the maximum you won no, I've never sailed on a boat of 51 foot catch that needed remasting. Well, you pull this piece of string and the sail goes up. How hard could it be, Wow.

Speaker 3: 7:42

I mean, for a lot of people who are listening, you know it's a huge leap. You talk about people who live on land and then you suddenly because I speak to Dalat so often there's things like shrink wrapping your boats. Then he's always doing things, he's always jumping in the water and he's always scraping bits up his boat from the bottom and then bang, we're having a conversation in the middle and he's like, oh, look, dolphins. And I'm just like, excuse me, postman. It's like, you know, for people who are not used to that kind of lifestyle, it's a huge jump. I mean, you're making it seem so easy, right?

Speaker 4: 8:11

Well, it's never easy, you know. You think it might be a first and then you find out it isn't. But you know, let's face it. Let's face it. When you're on a boat you have a bigger swimming pool than most people and all you got to do is to walk out of your front door and fall in. So you know, that's kind of nice. You know there are lots of things to do.

Speaker 4: 8:28

You have to scrape the bottom regularly and it seems like everything on the boat breaks every year or more than every year, and you have to fix it and you can't really afford usually to have somebody else fix it. So you have to learn how to fix it yourself. But you know what? I don't really think it's that much different from owning a house. You know you've got to have a lawn mower and you've got to. You know you got to paint your house and you got to fix the woodwork and you got to fix the stairs, or your electrics go wrong, and or you got to call a plumber and you have to work a week to pay the plumber for one day's worth, you know, and so I don't know. It's just a different kind of work. But living aboard a boat is definitely a totally different lifestyle.

Speaker 3: 9:11

Can I ask you, know people around you, you know when. I know, when I was deciding to live on a boat, everybody there was a human outcry, remember. I tell everybody crazy. You know what was the response when you said you're going to go and take this decision to live on a boat. You must have had some kind of response from your family around you saying Are you crazy, ray? What are you thinking?

Speaker 4: 9:30

Well, most of my family when I lived in Massachusetts were in Merseyside and so you know they didn't really have too much input. Most of my friends were happy because they had dreams of going out sailing regularly with me Altaria Motors yeah, really. And so you know, and that worked out okay. I do have a one fun story.

Speaker 4: 9:50

My boss's boss, who was a vice president at Digital Equipment Corporation, somebody who actually did not like very much. His name was I'll tell you his name his name was Bill Stoyle, quite a famous guy in the computer industry, at least on Route 128, massachusetts, and I did know that he was a sailor. He was a racing sailor and one day I was just the T-Doc which is, you know, reserved for the larger boats, which my boat was certainly the largest boat in the dock at Shipyard Quarters, charlestown, you know, boston area, and I'll never forget being at the end of the dock standing next to my boat. This guy ambles up the dock and he said, oh, hello Ray, and now hello Bill. I said, and I've noticed that Bill's boat was a small 38 foot boat called the Intimidator which is, you know kind of a way, what a name, what a wicked name.

Speaker 4: 10:41

Yeah, which is the kind of guy who was at work. And he said, oh, he says, are you going sailing on this boat today? I said, oh, yeah, yeah, I think so. He said who's voted it? Is it? And I said, well, it's mine. And that was one of the most satisfying things in my life, watching his face drop. And he realized that one of his ex-employees was in a boat almost quite as big as his.

Speaker 2: 11:07

Wow, but but, surya, tell me, tell us more. Our listeners would love to know what like a catch entails. Tell us more about this first boat of yours. What was it like living on it?

Speaker 4: 11:16

Well, a big old 50 foot catch is actually quite a big boat. You know the F cabin had a natural bathtub in it, and so you know it was reasonably comfortable.

Speaker 4: 11:25

The worst part and I know tell how that you're going to relate to this. The worst part of it was I was in a decent marine. Now you know it had. The service is the electricity and you know the odd sewage that pumped to a dock tank and all that kind of stuff. I mean, it was, it was. You know you could use the toilet facilities or, as an Eric was calling it, the restroom, and they're on a boat, we call it the head, that's right.

Speaker 4: 11:51

So, you know we could. I could use everything like you do in a house, except when it came to wintertime and the dock was covered in six inches of sheet ice. And you know, you're waking up in the morning and no matter what kind of heating you have in the boat, on my boat it turned out that I actually had clouds forming inside the boat, by the ceiling, and you know, and then you see this little flash of lightning and it starts to rain on you while you're trying to sleep in bed.

Speaker 3: 12:18

Oh my God. So it's more of a steam freezer than anything.

Speaker 4: 12:24

Yeah, I can kick them up for that. I said that's it, I'm going to the Caribbean. So you know, I wasn't working, I'd been laid off, I was living aboard the boat, the layoff paid for, and so after six months, I basically undocked and headed for the Caribbean. And I had to tell you, though, that I'd actually never really sailed a sailboat before in my life. So my first ever real sail was with 1700 nautical miles from Boston to Turkey and Pekos.

Speaker 2: 12:55

Nice Does about that. Some fun stories of that and scary stories yeah getting knocked down in a white squall.

Speaker 4: 13:02

You know, those things actually really do happen.

Speaker 3: 13:05

I mean, I'm sorry, you'll have to. You'll have to explain because I was non boat people. We need to know more. Knocked over Well.

Speaker 4: 13:14

I don't know exactly meteorologically. You know what a white squall is, but I can tell you what it felt like when it was happening to me. So there we were. We'd just gone through the Gulf Stream, which is somewhere you know south of Connecticut. We were sailing along very nicely, with all sails up at about five knots, in a beautiful, crystal clear day. It was about June 1992. And all around was just calm, flat waves, a gentle flat swells out in the ocean about 300 miles from the land.

Speaker 4: 13:48

And I got a weird depression in my head. You know, it was a really strange thing. I'd never experienced anything like it before. I just felt like there was a depression inside my forehead, maybe in my sinuses, and I thought this is really strange. And I'm looking around on, all I could see was blue sky and, you know, dark blue water, and I thought there's something weird happening. I don't know what.

Speaker 4: 14:10

And I was just literally leaning down the hatch, being the only one on deck holding the steering wheel, and I was just shouting all hands on deck, and suddenly it hit and I got blasted by a, you know, basically a squall. And the next thing we knew there was a swirl of sea, you know, white foam blasting over the side of the boat, and we were on our side. You know it was a heavy, big boat, you know it's a 54,000 pound boat. We were laid over, all the sails were up and the crew couldn't even get up the companion way and up past the ladder. They know they were climbing on the refrigerator and trying to scramble up the ladder and you know it was perpendicular to the normal direction. So you know, so, single handed, handedly, basically to you know, get the sails down.

Speaker 3: 14:57

It comes from nowhere. It just came from nowhere.

Speaker 4: 15:01

Came from absolutely nowhere and I was even looking for it because I was alerted to the fact that there was a low pressure zone going on and I couldn't figure it out. But you know, absolutely I don't know when we were on our side. So we were being hit by probably 70, 80 knots of wind, and I've been in that kind of wind before and we weren't laid over. So it may have been more like 100 or 120 knots, it's impossible to know, but you know we were. And then when the boat finally came up, after I'd managed to get the sail loose you know that the mizzen, the mainsail, the two jibs that were up, you know the boat finally came back up again. Now the problem is that while we were laid on our side, I discovered that's when the fuel tank vents were on backwards and the fuel tank drained out of the boat while we were healed.

Speaker 1: 15:48

Oh, oh my god.

Speaker 4: 15:50

So I ended up with you know, probably, I think in those days I have about 150 gallons of diesel fuel in the tanks and most of it got drained overboard. After a few hours of motoring I found myself with no fuel in the middle of the Atlantic. And be calmed. So yeah, that was my first ever sail.

Speaker 3: 16:10

Okay all right. I mean, how did you get back to safety?

Speaker 4: 16:15

Yeah, well, it's a funny story. That's a two or three days of just being totally be calmed and trying to head south towards the Caribbean.

Speaker 3: 16:24

Three days. You say Wow, yeah, yeah, okay.

Speaker 4: 16:29

I'm after getting nowhere, we noticed that there was a great big fuel bolt carrier going past us over the near the horizon, and I Usually call ships up and just say hello to the captain as they go by and, you know, shoot the breeze and and I did the usual thing, channel 16. Hello ship to the west of the sailing catch, you know, worry ahead. And they got back to me and they said they were heading up from From actually they were coming up from Panama to Nova Scotia. And I said so what are you carrying? And they said number two, diesel fuel. And I said I'm one of the crew behind my shoulders, said oh, you know, can you get them to bring some to us? And I said, ha ha, yeah, all right, well. So I said to the captain hey, you got nothing else to do, mine coming back and giving us a couple hundred gallons of fuel in these. The captain yeah, okay, so you know that. So the crew thought I was God at that point and I think, I think, I think there's a term in Arabic something like no hoda, which means the God, or is otherwise known as captain. So that's where the crew thought I was and Anyway, yeah, that was amazing to watch because the ship came back, turned around, came towards us and we were talking to the captain at the time and he was a German with a Filipino crew, and the captain said that the reason why he was doing this is because he had tons of time.

Speaker 4: 17:56

There was a big storm in the north and he was gonna have to slow down to avoid the storm anyway, and so he came back and he actually was in full reverse and he went around our boat about three times before he could actually stop. Those things have a lot of momentum and it was fascinating. And to get the fuel to us, rather than come close to us, he dropped a life raft in the water that was filled with I don't know 20 or 30 big five gallon diesel cans. And then we know, we got a rope onto that and we pulled it to our boat, loaded the fuel. They pulled the life raft back up to the ship, filled it up with fuel again, dropped it back in the water and we carried on until we filled our tanks for free.

Speaker 3: 18:49

There's a lot to be said about the marine culture and a lot of camaraderie which people don't see on a daily basis, and the more people I speak to, the more I you know, more opportunity I have to interview. You know, gentlemen like yourselves and ladies like yourself have been on the marine world. You just notice there's such a level of understanding, compassion, support, comradery and going out of your way for the other person. There's a lot of level of calm which I think is incredible. I mean the survey. I mean you just told us the most amazing story, and this was your first sail. There must have been at least an incident in your life where you've turned around and thought I'm not going to make it out of this. Do you have any sort of story that you could share with us?

Speaker 4: 19:29

um, yes, there are, and possibly the biggest one was actually a game to do with sailing. I was actually sailing not too far from here, around k Hatteras, which is a place that's known to have, you know, some pretty bad storms. I was sailing from the north south, aboard actually in those days, uh, a 56 foot catch that had been donated to international rescue group, which is an organization that I founded about a decade ago to do disaster relief and relief work to islands and coastal communities, mainly starting off in the Caribbean. But I was aboard this boat, basically delivering it to florida To get it to the point where I could get her in condition to be used as a working boat to crew aboard, and we were basically trying to beat a storm that wasn't forecast until we'd already headed out towards South, towards k patteras.

Speaker 4: 20:21

Unfortunately, just as we were trying to turn right to avoid the storm and go into North Carolina, into a calm port, the storm caught us and we got into a pretty serious southerly gale, which basically forced us to turn around 180 degrees and go back where we came from. So I ended up in southerly storm, huge waves. The coast guard was saying Small boat warning any boat out there, get in. I'm gonna sit there going, okay, you know, yeah, it's gonna take us two days to get in anyway. So we have to ride this one out, and we didn't have an autopilot, so I was steering the boat at five knots with the sails down on bare poles, with the storm behind us, so I was basically what they call running with the wind, and Something at one point happened. There was a cushion on the intercop pit next to me and the cushion suddenly Lifted up into the air and a kind of little little whirlwind and it it floated in the air in front of me for a few seconds before it zoomed off to the right and just disappeared.

Speaker 4: 21:26

And then just as I'm thinking. Well, that doesn't happen every day. Then it flew back on the boat and landed right in front of me.

Speaker 3: 21:35

Oh my god.

Speaker 4: 21:39

Yeah, and the funny thing is the funny thing is that printed on the back of that seat cushion was please helping. Great big letters.

Speaker 3: 21:47

For all my goodness, oh, that's ominous almost.

Speaker 4: 21:52

So that was a favorite cushion of mine. I kept that for a long time. But, yeah, the two crew I had basically said that's it, we're gonna die, uh, we'll just go. We, they were already sick anyway. So they went downstairs and lay down and, you know, puke for them for about two straight days. And uh, so I was up there in the cockpit in lightning and with, uh, you know, sea spouts all around um hanging onto the wheel and, uh, you know, just just keeping us With the stern to the wind until the storm disappeared. So that took me about you know, two days of non-stop steering. You couldn't leave the wheel At all and that was to admit. There were a few moments where I thought, well, this is my last sailing voyage.

Speaker 4: 22:35

If I do go, I hope it's quick and uh you know, I don't want to be floating and swimming in the water and chomped up by sharks, uh, so uh. But at that time, I must admit, I did think that, uh, my time had come, but uh, it wasn't to be. And here we are.

Speaker 2: 22:54

And you lived to tell the tale. Very nice, but then, sarita, take us back. Tell us more about this international rescue group. What got you interested in starting it? Where have you?

Speaker 4: 23:03

been with it. Well, I was in Silicon Valley at the time in California, in the high-tech industry. You've heard of Dotcoms. I was one of those Dotcom people operating at a Silicon Valley and at some point I actually sold the company that I founded. But I needed work. It wasn't a terribly great deal, and so I started looking for a job. And I was 56.

Speaker 4: 23:27

And that's when I discovered that, being 56 years old in Silicon Valley, which is full of, you know, 22-year-old kids' founding companies and getting venture capital money and all that kind of stuff, it was literally impossible to find a job. So I tried a couple of occasions working with old friends to try a couple of startups. Unfortunately, the only one startup in 10 or 20 actually succeeds. So I found myself completely broke after. You know, I had two properties in the London area. I had two properties in San Francisco. There was a financial crash hit and I found myself underwater, you know, with a $2 million debt, and that was the end of that. And so I thought, ok, well, that didn't work out very well, let's try something else.

Speaker 4: 24:15

And so I got into the nonprofit sector and I dusted off a business plan that I'd had for a couple of decades to do disaster relief by boat, and the key there is that I enjoyed sailing.

Speaker 4: 24:27

I like to live on a boat, you know, get around the world and I do something charitable that enables me to just enjoy that lifestyle. And so I had the plan to build an organization called International Rescue Group and what we do is we were able to find donated supplies and, working with the Red Cross, if there's ever a hurricane in, for example, the Caribbean, we were able to work with the Red Cross, take on tons of their supplies and get the supplies to where they actually couldn't get them themselves, because very often, you know, in the Caribbean, when an island is hit by a tropical storm or a hurricane, the airport is knocked out, there's very little shipping going to the islands for a few weeks and only a few boats like ours were able to do it. So basically I spent about nine years doing that on a donated boat and you know, basically I was able to enjoy the sailing lifestyle, I got to live on a boat and I can live on my pension and that kind of worked out well. So that's what I'm doing now. That's amazing.

Speaker 2: 25:34

The special kind of boat to make that happen. So what sort of boat are we talking about?

Speaker 4: 25:39

Yeah. So we got this old sailing barge Dutch barge, probably built in the 1960s she but she's a proven ocean crossing boat Ketchmrig, and we're able to carry about three tons of supplies. So right now I'm putting a new engine in the boat the old one died because he got too old and we hoping to sail within about two weeks to Haiti and we have about three tons of supplies in a storage area ready to come aboard. We've got medical supplies, we have recycled sails for the subsistence fishermen about 100 of those We've got 50 bicycles for the community children and we've got all sorts of food and other supplies. You know some individual deliveries for various people that we know on the islands.

Speaker 4: 26:26

I used to live in on Haiti, but right now Haiti is in a real mess. The president was assassinated two years ago. The government has completely failed, the gangs have taken over the entire country and right now the mainland is such a dangerous place to the US Literally. Just a few days ago, the US has sent out an alert to all NGOs and organizations on Haiti to get out because their lives are in danger. So that makes it very hard for the people. They've got no help.

Speaker 4: 27:00

Fortunately, I know the location I'm going to very, very well. I've got local support and fortunately, where I go to there are no gangs, it's just the normal island people in charge. So, although it's still dangerous, there is still piracy. You know, we have a route that we think can avoid any possible pirates out there. That is unfortunately not just a story, it's a real thing right now. So we hope to be able to avoid any degradation by pirates. Get our supplies to the anchorage. They'll send out water taxis to pick up. We'll drop over the side into the water taxis and sadly we'll have to up the anchor and get the heck away. You know, before the gangs on the mainland hear about us and start coming after us with machine guns, which will definitely happen if we spend too long there. So there we are. That's the mission we're on and hopefully we'll be away in two weeks.

Speaker 3: 27:57

That's a lot of responsibility, though, ray. That's a massive amount of responsibility on your shoulders. I mean, do you have a large team of people that you're working with alongside you on this, or if somebody wanted to get involved in something like this, how would they go about it?

Speaker 4: 28:12

Right. Well, I do have a lot of land support of various kinds, including somebody who's very, very well known, alison Thompson, third wave volunteers. Actually, she's a blonde Australian woman who lives in Miami and she is still and until the government is put together again, she's actually still Haiti's ambassador for the ministry of the environment. So she's helped a great deal, you know, with intelligence, reports and land based support and donations to keep us sailing. And we have a few people like that who work with us, who know what it takes including, you know, people in the Red Cross who know us.

Speaker 4: 28:50

But when it comes to sailing, frankly, it's just going to be two or three of us, you know, sailing the ship down to Haiti. You know they know the risks. They're excited by doing such a thing. We minimize risk enormously because we know exactly what we're doing and where we're going, but there is still a risk. But then again, when you go sailing, there's always risk. But you know, we've got some really good people on this particular trip. I've got another crew member joining us, so there'll be three of us and what else can I say? And we're a pretty lean organization. Basically, we're all 100% volunteers and we do it for the fun of it, I call it philanthropic crewing. I don't know if that's the term you've ever heard before.

Speaker 3: 29:28

No, the first crewing is very apt and very fitting indeed.

Speaker 4: 29:32

Yeah, I don't know if I invented the term or if I heard it somewhere and plagiarized it, but I'm calling it philanthropic crewing and you know there are some people who really get off on the excitement of doing something like that. It's not just sailing a boat from A to B, it's actually accomplishing a real mission and getting the excitement and the story out.

Speaker 3: 29:53

It's a tangible result. I mean you're making a difference. As you said, it's philanthropic.

Speaker 1: 29:58

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Speaker 3: 30:42

Ray, what does the future hold for you in terms of when you look at what you want to do now? Going forward, you're doing these incredible things. What should we expect from Ray in the future?

Speaker 4: 30:52

Well, I'm now 69 and nearly 70.

Speaker 3: 30:57

And, by the way, for those who can't see me doesn't look a day over 40. He's saying that, but it doesn't.

Speaker 4: 31:03

Well, you see, I was born at a very early age and it doesn't get any easier.

Speaker 4: 31:12

I'm being forced to recognize it. Fortunately I'm still actually healthier, so I'm getting around okay, but I'm not as fast as I used to be, or I don't have as much stamina as I used to have, and I'm having to recognize, you know, it's going to be a world of younger and fitter people than me, and what I'm trying to do now is find the right people to pick up where I eventually leave off and in some way hoping to build the organization so that it outlasts me and continues as an NGO into the future and continues to do, you know, aid projects for the people who need it in coastal and island communities, which is our niche, doing it by boat Right now. I found a few people who I think are perfect to continue the organization into the future, and so that's kind of the mode I'm in. But I've done a few years left in me so I've got plenty of time to train people and get the organization designed so that, you know, people can take over the management and run it.

Speaker 3: 32:16

That's amazing.

Speaker 2: 32:17

And we're going to backtrack a little. So you sort of alluded to that you've done this before and you knew which routes to take because you've seen them before. So I guess you've done Haiti a couple of times now. What other islands or locations have you guys visited with your international rescue group?

Speaker 4: 32:37

Well, over the last nine years we've done a lot of relief operations. You've probably heard of Hurricane Matthew.

Speaker 3: 32:43

Yes, yeah.

Speaker 4: 32:45

One example Wow and Hurricane Matthew eventually hit. Not only hit the Caribbean, but it came up and hit the USA as well, florida and further north. Mostly it's been Haiti. Haiti got hit by the 2010 earthquake. About 5% of the entire population died, either immediately during and after the earthquake, or of disease and other problems, immediately you know, closely afterwards. So Haiti has been hit by one disaster after another.

Speaker 4: 33:12

There's been another earthquake about two years ago, not far from where I've been regularly giving aid, in the island of Elavash, to the south of Haiti. It's an island of 17,000 people. It's a very poor island. It's totally dependent on subsistence, fishing and the very few jobs that they were able to get, which are, all frankly, the last two years, all gone. So right now, it's an island of 17,000 people who have a hospital with absolutely nothing in the dispensary. You know, right now they're trying to cure things with what? Coconut leaves and mango juice or whatever. It's literally that bad. So Haiti I've been there about 15 times, lived there for about three months at one point in time, but I've also responded to tropical storms in other islands as well, such as Dominica and the British Virgin Islands. Just two other examples.

Speaker 3: 34:04

Ray, how do you I have to ask compartmentalize this, because some of the things you're seeing must be emotionally very traumatizing. They must scar you Because to some extent you do feel helpless. I mean, you are providing as much aid as possible, you're doing your level best, but you're one team of people. I mean it must be very difficult to compartmentalize what you're being exposed to and deal with the trauma, and sometimes you must feel quite helpless as well. How does one manage emotions like that? How do you deal with them and how do you compartmentalize them? Or do you not at all?

Speaker 4: 34:36

I wish I had a formula. I do see extreme hunger and Lack of everything, including healthcare, so I see that all the time, especially in Haiti. The rest of the Caribbean is actually quite wealthy, but Haiti is just ridiculously poor. There's certainly the most poor place in the Western hemisphere of the world, and so it's literally is a way of life there. How do I deal with it? I don't think I do. Really. It's what keeps me going. It was what keeps me going back.

Speaker 4: 35:07

You know. You know that you can never do enough. I mean, I can't help the entire island, but what I can do is fill a hospital dispensary that you know may be useful for, say, I don't know, six months. And you know I can get sales, recycled sales, to the subsistence fishermen, and that's how they stay alive. And you know they. If you've ever seen a Haitian fishing boat, you would know that they, they use everything they can find every bit of cloth, you know, a beer banner of PVC or literally anything they can find to stitch into a sail. They'll sail with it and they are possibly, I would say, the greatest sailors in the world. I mean, none of them has an engine. They go out and they pull themselves out into the deeper water, you know, or row themselves out and away. They go there sailing and Sometimes they don't come back.

Speaker 4: 35:55

But you know that's the way it is when you're sailing, you know you get into a storm. But what I can do is on this one trip I can replace the sails on every single boat on the island. The hundred sales I'm taking, they'll probably cut into two or three hundred sales. My guesstimate is that that would be, you know, some canvas for every single boat and That'll give the subsistence fishermen probably five years or more of a decent sailing canvas to be able to run their boats with Alone. That there will make a big difference, you know, to the long-term viability. So I feel like I'm doing something useful there.

Speaker 2: 36:30

Last few years when, like, we were going through the whole pandemic and stuff, did you feel there was more compassion in the world and people were coming together, or what was the vibe?

Speaker 4: 36:38

there. I think the only way that I have as an NGO, as a small charity and we are small, basically we're a startup I think the only way I have to measure, that is, donations, right is how much be how much people are willing to help us with some funds To be able to fulfill our mission. And we don't need much. I mean, for example, on this particular one trip, we're looking for ten thousand dollars. That's our budget and that buys a lot of fuel and it buys the various maintenance items to keep the ship running and it allows us to pick up the cargo and to get it to Haiti. And so, you know, with that ten thousand dollars, we get probably thirty or forty thousand dollars or more, you know, worth of cargo to the island. So, instead of most charities, you know you give them a hundred dollars and maybe that one dollar actually reaches the end recipient. The way we do it is we spend, you know, one dollar and we get three or four dollars to the end recipient. So I do feel good about that.

Speaker 4: 37:33

But it comes down to measuring how much people are willing to donate, and I think during the pandemic, I have to say usually he's always been.

Speaker 4: 37:41

It's well for me the last decade it's been over the internet, right, so I've used the internet in the same way that I know how, and I should know how because I'm from the internet business. But I think during the pandemic things really slowed down and you know the income we got Basically dwindled to almost nothing. And in fact, you know, when I add up the actual online donations we received over the last year, it's probably about well, this is gonna be embarrassing for me to say, but it's probably about three thousand seven hundred dollars. So at the moment the other six thousand dollars that you know I budgeted to get to 80 is coming out on my own pension. That's okay, but you know I wouldn't mind getting that because you know it's unsustainable To keep doing that. So I think the pandemic basically slowed down. Compassion for other people. Maybe it's because people were so worried about themselves and where's the money coming from in the future. I find it difficult to quantize what really happened, but you know and that's one experience, but it's it's my experience Wow.

Speaker 3: 38:40

Yeah, so literally put the record the same way.

Speaker 2: 38:43

Yeah. So as we wrap this up right, like where can people engage with you? Where can they find out more about what you're doing? Where can they donate if they want to do? You have an Instagram page. Can it follow me on Facebook? Like how does this play out?

Speaker 4: 38:58

Sure, yeah, we do have an online Facebook causes page. We're on Instagram as well. On a linked page it's international rescue group, or directly to our website is international rescue grouporg. Sorry about the large name when we try to get you know online URLs, by then all of the three letter ones had gone, so I RG, international rescue group had already gone to some other company or other. So there it was. So sorry, folks, but if you go to, if you type out into national rescue group dot org, that will take you to our website and then you can find out about our mission and on every page is a link to our go fund me. And if people would like to donate to our go fund me and help us get to our ten thousand dollars for Haiti this year, I'd be very appreciative.

Speaker 2: 39:49

Oh, and what about the philanthropic crewing that you'd mentioned? Do you think that's a trend that's looking up around?

Speaker 4: 39:55

the world. Yeah, that's been a rather nice trend. I've enjoyed, you know, for the last decade. I found it quite easy to fill the boat with crew. Right now we're trying to keep it, you know, very short-handed, because right now going to Haiti is quite dangerous and you know I don't want young people taking that kind of risk and me being responsible. So we've got guys in. We're in our 50s or 60s and we totally understand the risk of what we're doing and it's only three of us, so hopefully we'll be okay. But you know, just in case, it's three mature people, you know, who recognize the risk. But generally I found that it's been quite easy to get crew and I've often sailed with 10 or 12 people aboard. You know the boat's big enough. We've got plenty of room to sleep.

Speaker 4: 40:42

So, as we go into our next phase, what I haven't mentioned is that we are actually relocating, unfortunately, the Caribbean and the US Area. The region has been just simply too expensive for us to be sustainable and so I decided to move to a new base in the Philippines. We're going to do the same thing, but in Asia, and when you're in the Philippines, you're only like a week sail away from Indonesia, taiwan, quite a number of the South China seas countries, and in the Philippines they have on average about 20 typhoons a year. So we'll have plenty of work to do. And of course in the Philippines everything is a lot cheaper. It'll cost our organization at least a half less than it costs in the Caribbean, which is thankfully an expensive place to be on the boat, and it just proved to be unsustainable. And so when we're in the Philippines and we're heading through the South China seas, I've got no concerns at all and I'm sure we'll get you know plenty of people who want to be involved there and no trouble finding philanthropic crew Nice.

Speaker 2: 41:47

So obviously you've got thousands and thousands of hours Sailing, perhaps thousands more, with your philanthropic interests. Are there any sort of words of advice, some wisdom that you could leave our listeners with, especially the younger generation, on how to just, you know, make the world a better place, right?

Speaker 4: 42:06

well, first thing. First I say that and it comes from my experience of working with a very small organization as we are only one person can help another person, and you know, matter how big you are, even if you're the Red Cross, you're one person working for or with the Red Cross and You're still one person helping one family out or one other person. And so every charity, whether you're enormous or whether you're tiny, it all boils down to one person helping somebody else. So you know, with that mentality, I think it kind of boils it down to what is it you want to do with your life and With me? I just want to be able to help people out as best I can. To that end, what would I advise other people? Well, it's an interesting world.

Speaker 4: 42:52

I don't think anyone can predict the way we used to 40, 50 years ago. You know we used to think if we could learn how to program we'd have a great career. I don't think that's Sustainable in the future. You know there are certain careers like doctor or maybe lawyer. Well, you'll continue to have employment into your 70s. But you know it's very difficult for a lot of people now to determine what can they do. You know where they can have a life, and I think a lot of people are looking alternatives. In my own family I've got people who you know, who are actually living an alternate lifestyle. A couple, for example, in my own personal family in Europe are just touring Europe in a Van. You know they've got a camper van and they live in the van and they work in the van and they're able to do some online work to keep some money coming in. And you know that's a big change from why people were 10, 20, 30 years ago and it's becoming, I think, more and more not just acceptable but even possibly desirable.

Speaker 4: 43:52

Well, if you enjoy being on the sea, maybe you know you might enjoy just finding a lifestyle on a boat. You can live quite cheaply and, you know, as long as you're not looking for a big boat. I started out with a big boat but you know I've been around for a while when I started and add a bit of money. But you don't need a lot of money to move on to a boat and in fact, you can buy yourself a fairly nice, capable sailboat where two people can live quite comfortably. So what? What do you think? Tala in the States? $10,000?, $20,000? You know, buy an old boat, decent for sure. Yeah, buy an old boat, fix it up and just don't wait until later, until you've saved enough money, because it may end up being two or eight. You know, do it now, and I guess that's the advice I would give people right now.

Speaker 3: 44:39

They don't overthink it, just you know deep dive.

Speaker 3: 44:42

That's the way to do it right Deep dive, I mean. I think one of the things that I've learned from this conversation with you today is we spend a lot of time overthinking things and sometimes it's as simple as that and making a huge difference to so many people's lives. Even if it's a small little dot of a difference, it's got ripple effect. I mean, excuse the pun here, but there is a ripple effect. It does go on like waves and you've been doing it for you know, so many years now and obviously there's merit to it and there's credit to it and credit to you, and I mean all I can say is all the best and for everyone who's been listening, I hope they've been impacted by this as much as we have. It's inspiring. Honestly, ray, it's inspiring.

Speaker 4: 45:23

It doesn't seem terribly inspiring to me when we're actually there, but because you know we're just working and doing the best we can. But I do, and for the people I work with I just want to say thank you. We really appreciate that. Let's get this mission through and we'll send you some clips of videos and photographs and copy you our report of this particular trip assuming we make it out alive.

Speaker 2: 45:47

I'm sure we will.

Speaker 3: 45:47

I'm definitely sure you will.

Speaker 2: 45:50

Hopefully. Then take that pillow with you as your mascot. Where is that pillow now?

Speaker 4: 45:56

Yeah, actually I'm not quite sure where it went. It just did one day. Thank you for everything. Do you have a little?

Speaker 3: 46:04

lucky mascot Ray. Do you have a little sort of something you do like a tradition when you're about to go out? I always ask everyone this Do you have a certain little process that you follow before you go out, Like a little good love charm?

Speaker 4: 46:17

that you carry with you A ritual or oh, mine is incredibly boring. I just like to open up a logbook with a new page and start the captain's log with the name of all the crew and get them all to sign it and we have a signed crew roster with our departure time and hopefully ring eight bells and away we go.

Speaker 3: 46:40

Oh, I like that. That's so unifying. I love that.

Speaker 2: 46:45

Well, seriously, thank you so much and best of luck on your next adventure.

Speaker 3: 46:49

Thank you.

Speaker 2: 46:49

Definitely going to stick around and find out where you've been. You know soon.

Speaker 3: 46:54

Next couple of months we'll be touching base. We'd love to hear about your adventures.

Speaker 4: 46:58

I'll make sure I copy you my report and all my pictures.

Speaker 3: 47:01

Thank you, Ray. It's been an honest, honestly, been an absolute pleasure.

Speaker 4: 47:06

Oh, it's been an honor for me to be here and, thank you, my pleasure to attend this podcast. I just want to say thank you to you, tala, and thank you to you, farah, and to everybody who's listening, and I hope that you find it interesting enough to go check out our website and maybe even make a donation at internationalrefugeegrouporg. Thank you.

Speaker 3: 47:28

Get in there everybody, Thank you.

Speaker 1: 47:34

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