Further news

I have now confirmed a meeting on Saturday 12th February which will hopefully clarify some points regarding the possible revised trip to Rockall, and may also confirm whether I will still be able to go, albeit in a revised format, this year.

Sparks of life!

This week I have had a very interesting conversation regarding going to Rockall: there may yet be an opportunity for me to land there this year. Its very early days in the discussions, and there are still further chats to be had so I can't reveal much, save to say that because of the proposed format the majority of my more extreme goals would have to be put to one side in order to go for the main and probably hardest achievement of making a landing. Sorry for being so cryptic, but for now watch this space!

Sad News

Unfortunately, as half-suspected, I have not been able to agree funding to date. My current yacht charter requires confirmation by the end of this month and it being unlikely that any monies will appear between now and the New Year, I have had to relinquish my booking. This is not to say that the expedition will not be going ahead, it is only postponed and just means that not only do I still need now to find the money, I will have to secure another boat too!

I'd like to thank everyone for their help and support so far, and hope to be back on the blog with some better news in the near future.

Merry Christmas!

Nick

Chicken and Egg

Well, I have to confirm the yacht charter by the end of this month, which I cannot do without funding in place: its not looking hopeful. Without transportation there's obviously no going to Rockall.

I realised at the start of all this that a major part of this challenge was going to be raising the money required to pay for equipment and transportation, but I hadn't quite realised how hard it would be. As an unknown entity, companies are unsurprisingly reluctant to promise equipment or clothing to me without some guarantee that the expedition is going ahead and that they will get some major PR out of the exercise.

Similarly, I have spoken with and also met several TV production companies who have expressed serious interest in making a documentary/film of the expedition. They cannot do this without a TV channel on board to purchase the film, and they can not get a commitment from them without a guarantee that I'm going.

Potential funders won't consider promising cash without a tangible PR return, which I can not guarantee until the expedition is booked and paid for, and so we go full circle!

So, where does that leave me? Hoping for someone to bite the bullet and commit to paying for me to undertake one of the most risky expeditions around, both in terms of risk to myself, but also because of the risks associated with actually getting there and landing on Rockall.

Is anyone mad enough in these tough financial times?

The beginning of the end?

Hopefully not, but I have decided to put the charity sponsorship page for the expedition on hold as I don't seem to be getting anywhere very quickly with raising funds for Rockall 2011.

I've now sent our hundreds of letters and emails with the expedition brochure and recieved very few responses in return, all of which were negative!

I suspect that the idea of giving someone money to sit on a rock in the middle of nowehere is quite hard to explain to a marketing committee - I just need one person to get it though.

The economy is obviously not helping, and I know that other people in my position are also struggling to get/losing funding for expeditions.

Any ideas gratefully recieved...