By Amanda From Kickstarter

Hi! I’m Amanda and I want to raise enough funds to sail the Caribbean islands. I will be documenting the trip through pictures & video.

My story dates back to 2006 when I was a junior in high school. Being a Boston native, I always attended overnight camp in Maine every summer since I was 8 years old, but became too old to go back by age 15. The winter of 2006, I was desperately searching on the internet for various camps and activities to occupy me for the summer months since I was too old for summer camp but also too young for an internship or college course. When I googled my favorite destination in the world–“the caribbean”, in addition to “summer” and “teen”, up came my solution: Sail Caribbean camp.

Sail Caribbean is a summer program that teaches teenagers and young adults to not only sail, but live independently on a sailboat with 12 other peers for a summer. We learned how to essentially live on a boat and man the Caribbean seas ourselves at the ripe age of 16 years old. And yes, this included the not-so-fun chores, too such as cooking on a hot plate for every meal, cleaning the bathrooms (in sailer lingo, “heads”), and making sure the deck was in order. After joining the Bravo group that summer, I was hooked.

Fast forward to 8 years later. I’m sitting here, in an office, typing this description for my first Kickstarter project because I FINALLY have the opportunity to get back on those Caribbean seas; but this time, with my dad. Since my Sail Caribbean days, I have since graduated from college and now have a full-time job in down in Charlotte, NC. I have been back to the Caribbean a few times since 2006 but never on a sailing trip. My dad still lives in Boston and he, like myself, shares the same passion for sailing the turquoise waters of the Caribbean. He mentioned the idea of this trip to me, and naturally I am anxious to say yes–however, funding has been an issue.

The $1,000 I need for this trip will go directly towards my flights from Charlotte, NC to Tortola (I would fly from Charlotte to Miami and then Miami to Tortola). Anything that I exceed over $1,000 will go towards fuel for the boat, food on board, and the catamaran rental itself.

If I am able to raise the funds necessary, I will be blogging about my journey and posting daily updates and video blogs on all of my social media accounts so my backers can follow my trip whereabouts! My background is in public relations and social media so I can guarantee interesting posts with lots of stories and pictures!

Please help me get back to the Caribbean and spend 10 days with my dad on the open waters–my true passion! Thank you so much, guys! I’m very excited to start my first Kickstarter journey! 🙂

~Amanda

Risks and challenges Learn about accountability on Kickstarter

Some of the challenges I see completing my journey are potentially risks for bad weather, potential issues with the boat or where we will be docking the boat, and becoming comfortable enough to safely navigate the boat in any situation.

I plan on attacking these risks and challenges by open communication with my dad who is an experienced sailor, who I will be looking to for guidance and assistance, and closely monitoring the weather patterns. If there is a threat of a storm coming, I will be on the safe side and have the boat go in for mooring earlier, rather than stay out on the ocean and risk facing a major storm.

NOTE: This project will only be funded if at least $1,000 is pledged by Fri, Sep 12 2014 9:00 PM EST.

To pledge and help Amanda go to: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1951523841/amanda-sails-the-caribbean?ref=discovery