Over the last couple of weeks the team at Searchenginejournal.com have been brainstorming on my behalf, thinking collectively on how best to utilise the web for my trip, as well as technical help on improving search ranking – Take a read of the full article on their site. They’ve all put in enormous effort, and come up with some really smart ideas. It has been a great experience to see people envisioning such potential in my project in regards to the web, because it’s been hard for me trying to get across what I want to do with this whole thing. My trip isn’t just about trying to sail around the world with a small amount of money in 12months, it’s a lot more, and when Loren from SEJ says:

We believe Nick is partaking on a brave and unique adventure, one that will set standards for social media adventure and social pioneering.

I get dizzy with ideas and excitement, because time is of the essence right now, and I have a lot to do in order to squeeze all the potential out of what I’m doing. So over the next couple of months I’ll be ramping up some of the ideas that have been brewing, and also begin implementing what I can of the suggestions from SEJ.

When I lost my site last week, I had to recover a lot of it from Google. I came across a page I had since deleted called ‘How & Why‘ – I felt it was a bit romantic and washy and deleted it some months ago, however I’ve left it back on the site this time around, because it has reminded me what my very original intentions were. I’ve been so swayed over finances and the pressures of ’survival sickness’ lately that a lot of thoughts have been pushed out of the way. I guess what I’m saying is, the SEJ folks brought a lot of ideas to the table, and those sparks lit up my mind again. The aspect of raising money for environmental causes has also been swung aside, so in the next month or so I’ll be launching a project I began last November on what I believe to be a really interesting way of raising funds. Thank you to Ahmed Bilal, Bill Slawski, Carsten Cumbrowski, Gemme van Hasselt, Jessica Bowman, Loren Baker and Rhea Drysdale!

Non-webby news includes a possible article by www.segelnmagazin.de – A German sailing magazine. Nothing at all is definite, but there are signs of interest, so fingers crossed.

My book arrived today about Diesel engines, so it’s now time to have a look at what I’ve got myself into! Tomorrow early in the morning I’m meeting Tudor at the Duke of York to pickup some sailing theory manuals and an anchor – Oh yes jokes abound: ‘A man walks into a pub with an anchor and… ‘ Add a comment if you can make up the rest of the joke!

Back on the 2nd of April -

nick.

The data center where my website is hosted crashed over the weekend, meaning I had to revert to an October 2006 backup. I managed to retrieve most of the content from Google cache, but alas maybe things are still probably missing…

In other news I will be down to see Constellation this weekend, from the 29th of March till the 2nd of April. I have next to no money after getting my ‘account overdue‘ notice last week, so the dreams of fixing a lot of things are dashed by the fact I can’t buy the battery charger and engine parts I need, as well as stanchions, lines and some other pieces I had planned. There are plenty tasks which require little money, so I guess I’ll be tackling those.

I always say I have exciting news to mention, and I never do – But, as soon as I can get a confirmation that I’m allowed to announce it, I promise I’ll I’ll speak up! My news doesn’t solve all the problems I have, but it does solve a fairly significant portion of them. I think…

If you are near Southampton, email me for directions and come say hi!

nick.

I’m still fixing this section up, but feel free to view more photos on my Flickr site.

Every month I receive an invoice for the hard standing on Constellation. Last year it was impossible to pay, and this year it hasn’t been too easy to do either. So the bills kept piling up, and finally a bill came today, that came in an envelope with RED letters on it, instead of BLUE letters. I knew right away what it was going to be about.

So, what can I say, I owe them quite a few pounds… I hope to have at least 500 pounds of it sorted out when I fly over on the 29th of March, but the rest will have to wait. It’s all kind of amusing, considering I’m supposed to be launching in July.

Oh, did I say amusing? I didn’t mean it.

Thankfully my financial woes may be over though, having received this gracious letter today:

Dear Sir,

With regards,My names are Mr.Mohamed .P.Conteh.The managing director of ALUMED INTERNATIONAL.

I will like you to know if you have used fishing boat for sale and how much is the unit price.

I look forward to establishing a long term business relationship with your
company.

Regards,

Mohamed.P.Conteh.
Managing Director,Alumed International.
Freetown, Sierra Leone.

So it got me thinking. If I get this diesel running, maybe Constellation could be sold as a fishing boat? We could ditch that pesky sail business, or maybe modify it into a crane. Heck, now that we’re being creative, why not keep the boat and do the fishing myself? What else am I going to do on those lonely nights across the Atlantic?

So, I’ve been writing more sponsorship letters and working a lot… Good things are happening though, maybe not regarding finances yet (you’re crossing your fingers for me too, right?) but things are slowly moving forward.

I am going to endeavour to update this blog a bit more, I’ve been pretty bad lately.

nick.

P.S The unit price is ONE BILLION U.S DOLLARS in Kruger Rands, Mr.Mohamed .P.Conteh (or anyone else who is wondering how much my boat is worth)

nick.

No updates, lots of work and little money! Wonderful!

A good friend is flying over from Melbourne at the end of the month, and being handy with engines, I’ve coaxed him into a trip to see Constellation. I hear she may have a little water in her again (but not much, I did put the cover on this time) and any excuse is a good excuse.

I have Nigel Calders book on order at the local English bookstore, so we’re going to see if we can start the engine. Local health and safety rules say it’s not permitted to run an engine on the stand, but who’s going to know on a Sunday afternoon? Other things to do include finding and installing secondhand Stanchion bases, climbing the mast to fix the VHF antenna, and sorting out the other million things still required before the July launch. So, if you are near Burseldon, between the 29th and 2nd of April, come say hello!

Other potentially exciting things are in the pipeline, including a possible chat to a local sailing paper, and maybe another project involving video cameras. More news when it happens!

Happy Birthday Einstein!

nick