I Live on My Boat with My Cat!

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha Teresa,
Welcome aboard! Your website is great and good description of your moving your boat singlehanded. You made me remember the first time I did that.
Our cat is the color of a dreamsicle ice cream bar.
Kind regards,
JohnL

[Liberty28]

Pretty boat. What do you want the "donations" for?

[Easterly-30]

Beautiful boat, Teresa! I just read your entire website, very nice. Could we see pictures of the interior too? When you get down to Brevard County, Florida; maybe you could do a presentation at the Cocoa Library?
Central Brevard Public Library & Reference Center - Brevard County Libraries
Central Brevard Public Library | Cocoa Village
Cocoa Public Library, Florida: Cocoa Public Library, Florida Latitude and Longitude

[Spin_Drift]

Welcome on board Teresa.

Your boat is beautiful, your lifestyle nice and your blog interesting. You are an excellent and interesting writer. Looking forward to reading more about your life and adventures...

[LittleFlower]

Thank you everyone for all the kind words. I look forward to more "online" chatting.
Teresa

[wcsailor]

What a clever way to pay for your new lifestyle! Al Gore would be so proud...

[LittleFlower]

Oh, believe me...it isn't paying for the new lifestyle yet. And I don't expect it to. I am having to take other jobs and am struggeling to put food on the table. Hopefully I get some donations soon. Perhaps I should send the link to Ale Gore!
Teresa

[Lostmt]

Beautiful boat. I love the wood work. I would send Al Gore an email with your intentions along with a link to your site. Never know you might just end up with a sponsor. There are other organization that you might find that would also become your sponsor.

Where would one find a link to donate to your Earth Soul program?

[Tropic Cat]

Originally Posted by LittleFlower

Thank you everyone for all the kind words. I look forward to more "online" chatting.
Teresa
Sailing, Simplicity, and the Pursuit of Happiness

You guys have an Ambitious plan, I'm envious. I think you'll want a bigger boat

Nice to see you posting here.

[dacust]

Originally Posted by LittleFlower

Hopefully I get some donations soon.

I am not saying the following to be mean or discouraging, but to maybe let you see what things appear like to an objective viewer thinking of donating to your cause.

Your website is very nicely laid out and very professional. Seriously, I work in the industry, and the website is very good. I have gripes with many practices seen on many professional websites. None with yours. Pages not too cluttered, color, but not too busy, good organization, professional writing, no distracting moving graphics, cohesive theme, no music (I HATE sites with music...I got my own stereo, thank you very much), and I could go on and on...

Only problem is, there's no content. Maybe I missed a link somewhere? I hope so. If I did, please point it out to me.

Where does it say WHAT you are promoting? OK, "simple" lifestyle". But no details. What are some of the things we can do for a simple lifestyle? The closest thing I saw was some hints in the quiz.

A "Resources" tab that is empty is not a good sign. If you have really been working on this, surely you have some resources you have used you could share. Websites, books... I have NOT been researching a simple lifestyle, but when researching wind generators I ran into MANY websites on living off the grid.

Events. You list some types of events, but no hint as to what you might present. No list of any previous events. Have you actually done any? Even just some topics might be nice.

The poem (1), story(1), quote(1) are from a 13 year old and two 14 year olds. It's great to hear from kids, and what they contributed is by far the best stuff on the site. But only 3 contributions, all from kids, doesn't make me think this is a serious enterprise. It just appears that you got a good reaction from 3 impressionable teenagers. A cynic might wonder if they are relatives or maybe you just made them up. (Don't get mad, I'm only saying some cynical people reading your site might think that.)

It's a nice idea and I enjoyed the poem and story. But after reading your entire website, I still have no idea what it is you are promoting and no idea what you plan to present at any events. The site gives the impression that all you've done so far is move onto a sailboat and forgo having a motor on your dinghy (and that's in your blog, not the website [a blog, I might add, that started just 10 days ago]). Just moving onto a sailboat in itself means nothing. Many people do that for many reasons.

You may have some really great ideas and have a great vision. You may have done a lot of reading and really be in touch with what you are promoting. But there's no evidence of that on your website.

An idea by itself is where you have to start. But simply posting an idea on the internet will seldom get you any donations. People need to see that you have invested your time in an idea and have accomplished something. They need some evidence that you have what it takes to actually get some results. 10 days of blogging and a mostly empty website does not accomplish this.

There are scads of people asking for donations. We've had people in here wanting donations so they could sail around the world and write about it. Cool idea, but they didn't have a history of writing or a history of accomplishing anything. They just sounded like someone that wanted a free trip.

I really do wish you the best. I think we should all be working towards a simple lifestyle. Hopefully you won't take offense at my comments, but use them constructively.

-dan

[jimking100]

Teresa
As a relatively new liveaboard myself, I want to welcome you and give you best wishes. It's an exciting lifestyle (can be lonely at times) and I hope you have much success.
jim

[Agur's Wish]

Welcome to this wonderful, terrible life! Thankfully the terribles are far outnumbered by the wonderfuls. Again, what a lovely boat!

[Tropic Cat]

Originally Posted by dacust

I am not saying the following to be mean or discouraging.......
-dan

Sheesh, why don't you tell them how you really feel about the site.

[dacust]

I'm sorry some of you don't think my post was appropriate.

To be honest, I'm not that interested in your responses. I'm interested in her response.

If she really has something to offer, then her response will be intelligent and informative. And hopefully from my post she will have learned something about communicating through a website.

I responded the way I did because I am interested. I actually read the entire website because I wanted to know more. But I was disappointed because there was nothing there.

Maybe this is just an idea in its infancy and this will show her she needs to flesh it out better before going forward. Maybe she has a complete vision and plans, and this will show her she needs to communicate that.

I really do believe we should all work towards a simpler lifestyle. Both as stewards of this world, and for our own personal benefit and enjoyment. I think a simpler lifestyle benefits us regardless of the motivation that prods us to go that route. I would love to find out that she has something to offer that I could feel good about supporting. If she does, I will be behind her all the way.

-dan

[Agur's Wish]

Dacust,
I thought your reply was very informative for people that are interested in setting up their own website. I know it gave me a lot of food for thought.