Time and Tide
What follows is a slightly edited for context copy of the email I have sent out to our lovely mailing list folks:
Apologies it's been SUCH A LONG WAIT for an update.. but had we emailed sooner it would've looked like this:
Waiting. Bored. Waiting. Bored. Waiting. Bored. Bored.
..Because we have been waiting too. To the point where we felt like chucking it all in, and selling the boat.. as we've had a year full of personal loss and our personal finances could no longer support SeaNet without help.
As it happens we now have some most excellent news and can move beyond being STUCK IN THE MUD
Some key points to bring us up to speed:
We spent a year pulling crap out of the river and customising the Saucy Jack to fit a swing lift
We sold mugs and souls to raise funds to fit the swing lift
We have emailed, and emailed, and had meetings, and meetings, and emailed and emailed literally everyone who might give a crap about the River
We have appealed for storage successfully
We have appealed for removal and repurposing of whatever we lift and are expecting to be able to start lifting the debris again within the next 4 weeks
We are creating educational materials for Students during their Fresher Week and will have a volunteer in attendance at Tesco's during October to get students on board with our mission
We have received positive support and donations from Beyond the Box and Trolleywise, and lately email and telephone response from Rosa Tanfield at Colchester Borough Council
We are attempting to co-ordinate a Press release to highlight the group effort to clean up the River Colne
We are joining the Hythe Taskforce meeting this week to see how it can all be tied in with what is happening there
Ian from Trolleywise is amazing btw, and you can tell him so here: Ian on Twitter
Honestly the man is brilliant, and has tirelessly championed our cause, and deserves respect
SeaNet is currently in the process of being granted Community Interest Company Status. This is an upgrade from the Unincorporated Association format we've been using so far. We hope to be able to update you on this very soon. This will give us greater powers to raise funds and continue the River Clean Mission. This also means SeaNet is a proper 'thing' and not just two idiots mud larking. (Well at least that's what we tell ourselves!)
Due to the time we spent waiting to push things forward, and still not having the debris moved off the quayside storage, we went past the ideal window of opportunity where we had no personal work commitments. This would have been May/June time earlier this year. Some of you may know we run a Vintage Maritime Themed Fairground, which is our usual line of work - we now have several potential bookings for the Fair over the next couple of months and as such our priorities have been to concentrate on getting that up to scratch in time to go out. We realise this makes it look as if nothing has been done but we promise you this definitely hasn't been the case. We are itching to get back in there again and carry on.
To keep going with this isn't a quick fix. It's going to take time and further maintenance. We estimate we'd have to be out there solid for a year to get as much as we could. So, we're going to keep going when we can and keep chipping away at it. All your support counts massively, and is much appreciated in getting us to this stage.
There's probably millions more but I think I've probably waffled too much already so I'll leave you to your respective happy days and be in touch soon.
Warmest Regards,
J&J - SeaNet
TLDR VERSION:
We've been waiting on responses from EVERYONE and now have things moving along nicely, and expect to be out in the River lifting debris again within the next four to six weeks.