I was within inches of a fully paid-for (including return flight) delivery trip to Sotogrande, Spain, however minutes ago it fell through due to the owner trying to seek compensation from another delivery company. So very disappointing… It could have been a 2000+ mile addition to my log book too - I am at the top of the list for the next opportunity though, so fingers crossed on something happening in the future. I even just traveled across Berlin to buy new sailing pants! So in light of this fiasco, I’m now arriving in England three days earlier than planned, on the 2nd of May.

In other news, please say hello to my new site. I hope it’s working for you, and if it isn’t, I suggest a Shift+Refresh in your browser. I took a lot of advice from the wonderful SEO Clinic review from SearchEngineJournal.com, so I hope the site is easier to read, and less cluttered. I’ve also centred the design for higher resolution browsers, moved the navigation around, and shown my sponsors more prominence on the page. On the left-hand side is also the addition of my Twitter updates - This is really just a silly addition to see how it goes - Think of it as a mini-blog (140characters or less) that I’ll be updating daily. Thank you also to Ahmed Bilal for the technical assistance on getting the new site up.

There are still a lot of ideas I’d like to implement, and further suggestions from my review, however I’ve done my best in this revision. A lot more will come, including some new revenue generation and charity fundraising ideas. For now though, it’s time for me to pack my bags and get ready for my new life aboard, starting this Wednesday!

Nick.

P.S If you have a website and you’d like to ‘trade links’ please contact me and I can add you to my new links page (a rather bare one at the moment!)

Advertising
Stick something on the boat. Or maybe even on the website, whichever tickles your fancy - Best to contact me directly about advertising.

Personal Donations
If you’re an individual and would like to help me out, I’d be thankful beyond belief. All monies donated are frugally spent to keep me eating and sailing. If there is anything I can do in exchange for your support, just let me know. Paypal donations can be sent by clicking on this button:

Penniless? Me too. Help anyway!
The best way you can help, without actually spending anything is by pushing all your Google queries through my Firefox plugin, or bookmarking my Google Search page. Whenever you search Google, using the Plugin or the Search page, there is the potential I might make a few penny’s from it. Both of these methods cost you nothing, and you will still receive all the normal results you would by using Google.com.

By unzipping this file into your ’searchplugins’ directory of Firefox, a new option will appear in your built-in query box on the top right. On a Windows PC, usually the ’searchplugins’ directory is located in C:\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins. Simply copy the two files contained in the zip file to this directory and restart Firefox.

Dropping the list of search engines down, a new engine titled Google [Bigoceans] will appear. By simply using this plugin, you donate a few cents to me every once and a while, without even noticing! The Bigoceans.com search plugin is simply an interface to Google Search.

Thanks so much for your help!

Below are some links of friends and people I’ve come across on the web. Enjoy and don’t forget to come back!

Contessa 26 Links

Southampton Trailer Hire - They even have a Contessa 26 trailer!
The infamous BIKA
The UK Contessa 26 Association
The yacht ‘Ploughboy Dreamer’
Jeremy Rogers - Contessa designer
Stephane Tremblay - Engineless Contessa around the world - TWICE!

Sailing

Fedor Konyukhov - Incredible.
I Have a Boat
EVK4
SV Osprey / Tory & Trevor
Adrift
S/V Wahoo
Northanger - Arctic sailing

Friends

S/V Aquamarijn
Johannes Erdmann
S/V Eekaros
Rhinosaurus
Martin Gleeson
Rupewrecht
Daryl Cook
Standingthere/Lorin Clarke
RAW Motorsport
Domestik
Eva & Daniel

Other

Fixed.org.au Site & community I started in 2005
Mike Horn - Craziest man alive?
Erden Eruc - Solo ROWING circumnavigation + six summits
Chris Bray - Australian adventurer

So, it was on the 6th of August, 2006 that I basically made the ‘deal’ on Constellation, and I’ve been more or less patiently waiting here in Berlin, working to pay for her. It’s been a really long eight months in some respects, but at the same time life has flown by, and I can’t believe we’re almost in May. When I first had this idea, I had planned to leave next month - Ha! But, at least I’m making efforts to launch by then, and this is where I make my move into the topic at hand: I’m going to live on the boat in just over a week!

It seemed that I could stay here, ’spinning my wheels’, or I could commit to a moving and see where it takes me. Since that decision, I am very close to [hopefully] organising office space, no less than 30metres from the boat, at a company that actually overlooks the marina. This means I can be near the boat, and also continue working. Being in the marina also opens up opportunities to crew and to learn as much as possible - I could stay here reading books for another couple of months, but really, you can only go so far.

I have some things to sort out here, namely paying the ‘kaution’ or ‘bond’ on the apartment, which is an unfortunate loss of €600.00, but alas, there is nothing I can do. I also need to figure out how to bring about 20 sailing books, mainsail, clothes and other assorted things on Easyjet without incurring excess baggage fees - €9/kg, no way! I will take the bus if I have to, but it’s a 24 hour ride, and actually costs more than the plane (go figure).

In about two weeks this blog will be awash with questions, and I’m hoping some sailors out there might be able to give me a hand. My plan thus far is to get the engine working, anti-foul the hull and make minor repairs on the rudder and replace the sacrificial anode. After that, the rest of the work can take place once she’s in the water. If anyone has any thoughts on things I must do before launch, I’d be most appreciative of any information.

nick!