Interviews and more
While there have been no crazy engine repairs to complete the last few days, beyond the normal never-ending boat maintenance, we have still been keeping ourselves busy. Our friend David put us in contact with his sister-in-law who works as a journalist for the special feature section of the Daily Herald, the local newspaper here. We met with her to be interviewed and she tells us that our talk should result in two different pieces in their paper. Through the power of the internet, we completed a second interview, this one for the Fifty Point Yacht Club back in Hamilton, Ontario. I understand that it will be printed in their newsletter, perhaps next month. We’ve also been trying to complete a 3rd interview, this one to be done via Skype for The Sailing Podcast. Coordinating a time between here and Australia is proving to be a bit challenging, as is ensuring that we have an internet connection of sufficient quality to make it work. Hopefully we can get that looked after within the next week, perhaps while we’re in California.
- Before anyone asks, yes, I promise that I’ll post copies of these interviews when I get my hands on them. 🙂
Yesterday, tagging along with our new friends from Belleville, we had the pleasure of being invited on board an 81′ Swan for a tour. The vessel’s captain, Jon, and first mate, Eva, were very kind. They took the time to show us around the yacht, and explain about what’s involved with the charters that they offer. Amazing is a pretty appropriate adjective for that yacht! Perhaps we need a gig like that?
In other news, I discovered yesterday that one of my credit cards has been compromised. Several mysterious transactions on the online statement were a dead giveaway. Unfortunately, that resulted in the card having to be cancelled. Getting a replacement into my hands is not going to be convenient, one of the downsides of living as a transient.
Must be in the air. I also had my CC company call and ask if I was doing a balance transfer from two different credit cards to my credit card. That’s a negative. I subscribe to an identity theft prevention program. Found out that is only effective if someone is trying to use your information to open a new account, not is they are internally manipulating yours, such as in a balance transfer.
Hmmm. There interesting thing about this is that there were four transactions that went through, two debits and two credits. The credits did not equal the debits. They were all listed as Facebook.com. Facebook does NOT have a credit card of mine on file. They were also foreign currency transactions, I think they were in Euros. Whoever it was had tried to put through a fifth but the CC company stopped it as, by they, then felt it was suspicious.
PS. I finally sold my business in August. On the hunt for the right cat. Departure date 19 months and 10 days from today. It might be a solo cruise – other half is not all that sure she is into this. Planes fly all over, she says. Maybe I’ll even tell her where I am.
Congratulations! Selling a business can be tough!
What would the “right” cat be? And you’re right, planes fly all over.
Mike,
You may want to consider a Paypal account. Reason being, after three months you can get a Paypal debit card with Mastercard attached. You then can move money from your bank onto the debit card, using that for places that are unknown or sketchy, especially online. This creates a buffer between those retailers and your bank accounts.
Paypal does have an option where, if there is an insufficient balance, they will process the charge and withdraw it from your bank automatically. However, in your case due to the breech, I would consider not activating that option. This is a free service, and can limit the damage in case of another attempt at your financial info. My wife and I have one each and we never have more than a few hundred dollars balance. The majority of times, it is the incidental charges on our cards that lead to identity theft, unfortunately. Just a thought.
“D”
We do have a Paypal account (see the nice Donation box to your right 🙂 ) and do exactly that. We do not generally use credit cards down here as businesses frequently charge extra fees to do so making it more expensive. We use CCs primarily for online purchases.
We got a Chase (Sapphire) card for this very reason. They are the only ones who will send you a new card anywhere in the world pretty much overnight. More on this here: http://www.pacificsailors.com/p/finances.html Hope you get this resolved quickly. Always a pain.
The problem is having a place to send it to. It’s not a super big issue, we have other cards.
Chase Sapphire Rocks!
Given that I have no job, I’m pretty sure that no bank will be issuing me a new credit card!
Mike,
Completely off topic (at least today’s post anyway) but I wanted to see if you would like my lifeproof case for your iPhone. I just upgraded my phone to the latest version and (of course!) it is not the same dimensions as my last phone. Since you were inquiring about waterproof housings for electronics a while back I thought you guys could get some use out of it.
I am back on the west coast of the US so it would be super simple for me to pop it in the mail while you are in California. If you are interested just email me a convenient address to send it to. Otherwise, when we return to Antigua in a month’s time we could figure out a way to get it to you.
Elisa
That is very nice of you to offer, Elisa. We don’t actually have an iPhone. We have a iPod touch (not the newest, color ones but the version before that) and an iPad mini. Pretty sure your case won’t fit our device(s) either.