Some of you have asked how you can support us in our adventures (especially since we don’t have a YouTube channel going) so we’ve come up with a list of ways you can help us if the urge takes you.

As you can see, we hustle hard to make this lifestyle doable, doing whatever we can to keep the ball rolling… erm, the boat sailing.

ExciTEEing news about a new venture!

Phil’s been working hard on our latest and greatest venture, Shrt Happens, using his design skills to create a quirky and unique range of organic t-shirts. The shop is live now, so hurry over there and check out the collection of sailing tees, as well as geeky tees, funny tees, and our special collection of Think Ocean tees (read about them on the shop).

The shop ships all over the world (from several international depots), returns and exchanges are accepted, you can recycle your tees at the shop (whaaaat?), AND win-win: you support us while wearing an ultra-cool tee! Go see, and send your friends there too! https://www.shrt-happens.com

Visit our blog

Come round here and read our latest news as often as you can, and invite your friends! The more visitors we have, the closer we’ll get to being able to have Affiliate Links, which will hopefully create a small income on the blog.

Amazon vouchers

Amazon vouchers are cool because we get 100% of the amount gifted! We have an Amazon Wishlist of boat stuff we alllwwaaaaays need but the logistics of receiving Amazon gifts ordered by generous followers is tricky, so Amazon eGift vouchers are the quickest and safest way for us to dig into that endless list of boat stuff. All you need is our email address to send an eGift voucher to: sailingnightshade@gmail.com and then we can redeem the code to add to our Amazon balance. Easy peasy.

Hire Phil to create a logo, web design or other graphic

Phil is the guy with an eye for design. He is a qualified and talented graphic designer who can work from our laptop from anywhere we are. Chat him up for any big or small idea you have for any graphic work you’re looking for. Check out some of his stuff on his Insta or on 99Designs profile Cr8tivSpace. Drop him an email on cr8tivspace@gmail.com to speak to him without the middle man.

Hire Lu to copy edit or proofread your online content or printed word

Lu’s got the eye for detail and has been proofreading and copy editing for a boutique publisher for several years, as well as more recently for a large online transcription company. Hire her for a ‘gig’ on her newly created Fiverr profile Polished Print, or send her an email on luana.polishedprint@gmail.com to cut out the middle man.

Buy stuff on our Etsy shop

You may have heard that we ran a Etsy shop, Deriva, for a while in the UK and later in Spain. We wound it down drastically in the end, but still love to create stuff so we often have handmade goodies up for sale (posted from wherever in the world we happen to be) as well as a permanent collection of instantly downloadable posters.

Crewing

Do you need some extra hands onboard? Or some more crew to deliver a boat? We’re your peeps! We’re both RYA Day Skippers and just love to sail and get as many nautical miles under our life vests as possible. Contact us if you’re looking for crew.

Boat work

Having now had Shades for a few years, we’re close to feeling like we’re done with her refit. We’ve gained experience in most aspects of boat work, including rewiring (always with an electrician check at the end), replumbing, redecorating, installing new equipment, sanding, sanding, more sanding, topsides paintwork, brightwork, endless fixing of stuff… and we feel we’ve given our graceful older lady a fresh new lease of life. So, if you need a hand on your boat for any odd jobs, give us a shout!

Coming soon: learn or improve your English (as a foreign language)

Lu is currently studying to become a TEFL teacher (Teach English as a Foreign Language) so she’ll be qualified to help those of you who’ve asked her about this before. We meet so many wonderful people around the world who are keen to improve their English skills and Lu has been approached several times about it, but she didn’t really know where to start with it, so this qualification will give her (and you!) confidence in her teaching abilities!

’90 days out’ work

Because we’re mostly based in European waters at the moment, we’re subject to Schengen visa time restrictions. We often try to get temporary residency where and when we can, but we often can’t, and have to head back to the UK for 90 days to reset our visa time. During this time we will literally do anything to keep busy!

One of our favourite things we’ve found is to pet sit for our friends and families who are often on their holidays at the time. We’d love to do this more officially! Do you have a house that sits empty over your holidays, with your plants withering away, your pets staying at a pet hotel or with family? Let us take care of them! Contact us to discuss. We have loads of glowing reviews! 🙂 You know the drill by now: sailingnightshade@gmail.com to chat.

One of the other things we’ve done and really enjoyed is helping friends with home makeovers. Lu did an interior design course in her younger days and as we’ve mentioned, Phil has a design eye, so together with our accumulated DIY skills (on our homes but even more so now on the boat!) we make a great team for doing fixer-upper stuff. Painting, coving, skirting, hanging curtains, installing appliances, rearranging rooms, giving decor design tips, gardening… you name it. If you’re thinking of doing a bit of a tidy up or makeover in your home, drop us a line.

The almighty dollar

If all the above is just not for you and/or too much faff, and you just want to plain ol’ donate to our cause, then PayPal is our mutual friend. You can use it virtually anonymously and without an account, and no talking – if that’s your thing.

Again, if you’d rather skip the middle man, contact us directly to discuss direct transfers on sailingnightshade@gmail.com – we’d love to chat!