Hank Schmitt should be a familiar name to many Cruising Compass readers. A veteran delivery skipper and world cruiser, Hank founded Offshore Passage Opportunities (OPO) and has since sent thousands of his members off on blue water adventures with fellow cruisers.
Plus, he founded the North Atlantic Rally to the Caribbean (NARC) that runs from Newport, RI to St. Martin, via Bermuda, every fall. The rally has now joined forced with the Salty Dawg Sailing Association but it is still the same old event.
Hank is a force of nature and when he gets involved with a project, he jumps into it boots and all. So, it is no surprise that when he got involved with the Caribbean island of Dominica, he became one of its most valued partners.
Dominica is the least developed of the West Indies and in many ways the best and most beautiful island. And, it has always been famous for the boat boys of Portsmouth Bay who vie actively to provide services to visiting yachts. Not long ago, these young men organized themselves into PAYS or the Portsmouth Association of Yacht Services and have standardized their services and become a lot more professional.
Hank, who is a huge supporter of PAYS, wrote a wonderful paean to the island and her people that appeared in Caribbean Compass, one of my favorite magazines. You can check it out here.
