And then there were none. With the Dow kissing 7k, all backers are officially out. KVH and Commanders aren’t returning calls (wouldn’t it be so much easier just to say “No”?). Salaries have been committed to, schedules have been rearranged and the Passage may not be approachable next year. My nest egg is under attack.
Just back from a trip up to The Passage aboard an ice breaker to see what we were in for. The trip to the Passage was paid for by one of the major sponsors and gave me great chance to gather footage for further fund-raising efforts. The ship was of Russian register and manned by a Russian crew. Each and every morning we had access to the world’s headlines which up until a certain point was a novelty. When it stopped becoming a nice convenience was the morning we all first read about the world economy collapsing. Each morning’s headlines were worse than the one before and it wasn’t too long before I realized that my budget for the journey/documentary of a lifetime was once again in the red column. It came in emails, not all at once. It was like the doctor inserting the needle in micro-inch at a time, each push more excruciating than the last. An email Tuesday allowed as to how I’d lost 20% of my funds, Thursday I’d lost a total of 50% and by the following Monday I’d lost it all. The companies I was in discussion with for product donation were no longer accepting my calls, something that working in the broadcast industry for 25 years was all too familiar. The days rolled by with the news becoming worse and worse. I left the ship not the same person I was when I boarded.
