.: Writing to MEPs around the UK

On Sunday 6th July 2008, we made a start on contacting UK Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) around the country. So far we have written to 28 out of the 78 in existence. Our letter of approach to MEPs can be seen here. A list of the MEPs contacted so far can be seen here.

 Sharon Bowles,  Liberal Democrat MEP for South East England expressed interest but informed us that the website was down and she could not see it! Other interested parties also wrote to say they were having the same problem! Fortunately, our host server responded  to our pleas for help, the Free Sea Pass website returned and is now on a stable and secure server, so that should be the end of that problem...

We thought we should wait and see how the first batch of approaches went down before contacting more MEPs, in case we need to make adjustments to our letter of introduction. You don't get a second chance at a first impression, as some wise person once said.
William Newton Dunn, Liberal Democrat MEP for the East Midlands, entered into a fairly heated interchange with us.  We were better received by Neil Parish MEP (Conservative - South West England) and Roger Helmer MEP (Conservative - East Midlands)

A  follow-up message was sent to those from whom we had not heard anything, to apologise for the site having been down, on 10th July 2008.
On 14th July we were very happy to hear from Liz Lynne MEP, Liberal Democrat for the West Midlands who wrote to tell us that she had just tabled a question to the European Commission on this topic. On the same day, Caroline Jackson MEP, Conservative for South West England, offered to table a further question in the event that Liz Lynne's approach did not produce an appropriate response.

.: Writing to Cruiser's Websites

Since July 3rd 2008, we will be contacting relevant websites whenever time permits and have made a start. We were very honoured to receive an e-mail from Sue Richards at Noonsite with a link to her report on Free Sea Pass. If you'd like to see it, you will find it at http://www.noonsite.com/Members/sue/R2008-07-07-2  - if you are a cruising sailor and have never been to Noonsite you'll find a wealth of seriously useful information there.

We have also tried to get around to some of the forums of which we are members. Linnet Woods posted a new thread about it on the Cruiser's Forum: http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f74/free-sea-pass-16914.html and another at the Living on Boats forum: http://www.livingonboats.co.uk/forum?func=view&id=11&catid=11#11 and will be posting to more. Anyone can post about Free Sea Pass and we hope you will do so if you are a member of a forum that may have live-aboard sailors amongst the membership.

.: Volunteers

We were delighted to hear from Marie Fabre de Balanzo, aboard 'Goha', that she and her husband are working on translating the site into French and Spanish as they sit in Cartagena, Spain, waiting for a fair wind to take them across to North Africa.

.: New Members

Welcome to all new members around the world and especially to Murray Raynes, Australian circumnavigator and  author of the excellent 'One Easy Lap', for the lovely letters of support and advice he has sent.

His book is a must-read for anyone thinking of sailing around the world and a great read for armchair sailors too, and we're not just saying that because we are mentioned in it twice  - what did he mean 'mad'?! - but because we couldn't put the book down, which would have been true even if we had never met this wonderful sailor.

Well, that's it for this month - we look forwards to telling you all our latest news in August. Hope you'e enjoying the summer!