Voyagers in need

Patrickrebecca

Patrick and Rebecca Childress are energetic, exuberant sailors who display the best qualities of the live-aboard voyaging lifestyle. Sailing on their Valiant 40, Brick House, they write articles, shoot and edit voyaging videos, design and build their own onboard systems, all while making long passages as they work their way around the world. They've contributed numerous articles to Ocean Navigator that have detailed their wide-ranging talents. Now, in South Africa, the COVID-19 pandemic has caught up with them. Both Rebecca and Patrick have become ill with the coronavirus. While Rebecca has escaped the worst effects of the disease, Patrick unfortunately has been hit much harder and is in a Cape Town hospital on a ventilator. Patrick's sickness has upended the couple's plans to sail on to Tierra del Fuego and has introduced uncertainties and worries, not the least of which are financial. 

To help this impressive voyaging duo weather the squall, friends of Patrick and Rebecca have set up a GoFundMe page to help defray the expenses they incur in getting Patrick well again. It's a measure of the high regard in which they're held by their fellow voyaging friends afloat and ashore that there has already been a wonderful outpouring of support — but more is needed to meet the funding goal. (https://www.gofundme.com/f/childress-covid-care

By Ocean Navigator