Mission statement:

We are the Salty Samaritans our goal is to travel the world and help as many people as possible, in any way possible, by any means possible. As a team of warm-hearted sailors we will use coastal cruising in a small sailboat as our means of helping everyone we come in contact with no matter how remote the location. We will be relying solely on the generous contributions of our donors, sponsors, the wind, and our hearts to guide us along a path of life changing kindness, and to touch the lives of as many people who need help as possible. From building bridges to applying band-aids we will be there.

Welcome to SaltySamaritans.com!! We are glad you found us this is a temporary site we put up, while a more in-depth one is being constructed. please contact us with any questions!

     We are Jordan and Ashley Needham and have taken up the moniker, “The Salty Samaritans” and our main goal will be to provide humanitarian aid to people desperately in need of basic human essentials. We have narrowed down the help we are able to provide into five categories of aid; Food, Water, Shelter, Health, and Love. You will be able to donate into a specific category and then see your dollars at work a short time later through pictures, video, and blogging here on our website. Our focus will be providing the neccasary education and materials to set up sustainable aid for coastal cities, towns, and villages.

     When it came down to deciding how we are going to get around this big blue marble we all call home, there was a lot to consider. We have decided to do it all from a sailboat here are a few of the reasons why. The carbon emissions put into the atmosphere from two people sitting on a sailboat traveling from point A to point B as opposed to a plane, car, bus, or even motorcycle don’t even compare. Our goal is to change the world for the better and we don’t want to pollute it at the same time. We can always be sure that we have a place to lay our heads. The ocean will be our highway, and anywhere the water touches, the wind can take us there. We have no specific timeline or restrictions on when to end our adventure, and the flexibility a sailboat allows our schedule is ideal. We plan on taking people with us to help with our cause, and being able to provide travel accommodations for others who are willing to help will mean that our donor’s dollars will go further. These reasons among others, led us to the hunt for our sailboat.

     Our voyage will begin in San Francisco and continue as far down the coast of South America as possible. We expect it to take at least one year and up to three. We are both qualified for this type of adventure and bring a wide range of pertinent skills to the table. I am an Eagle Scout, and a jack-of-all-trades, if you will. I can fix almost anything, with almost anything. I have backpacked through Tibet and parts of China as well as Thailand and found I have a strong desire to help those less fortunate.  I have realized life is worth so much more than trading hours for dollars and now want to trade hours to save lives. My beautiful wife has a loving demeanor that can melt anyone’s heart, on top of her adventurous spirit and grace under pressure. She has training as an EMT and is currently a cosmetologist, which enables her to teach underprivileged women skills that would enable them to run a small business of their own. Our overall plan is rather large in scope, but we have a lot of support from our friends, family, and local community, along with the desire and passion to make it all happen. The basic plan to get the whole operation off the ground is probably best described chronologically. It started with the acquisition of our beautiful boat, built, circumnavigated in and donated by two of the most amazing people we have ever had the pleasure os coresponding with (wich is an epic tale on on its own very deserving of it own page). Now that we have a boat that meets our needs, and it is back here in Reno we are diligintly working on repairing the damage from the crash (now do you want to read the epic tale?) as well as some long term damage that has built up during the boats colorful past.

     We have taken sailing lessons and I spent time in small sailboats on a lake as a child, aside from a lot of reading about the topic, our practical experience is limited. We plan on taking the safety of ourselves, the boat and others into full account right from the start. Our first plan of action will be to hire an accredited on-board instructor to ride along with us until we are fully certified and deemed seaworthy. As soon as etak is back into ship shape we will put her back into San Francisco Bay, where we will establish our home base to drum up support for our mission and seek funding through two separate ways.

     To fund the charitable efforts we will provide during our mission we will be relying on In order to ensure 100% of our donor dollars will be guaranteed to go to the people who need help the most, we are going to need additional funds for overhead, insurance and maintenance on the boat. In order to meet this need we have come up with a plan of selling ad space on the boat to companies with like-minded mission statements of their own. These companies will benefit from knowing they are enabling an amazing journey such as this, as well as having the advertising benefit of their logos seen by thousands of potential consumers, also in support of our cause. We are planning on generating a “buzz” and a following of our mission by releasing short weekly videos on YouTube, taken from cameras mounted around the boat, as well as handhelds. We have an Emmy-winning Producer/director who has offered to donate his editing skills to make this happen. We are pitching to sponsors for gear donations as well as funding based on the size of the purchased ad space, and the duration of the ad campaign. We plan on spending as long as it takes in and around San Francisco Bay to prepare for our journey and drum up as much support as possible.

     Thank you for taking the time to browse SaltySamaritans.com. All donations of any kind are hugely appreciated. If you know anybody who would be in the position to help us with our dream in any way please refer them to our website. If you are someone who is in the position to help or have any ideas we would love to chat! Send us an email as we would love to share more information with you and answer any questions you might have. saltysamaritans@yahoo.com