In the last few years much of the organising of the trek was taken up with chasing sponsorship and the subsequent publicity that would be required to make the sponsors contributions commercially viable for them to participate.

This year the focus in the organising of the trek has been just to make the trek happen. To this end Ron has paid for all of the equipment and consumables (fuel etc ) himself. So far this has amounted to more than $40,000.00

There are some standing offers of help from Pains Wessex who have offered a compact EPIRB but even they admit that the device on offer is not the one to take on this trip, especially if it is a solo voyage. (The required equipment is quoted as $1,990.00 retail)

EpirbHire, a Sydney company have offered to supply the required unit at a reduced cost and this offer is being taken up.

Innovative Foods Australia have offered product from their range of thermatically preserved fresh produce.

Sponsorship has been denied from many sources, mostly because of corporate image association with such a "High Risk" venture. This is a pity as many of these companies were primarily producers of top quality safety and communications equipment which would have made the voyage safer.

So far this year there have been limited opportunities for chasing up of sponsorship of the project, the objective has been to just do it.

It is hoped that with the assistance of the Austin Hospital publicity unit that a higher profile may be able to generate some of the assistance required.