My contact in Bonaire, John, did not know how I was getting to St. Martin, over 500 miles across the Caribbean. He speculated that I may go as a passenger on a Dutch warship. That would have been a long trip, taking several days. The airport in St Martin was hit hard according to the reports at the time. Only military aircraft were landing at the airport since there was debris on the runways and ramps, and the control tower was destroyed.
The morning after I arrived, I slept through my alarm. When John arrived at the guest house I was staying he woke me up, and told me that I had a flight to a nearby island in about two hours. So I got up and ate my first Cliff bar of the adventure and repacked my equipment.
John drove me to the airport and I bought a ticket to the nearby island of Curaçao. It is only 45 miles away. Aruba, Bonair, and Curaçao are part of the ABC islands that are Dutch territories. The Dutch relief effort was staged from the Dutch airbase at the Curaçao airport. John had worked late into the night trying to get me on a Dutch military flight to St Martin with the communications equipment.
When I got on the plane, we did not know how I was getting to the plane, or if I would be going to the port instead to get on a Dutch Navy ship. So John and the MAF Disaster Response team continued to work to arrange my transportation, while I was in flight to Curaçao. Once on the ground, I used the satellite phone to call the MAF Disaster Response team. They told me that I should take a cab to the other side of the airport where the Dutch Air Force and Coast Guard base is.
Here I was, and American with many cases of communications equipment, trying to talk my way onto a Dutch military base 3,500 miles from home. Lists were checked, people were called, and I waited in the Caribbean sun for two hours. In this time I made a few satellite calls to my contacts to let them know what is going on. John had a friend of his buy me a SIM card for the local cell phone service so that I could use the much less expensive cell phone rather than the satellite phone. This came in very handy later.
Data plans for SIM cards don't always work right out of the package. Information about the APN needs to be entered into unlocked phones to make them work. Thankfully I travel a lot, and have a habit of buying local SIM cards when in foreign countries. Having local phone service has saved me a lot of trouble in the past, including arranging a rescue when a rental boat motor died off the coast of Croatia. Because of these experiences with SIM cards, I had a database of APN information on my phone. While I was waiting for the Dutch military to decide if I could fly with them, I worked on the cell phone data connection, and called my contacts. By the time I was allowed on the air base, and cleared for travel I had a fully functional cell phone.
The Dutch Air Force cleared me to fly to St Martin with my equipment on a Dutch Air Force C-130 they were loading with equipment, supplies, and other disaster relief personnel. A down side is that my equipment would not be on the same flight that I was. That was a minor inconvenience and would mean that I would need to wait around at the airport in St Martin for my luggage.
I was really getting excited at this point. Everything was coming together to return to St Martin, on a C-130. My father was in the US Army. I specify the US Army because I have many friends who's father was in an Army, just not always the US Army. One of the stories I remember fondly is when he got back from field exercises and told me about flying in an US Air Force C-130. They are a medium sized cargo aircraft that are used not only for moving a lot of cargo, but airborne drops of troops and cargo. Passengers sit in an un-padded nylon sling seat, facing the side of the aircraft. And the only windows in the passenger areas are at the doors, two on each side. There is no interior skin, so passengers see the structure of the aircraft, and the inside of the outer skin. This makes it very loud since there is no sound insulation. The experience is unlike any commercial flight. It has been a dream of mine to fly on a C-130 since I first heard my fathers stories when I was a kid. So I had a huge smile on my face the entire time. One of my favorite selfies was taken while I was standing outside the C-130 waiting to board.
Because I had a cell phone with a data connection, I was able to send a few photos and an update on what I was doing back to MAF and friends. A few of my photos were on the local news that night in Idaho. The news of my travels and mission were also discussed on a radio station in the ABC islands and St Martin. I did not know it at the time, but a lot of people were hearing about and seeing what I was doing. They were also praying for me.
The other people on the flight were a local Red Cross unit of volunteers, an urban search and rescue team from The Netherlands, and a medic team from the Dutch Navy. Since the aircraft was so loud, there was not a lot of talking during the flight. But I was able to talk to several people before the engines were started.
Thankfully I had a pair of ear plugs in my vest. My plan was to use them when I was sleeping, but they were much more helpful on the flight. It took about three hours to cross the Caribbean. During this time people would occasionally get up to look out the windows. There was no in-flight entertainment system, or even enough light to read by. And it was way to noise to talk with neighboring passengers. Several people, including myself, tried it. I removed my ear plugs to hear what the guy next to me was saying. But after saying and listening to a few things, we realized the futility of it.
I would have really liked to have a window seat for the approach to the airport in St Martin. But no one on the flight had a window seat, except for the crew of the aircraft. You may have seen video of a beach near an airport where aircraft come in low over the beach to land, or blast the beach with their jet engines before takeoff. That is Princess Juliana International Airport in St Martin. I wanted to see the beach, and the nearby resort and condos. I was very interested to see the amount of damage. That would help me gauge how difficult the next week would be.
The landing was a bit rough. The pilot did a great job, and the touchdown was smooth, but the runway was not. It felt like an MAF landing on a dirt and grass runway. My mind was imagining that the tarmac of the runway was washed away by the hurricane. The rough ride ended about 10 minutes later the aircraft came to a stop, and the engines were shut down. The crew chief told us to stay in our seats while they unloaded the cargo. The large cargo door in the back of the aircraft lowered, and a forklift rolled up the ramp to pick up several pallets of bottled water, food, and equipment.
We were able to walk off the aircraft out the back door, which was very exciting. My first sight of St Martin after the hurricane was rows of apartments in the distance that were ripped apart. Below my feet was the tarmac of the parking ramp, partially covered in sand, debris, and sea foam.
It took a lot of work from many people to get me here, but the work and the adventure was kicking into high gear now.