Bridge over the Atlantic, March, 2008

This March, I will be sailing across Atlantic Ocean alone, in a very small but wonderful 26ft yacht named ‘Constellation‘. Together we have already journeyed from England to Holland, and back south along the coast of Europe, to my Atlantic jumping off point in the Canary Islands, a small island group off the coast of West Africa. With this crossing, I would like to raise funds to build bridges, a fundraising project to assist rural Cambodians traverse their sometimes difficult landscape; assisting those walking to school, fetching water, and aiding local commerce for farmers. These bridges are simple wooden structures built by Oxfam Australia, a project I would like to call ‘Bridge over the Atlantic’.

I would dearly like to raise enough money to purchase at least one bridge, at a cost of $675AUD ($610USD). If I can raise more funds, I will purchase as many bridges as I can. The more bridges, the better chance there is of ‘bridging an ocean!’

If I am not able to raise the full amount for a single bridge, I will use whatever is raised to purchase as much as possible from the Oxfam Unrapped store. Receipts of the donations will be posted here, as proof of my honesty when the funds are released to Oxfam. Your donation will not only help people who really need to cross bodies of water, but will also make me so very happy! For each significant ocean passage, I will attempt to raise funds and awareness for a unique and interesting cause. This is the first!

Thank you,

Nick Jaffe & Yacht Constellation, Canary Islands, March 2008,

Short documentary trailer by DNR-Productions

Short clip I assembled myself while at anchor… I was so bored. This has nothing to do with the work of DNR - (You can tell!)

Another self-made clip on my voyage from Lisbon in Portugal, to Las Palmas in Gran Canaria (The Canary Islands)

Johannes and I have sailed through the night from Dover, hoping to reach the Netherlands, however we’ve since turned in at Zeebrugge, Belgium after slow progress, annoying wind direction (N to NE) and heavy seas. Tomorrow we sail to Flushing, The Netherlands, where I may enter the Dutch inland waterways. Winds over the next several days are not favourable, running to NE, making progress difficult… Johannes has an important interview in Hamburg, and may depart the journey early, which will make the inland waterways an easy option for continuing alone.

Since I currently have no time restraints (other than financial) I may just dabble around, possibly into Amsterdam, and then the river Rhine. Currently this is all speculation, since I have no charts of the canal system, however I will not head back into the North Sea alone.

In other news, my phone has died due to waterlogging, leaks have appeared from nowhere, and Johannes’ tillerpilot also appears to have taken a fatal beating…

Other than cabin leaks, Constellation has performed incredibly well - We’ve surfed 4metre waves, running down their faces at 10kts over the ground, yet still the boat distills confidence and good handling. Ah, the sailing life!

nick.

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!

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