Wheeling and dealing

I'm in Barcelona now, staying at the house of my very kind friends, Aurora and Eric. Ironically, success in the rarified world of professional deep-ocean racing seems to rely completely on the generosity of others. (More later on the subject of sailing and ironic abjection.) Paul has started sailing the Polarity Solo down the Spanish coast to our qualifying staging ground in Lisbon, and I'm hanging back here in B-town meeting with prospective sponsors - a marina called Port Forum, a champagne company called Codoniu, an athletic socks manufacturer (!), and a swank new UK-based internet music channel called Music Choice. (More later on my new life as a whore.) Primarily what I'm waiting for is news about the status of sponsorship for an Inmarsat C global tracking system, without which the TJV Race Committee won't allow us to begin the qualifier - a 1,000 mile run across the Bay of Biscay, nearly to the coast of Ireland, and then eastward to Cherbourg, France.

So I'm in a holding pattern until these loose ends are tied up. (If anyone knows how to get their hands on a cheap Sat C / GPS system, or knows of an Inmarsat dealer looking to get rid of one for cheap, please please please let me know: mike.guy@gmail.com.)