TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Catatonic 500

Dirk and Sandy have been owners and frequent captain/mate/chef aboard Catatonic 440 since we purchased her in 2007. Sadly, Catatonic was lost during Irma in Hurricane Hole, St. John. Catatonic provided too many vacations of a lifetime to count and the outpouring of support from our guests has been heartwarming (https://www.facebook.com/yachtcatatonic). Dirk returned to Hurricane Hole the day after Irma to find Catatonic inverted, high and dry in the mangroves. A day charter catamaran, Off Cay, that had sailed out of the storm, adopted Dirk and they spent the week after Irma assisting with emergency communications and helping with on site relief on St. John. Our goal is to help rebuild the cruising grounds we have come to love so much in the Virgin Islands. We established http://vistrongcharters.org which will offer captain-only humanitarian charters aboard vessels that survived Irma in coordination with http://sailorshelping.org to help local business that attract charters rebuild.

We also acted immediately to locate another owner’s version flybridge Lagoon catamaran. We looked at over a dozen catamarans in Florida only three days after returning stateside. We are happy to announce that we found the perfect catamaran to continue Catatonic’s legacy. Many of our bookings for Catatonic have agreed to re-book their charters dates with us in our temporary cruising grounds this fall, the Abacos Islands in the Bahamas. Our first charter of the season commences October 22 and many of our charters are rebooking flights to join us aboard. For their loyalty we are upgrading them from our 2005 Lagoon 440 to the 2011 Lagoon 500 at no additional charge. We have secured all of our water toys and will share our love of the Abacos (Sandy and I were married and chartered in 2002 & 2016) with our guests. Between Abacos charters, Dirk will be operating captain only humanitarian charters in the Virgin Islands. We will reposition Catatonic 500 from the Abacos to the Virgin Islands as soon as we get our first booking in VI booking in 2018. Thanks, Captain Dirk & Sandy #VIStrong

Well done jumping back in, boat prices will only go up.

We are interested. What is the best contact method?

Congrats guys!

Cant wait to sail her with you..is she Catatonic 2??

You are doing a great thing! I snooped on your facebook link, the photo of you on the barren hillside says it all. Congrats on the new cat and like all the islanders your resiliency is admired. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />

We've always wanted to sail the Abacos - congrats!

Us too...we want to get our boat there next year if we can.

Beautiful boat! Congratulations!

Such fabulous news for you. Congrats!

No we can stand a chance again in the 40-45 class...Well done you guys...

<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" />

That's quite a boat! It's inspiring to see what you all are doing, both with the aid trips and having a new Catatonic ready to resume chartering. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />

Geez you look familiar. Were you at Shoprite last weekend and we discussed where the coffee aisle was? You had earbud headphones. If so, what a small world.

Nope, not me.

1st thing that went through my mind <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

Dear Dirk and Sandy- relieved to hear that you are safe, condolences on the loss of Catatonic. She was a great boat, good memories.

Instead of "Catatonic 2" How about......

"2 Catatonic"....?????

<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" /> Think we'll stick with Catatonic 500, but we aren't calling her Cat 5 for short!

That's great news Dirk. We met in the laundry room at PDR before Maria. We're probably moving up to Abacos for the winter also - see ya at Nippers.