Monday November 25. My financial situation

Written by Jack van Ommen on November 25th, 2013

I have received a number of offers for financial assistance. I love you all for this. But as of this moment I still am doing o.k. I have roughly $7,500 in my bank account and this Wednesday I receive another monthly Social Security deposit of $1,856.00 I draw a rather high S.C. benefit because in my good years I always ended up paying the maximum premiums. When I went bankrupt in 2000 there were months that I had to make the landlady wait for her rent. And when I left from Santa Barbara in April 2005 I had all of $150 in my bank account. Because of the reconstruction of the boat deck, life raft service, new EPIRB, sail and auto-pilot repairs, new Samsung tablet, the $450 tow back into port three weeks ago,etc., I drew down my savings. The main difference now is that I no longer have my own roof over my head but I believe that with the help of friends and family, house sitting, etc. I’ll be just fine.

If I end up drawing down my savings to a more critical level then I might put my bank details on the web site for small voluntary donations for the entertainment/Schade Freude the site offers. If my friend, Julien, in Frontignan can come back from Florida with a $ 2,050 boat then I should be able to find something suitable in Florida or the Caribbean. I would need a new set of tools, etc. and then I might be looking for a loan and have the boat insured with at least a resale value. But for right now I am concentrating on getting my feet back on solid ground. There is a possibility that I may have a spot aboard a friend’s boat to cross from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean in early January. And that might then be my opportunity to look for another sail boat. But another option is to still do my land travel along the South American Pacific coast. At any rate I plan to be back in the Pacific N.W. in April for my daughter’s 50th birthday, my St. Nicholas church’s 1st centennial and my friend Roger’s 80th.

I have a few more short story projects here and I started to reconstitute my log from the 2005 departure. I need a good route map of the 50 countries I visited for the web site and for my upcoming book. My nephew Carl in Hamburg, who is a graphic artist, has promised to help me with this. My current spot here on the beach of St. Vicente is temporary and if I cannot find a more permanent spot I might try my luck elsewhere, possibly back to Holland for a while.

The responses by mail, in the comments on the blog and Face Book have been overwhelming. I am trying to answer everyone. Thank you all. Stay tuned.

Tago Mago, view from my internet spot in San Vicente, no that is niot "Fleetwood"

 

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