📍Elana: Lane County, Oregon, USA 🇺🇸
📍⛵️Windfola & 🐶 Zia: Williamstown, VIC, AUS 🦘🇦🇺
Friday, 8th of November, 2024
Now: After collaborating with Hobson’s Bay Yacht Club on the weekend of October 5th to fundraise for Latitude (a local organization supporting young people experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness), Elana hopped a flight to the USA to bring home her story of foster care, teen homelessness, and finding a path to thriving by crossing 16,000+ nm of ocean! It’s the first time ever telling her story openly in Oregon, and she hopes to support young people there toward better outcomes.
GOAL: Connect and effect as much change as possible on the ground in Oregon. Want to book a talk with us for your school, community group, group of practitioners, or club? Get in touch!
WHat is peregrina sails?
I’m Elana Connor, a writer on a singlehanded sailing circumnavigation with my dog — 15,000+ nautical miles and counting! My mission as a peregrina (pilgrim) is to travel simply and give freely.
Inspired by my past as a former foster child, Peregrina Sails is my grassroots mission to give my way around the world with the support of my Patrons. I am creating global ripples of change that will result in a tidal wave of community support and inspiration for young people in state (aka foster) care everywhere.
Our Mission in Australia
As we voyage around the continent, I sail into communities and identify a local charity providing support to underserved young folks (preferably through outdoor experiential education programs). I then connect the local sailing community to that charity by volunteering my own time: doing free presentations, talks, and teaching courses on my vessel, Windfola. In lieu of any fees, I ask attendees to donate directly to the local charity, with the aim of sparking an ongoing relationship that lasts long after I depart.
Results?
In partnership with the communities we’ve encountered, we have raised well over $60,000 for local charities, inspired organizations to create and fund their own new programs for youth in care or do their own charity drives, and even prompted local businesses to change by donating a percentage of profits to charities for care-experienced youth. Individuals are also taking this message to heart, finding their own ways to give: from donating their old tents to a local youth homeless service, to getting their workplaces to match donations, to lobbying their local representatives to have better policies on supporting young people aging out of state care, to becoming certified foster-carers themselves.
I also connect with young people of all ages through schools, community groups, and more. I particularly delight in meeting kids who have backgrounds like mine. These young folks need role models they can relate to, and through that, to know that their futures shine bright!
How to help us make waves
What I need most now, with inflation and increasing costs of operating the yacht in Australia, is SPONSORSHIP. Australia is the most expensive country we've visited, and since a boat crashed into us in March, we'll be unable to depart this country and cross the Indian Ocean in 2024. With the extra time, I know we can visit more places and make an even bigger difference — but there's no way we can stay here another year without your financial support! The more our costs are covered, the more time and enthusiasm I can give to the communities I encounter. Can you help? Please, donate, subscribe, or get in touch to support us!
Please reach out if you can help us give more to the communities we visit, by connecting us with:
sailing and community-minded clubs and organizations, to host talks and fundraising events
local schools and youth organizations, to inspire them to dream big and be more inclusive to less-advantaged youth
state care-related or at-risk youth-supporting charities and their young people.
thank you and remember
I couldn’t do this without the community — those who support me already, and those who we encounter along the way. It is this connection, human to human, that enables us to make change for the next generation of young people.
In the words of James Baldwin, “The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe.”
latest news: JUNE 2024 — PATREON LAUNCH!
We are still docked in Williamstown, Melbourne, because Windfola’s repairs aren’t quite complete yet. (If you missed it, a catamaran drove into us in March and did nearly AUD$20,000.)
Repairs nearly completed, thanks to the amazing team at Penfold Marine!
The days are short and cold here, with a crisp wind that howls across the ocean from Antarctica. The temperatures and severe storms make me nervous about my decision to carry on sailing west to South Australia, but I still think that route is a better choice for our long-term goal of crossing the Indian Ocean next May. (We’ve missed the window to cross this year in May/June due to the accident.)
I’m feeling a bit run down after the months of stress over Windfola’s repairs and doing battle with an insurance company that has shorted us. I’m so thankful to the small community we’ve made here, but I would like to travel home to the USA before we sail any further west and it becomes more difficult. I have an opportunity to hop a flight for free and Zia has a a loving warm home to visit, so…
For the month of July, I’ll be in the USA!!! Would you like us to visit your club, social organization, or youth group? Drop me a note!
When times get tough, I tend to turn inward, not ask for help enough or share what’s going on. But I’m learning – I should have let you all know about the boat hitting us in March, rather than struggling through the aftermath quietly. Another year of my mission in Australia just isn’t possible without grassroots funding from our fans, and it’s important that I be honest about that with you so you can help us keep sailing and giving. I also want to be able to reach you directly so that I can share more raw, exclusive content than I post to social media.
Please take a moment to go check out our new Patreon site! I have some really cool offerings planned, and all levels of sponsorship available, from a simple $5 a month for access to exclusive content and our tracking map, to video calls and custom-made content for top-tier supporters so you can ask me anything or even get cruising advice to prepare for your own upcoming adventures! I’m so excited to share more unfiltered, frequent updates with you as we carry on with our journey to make a difference for young people around the world!
Thank you for all your cheer and support,
Elana xx ❤️
latest on the ‘gram
My goal is to circumnavigate over the next few years with just my dog for crew, and to sail with the humble heart of a pilgrim, seeking not to take from the places I visit, but to learn, give, and share with others.
If you’re enjoying what we’re sharing, please consider supporting us in our journey by making a contribution. It’s only through the support of our community that we are able to keep sailing on!
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