HELP RAISE THE ATLANTIS OF THE AEGEAN

By taking part in our campaign and donating to our cause, not only will you be helping to create a business...you will be bringing a dream to life. A dream that without help will only ever be a dream with no chance of reaching its full potential. You will be reuniting a family...giving them hope, and creating a future for the next generation that would otherwise be doomed.

Our story is a classic romance.....a young English rose who left her country in search of excitement and love. Eyes meeting across passing sailing boats on a deserted Greek island and the start of true love between two different cultures.

I was working as a travel guide with a tourist office in Kos when I met Michalis. He was Captain on one of the traditional sailing boats and we met by chance on the small Greek island of Pserimos, between Kos and Kalymnos. We spent that first summer together and I knew I had found my soul mate.

Over the next few summers, we worked together on the boat cruises....him as Captain and me as his first mate. The tourists loved us and we truly worked as a team giving them the best experiences of their holidays.

Fast forward 3 years and we sealed our love by getting married....still continuing to work together and enjoying life. Of course, not long after, our Princess was born and so we decided that 1 person working seasonal work would not be enough to pay the bills and support a family. I stopped working to look after our daughter and Michalis immediately started working on the ferry boat between Mastichari (Kos) and Kalymnos. That was 8 years ago and since then our family has been completed by the birth of our son. The long hours and constant work all year round has had a massive toll on our family. Michalis only gets 3 days "off" per year, with no holiday time at all. This means that he misses important time with his family and is unable to ever switch off and relax. He can never be there for his childrens' school plays or to take them to karate lessons. He can ever spend the day with them without checking his watch to see what time he has to return to work. He can never have a family holiday.

Apart from this....we live in Greece. That alone says a lot. With the economical and financial problems in the country we are told that we should grin and bear it. We should be thankful that he has a job. We should look forward to our future after retirement. What retirement? We pay emergency taxes and pay health insurance that is hardly accepted by any doctors. His anticipated early retirement is now just a thing of the past and the pension amount reduced enormously.

Although he has a good salary (compared to the average Greek), we are unable to move forward and create a safe a stable future for our family and our children. We are unable to get any kind of loans from the banks as the country is pretty much in meltdown. As I am no longer living or earning in the UK I am also unsuitable to apply for loans there.

We have a dream. You can help us to make this dream into our reality.

We want to work together again in the tourist sector. The business that we know so well.

"Atlantis" is a 16 meter glass bottom boat that will be ran by us as a family. We will be giving tourists around Kos and Kalymnos the experience to discover the lost world under the waters of the Aegean. The trips will be different to anything currently or previously available on these islands. We will show shipwrecks and underwater caves; Thermal springs ;Fishing excursions; Dolphin spotting and feeding; Pirate days with hidden treasure for families, BBQ's ; sunset cruises and so much more!!!! There are no other glass bottom boats on either Kos, Kalymnos or the other surrounding islands. The majority of the tourist boats offer their customers the traditional daily 3 island cruise onboard overly packed wooden sailing boats. As you walk down the harbour in Kos town you will be inundated with people selling tickets , but you will soon realise that they are all selling the same thing. We will make the difference. We will offer excursions different to everybody else, on a boat different to anything else. On a daily basis, 3000 tourists travel the 3 island cruise between Kos and Kalymnos. We, at full capacity, are looking for a maximum of 80 customers per day.

This business, with this boat and our experience is a recipe certain for success. We have the passion, the drive and the vision to make this business everything we are dreaming of. This will change our lives. We will return to working seasonal work for 6 months of the year. Doing the thing that brought us together, that we love and enjoy. This will enable us to enjoy our life...to have a life that right now is only a dream. Our family will reunite and we will create a future for our children that they can continue .Please share this on your pages and let's see how far we can get this campaign