I do believe that we’re getting closer!
I have been working hard to keep the supporters of our Real Sailing Adventure informed about our progress, without boring the rest of our blog readers by posting the details daily. A little over a week ago, after a frustrating multi-day battle with Paypal, I refunded $30,000.00 to the 6 couples who had sent us funds to secure their spots. No matter what documentation that I provided to Paypal, and I understand that one of their representatives even phoned at least one of our future guests, they would not release the funds until we had completed at least one sailing trip. Obviously that wasn’t going to work so I simply sent everyone back their money. The last few days have been spent working to recollect those funds by alternate methods, and as of yesterday, we have 7 couples who have either paid, or have their money on the way. That’s awesome!
One of the boats we have been looking at.
Hand in hand with our work in the boatyard, cleaning up ZTC to be put on the market, we have been investing time and energy talking with numerous boat brokers representing a variety of vessels for sale. We have looked at sailboats in St. Martin, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Martinique, Panama and mainland USA. On my computer are numerous folders full of images from various boats, along with detailed spec sheets listing their features (and shortcomings). Are we getting closer? Thankfully, I do believe so! Hopefully those who have been sitting on the fence about joining us will jump down off of it and climb on board. Once we close on a boat, regardless of how many couples we have committed, we will be shutting down the registration (or at the very least, changing the pricing structure and terms). I want to officially thank all of the people supporting our new endeavor. Your belief in us is inspiring. We think that you all rock, and so will our time sailing together!
Hi guys, just another unfortunate example of negative feedback for PayPal. I had difficulties with PayPal as well and I have since disavowed them. It’s unfortunate, because they have a great product, but screw up on the service end of the deal. I hope everything works out for you. It would be great for you guys to have the sailboat you want to provide you adventure sails.
The one thing I will credit Paypal with is that they now have actual telephone support, accessible quite easily. Compare that to a particular crowd sourcing website that I was recently dealing with that lists no telephone number on their site.
Mike,
Someone recommended venmo.com to me, because I am always paying for everything, and trying to collect from everybody. (It’s normally small amounts).
It’s a phone app, but might work. I really haven’t checked into it, but some say it works great.
It is the large dollar amount that freaked Paypal out.
FINALLY! That was quite the “hike” 😉
Just a little about me, Police Officer and Maria’s an Administrative Manager for a local hospital here. We got married 4 months ago on St. Thomas. We are big into cruises (e.g. Royal Caribbean etc.) Take at least 3 a year to get out of the northern Indiana cold and snow.
I have lived on a stationary 40 foot Pacer motor yacht for a summer and thought it was pretty cool even though I never went anywhere but in the marina in N.C. Have always thought about the cruising life and then I found Pat Schulte’s blog and continue to follow his wonderful family even though they are on the hard. Then discovered Ed Robinson’s book. Since then back a few years ago I was like you 2 except I had 5 years to early retirement with a pension at age 55 and determined to stay single until I was cruising. I bought all kinds of sailing books, diesel engine repair books and even actually put my 4 bedroom house up for sale. THAT’s when Maria sneakily stole my heart,,, Doh! Well, she would of course LOVE to get out of the rat race in 5 years and live in paradise,,,right? WRONG! She loves the ocean but does not like water. (Who doesn’t like water??) She has 2 teenage boys so off the market the house went because now I needed it. Looks like I have to trade one dream for another. 🙁
There’s still a glimmer of hope though as I have been taking her on my cruises and introducing her to the tropics and she seems to like it very much,,, we’ll see.
Love the blog now that I am caught up (took about a month) and will now be following on Facebook too. Thanks for the entertainment! I have a few questions but I’ll save them for another time.
Keep on keeping on! Chuck Rothy
Hi Chuck. Thanks for the nice comment. If it was a choice between sailing or Rebecca, I would choose my wife in a heartbeat! Fortunately I don’t need to make that decision as she is as hooked on traveling as I am. Hopefully your love will come along too.
A non-negligible fraction of Paypal’s profit comes from the interest they earn on clients’ money while it sits in Paypal, unreachable, because the account is “frozen” due to “irregular activity” (i.e. there’s more $ in there than normal) for many months while they “investigate” the matter. An awful lot of merchants discover this the first time they see a 5-figure cash flow.
Definitely non-negligible!