"...donate to the American Red Cross."

You know, Mark, I really have problems with that.., the United Fund, et al.
When I was a kid, three of us decided to paddle a canoe down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans. Needless to say, we spent quite a bit of time camping out along the river bank and meeting many "River People."
They would all tell stories of the floods and how they lost their homes and all sorts of stuff. None remembered the Red Cross helping out.
But, one restaurant owner had quite a story. The Red Cross came to him and asked for donations, so he made up a bunch of sandwiches for them.

Later he went down the river site and there was the Red Cross selling his sandwiches to the victims. This so outraged him that he hurried back to his restaurant, made up a bunch more stuff and set up a booth right in front of the Red Cross booth and gave his food away.., along with some pretty cuastic comments about this so called "do-good" organization.

And as Mary pointed out, we saw nothing of the Red Cross.., or anyone like them after getting hit by a hurricane and a few weeks later a tornado thrown at us by Mitch. The only help was from our friends (by the way, some of them were friends that we helped out after Hurricane Andrew hit them in Miami).
FEMA was there to help, I must say, and arranged for a big loan to overcome the disaster at a very low interest rate.

And I recall a big shakeup in these organizations after 911. Seems as if the funds donated to the victims of the attack had a helluva time seeing any of it. It is a shame that the officers of those groups make tons of money.., all from donations that are supposed to go to people in need.

In other words, sending money to the Red Cross will not help our friends.
How about setting up a fund in a local bank there to send donations that could be directly used by catamaran sailors in need?

Rick