122 year old humanitarian sailing vessel needs your help

Every year for the past 10 years the 122 year old Norwegian built humanitarian vessel Vega has sailed roughly 7,000 sea miles delivering between 20 and 25 tons of new educational and medical supplies to remote island communities in Eastern Indonesia and East Timor. For some of those communities Vega is the only contact they have with the outside world from one year to the next. Vega’s crew are all volunteers and the supplies they deliver are all donated by friends and companies who appreciate the direct cost effective way Vega operates.  

“Directly from the hand of someone who wants to help into the hand of people who need that help in the form of the tools those people need to do their jobs’, is our motto”, says Captain Shane Granger, master of the Vega.  “We also provide equipment and supplies as well as re-supply and training every year to roughly 120 traditional midwives”, continues Granger, “our efforts may seem modest and in many ways they are. But they are also very effective. In one area we serve the maternal and natal mortality rates have fallen by more than 50%.”

This year serious rot was found in Vega’s aft mast. That mast must be replaced before the vessel can safely undertake her 2014 deliveries. Without a replacement mast this years ‘Mission of Mercy’ simply cannot happen” said Captain Granger, “ It would not be safe for the boat or the crew.” Vega has found proper mast wood from a friendly masting expert in Holland at a very modest price and now must raise the funds to pay for the wood and shipping from Rotterdam to Singapore where the crew will fashion the new mast and then rig it. “We always do as mush as we can ourselves”, said Granger,” our budgets do not allow for expensive outside workers, and besides the money we save can best be employed to buy supplies for the communities we assist.”

In order to find a replacement mast Vega has appealed to their wide-ranging group of friends for support. There is a donation page at  http://sailvega.com/vega/support_the_vega.html, and one avid supporter has set up another donation page at http://www.gofundme.com/6il2gw. Captain Granger went on to explain, “Somehow we need that wood in Singapore by early April in order to make the mast and have it ready for our delivery season”

Vega needs help now if they are to make our deliveries next season. For more about Vega and her humanitarian work visit their website at www.sailvega.com or simply Google “Humanitarian vessel Vega” to see what others have to say about them. They also have a FaceBook page at “Historic vessel Vega” give them a visit and a like to see more pictures and follow the story first hand.