“The invention of the wheel would have come to nothing if it wasn’t for man’s inherent instincts for advertising… to let those around him know that something’s up. And whoever first invented this most simple of devises wasn’t the genius either… it was the guy who thought to add style.” William Henry Hoover
Telling a story is in my blood and, like all story tellers, I don’t always let the facts get in the way of a good tale. Why would I? And we’re gonna have a good story to tell when we sail north from where we are now – easily as good as the one we’ve already told. We also think there’s going to be a deal of interest and we’re gearing up our website to take it…
We already receive a huge amount of interest in our website and through the marvellous technical gurus at WordPress (they call themselves ‘Happiness Engineers’… they host our site) we are able to track visitor traffic in terms of numbers and pages viewed. We don’t know who you are but neither do we want to. That would be scary…
Zuckerberg at Facebook is making millions of bucks by selling advertising on his social media phenomenon so we’re gonna try the same thing. Of course, we’ll not make nearly so much but the costs of running and maintaining Sänna isn’t easy, she’s thirteen years old and been thru some tough stuff getting to where we are now. And, as you know, we are planning to sail north into the Arctic Ocean to attempt a transit of the Northwest Passage to finally make our way home. This, I tell you sincerely, is going to be hellishly expensive.
So, like Zuckerberg (he does know who you are, which is scary) we’ve taken the decision to offer controlled advertising on our website to offset ongoing overheads and the cost of heading north from Alaska… it’s a wise strategic move for us. But you must also remember that I’m a marketing man and will always spot an opportunity when it arises…
My previous business, the one I sold because I became dissolutioned with the ethics of the advertising world, was a successful marketing agency so I know a thing or two about advertising. It’s all about telling the right story, to the right person at not always the right time… but you already knew that didn’t you!
If you are a businessmen or a marketing exec. wishing to promote your business organisation to a targeted audience, who themselves have an inherent interest in our website and our planned voyage north then please let us know. Our visitor traffic is impressive and not to be sniffed at. Our sailing around-the-world adventure and sometimes not too successful attempts to live the freedom lifestyle attracts a great deal of interest… and so an intriguing business opportunity arises. Ethics eh?
To gain an insight into our traffic figures and visitor profile you can visit our Advertising Page here. We’re not endeavouring to raise excessive revenue, just enough to meet our running costs and a meaningful contribution to Sänna’s overheads. Our insurances and environmental costs alone, if we are to head up into the ice fields, are well in excess of ten grand.
Henry Hoover himself invented nothing, he stole the patent, but he understood the value of advertising. When you invariably go to purchase a Hoover… you buy yourself a vacuum cleaner. Think about it?
If you would like to read about the Hoover Upright Vacuum Cleaning Company you can do so here. It’s a fascinating story.
sailing vessel Sänna 
Dave and Marie,
Nothing changed here, although my voice may have been a little shrill this morning. First, I lost, on paper, another 2995.00 in the market this morning. Eight of the last 11 days of trading have been down days. Thanks to one of the up days, my losses for the last 11 days have not exceeded 4 figures, but I’m damn close! Second, and it bothers me that this bothered me more than the down day… I misplaced a part to my Sail-o-mat wind vane, a part that I just purchased from Dr. Knoos out of San Diego, a pin that regulates the sensitivity of the directional control of the paddle that sticks in the water and operates the pendulum that pulls on the lines that go to the wheel in the cockpit.
I searched high and low for the damn thing, which should have been easy to see, its 4 inches long, 1/2 inch round, and it should have been in the cockpit with the rest of the cotter pins and equipment that it was attached to. After an hour of tearing everything apart to deeper and deeper levels of search, places I knew it couldn’t have gone except on the outside chance Claudia may have swept it up on a cleaning mission, or it rolled into a box which was then transferred to another location, I became quite shrill as Claudia suggested places to look. I knew the damn thing had rolled under a hand rail, off the cabin top, across the deck, smack into the scupper and plop! down into the deep mud and yuck of the Ala Wai Harbor, all the while I kept looking on the outside chance it would miraculously show up where I never left it!
So, she suggested I look into the tool boxes that I was using while working on the parts associated with this pin. Ha! NOT in the soldering box… See? I told ya it wouldn’t be there…and its not in the DeWalt case with the drill and wire brushes! GOD where could it be?!! and as I said that I realized I was looking at it, resting not more than an inch or two from my hand inside the Dewalt case, a moment before I was to close it up. I didn’t see it at first, don’t know why, why would I even be looking here? but there it was! For a fleeting moment I imagined GOD had moved it there, next to my fingers, because he felt sorry for me, but I immediately realized that he doesn’t do tricks like that, that in fact I had placed the pin there so I wouldn’t lose it! I actually now remember placing that damn pin in the case so I wouldn’t lose it while wire brushing the paint and corrosion off the extruded aluminum body of the wind vane! So is the life of a 66 year old sailor with short term memory issues!
Sergio’s boat is getting pretty close to ready for the big sail of his life. Today I will help him relocate the turning block on the mast for the staysail halyard, it is currently too close to the tang that holds the shroud and it hangs up when it tries to twist around the foil. Easy fix, just time consuming.
I see you have committed to attempting a Northwest passage across the top of Canada to home. I am not going to try to talk you and Marie out of that for this is your dream and I respect that, but I would feel a lot better if you were trying this with a steel or aluminum boat that can stand up to the abuse that is required for a vessel making this passage. I have another friend who is nearing the completion of a single handed, non-stop, unassisted around the world sail by the five capes. Just passed the final cape and is sailing in the southern 40’s headed east towards Bahia Caraquez, Ecuador, the point in which he started his quest. God Bless you guys who do these things that I haven’t the balls to do! Hugs to you and Marie from Claudia and myself….Still stuck in Honolulu!
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