A quick look at some numbers...

Krugman asks a question, news that will make you want to repeatedly bash your head against a bulkhead, and in the "things that glow in the dark department"...

The other day I was looking at the changes of population in the Caribbean and it was/is depressing reading.

For instance, here's the population stats for the USVI but if you bother to look into the rest of the Caribbean you're going to see the same story played out...

Year	Pop.	�%
1901	30,527	�
1911	27,086	-11.3%
1917	26,051	-3.8%
1930	22,012	-15.5%
1940	24,889	+13.1%
1950	26,665	+7.1%
1960	32,099	+20.4%
1970	62,468	+94.6%
1980	96,569	+54.6%
1990	101,809	+5.4%
2000	108,612	+6.7%
2010	106,405	-2.0%

Scary numbers when you think about it. An even scarier number is that in 2008 the population density was measured at 162 people per square kilometer.

The increased population combined with a unsustainable economy, an infrastructure way past its sell-by date, and a total lack of anyone in power actually doing anything remotely constructive to fix things does not a pretty picture make.

Or, to put it in common parlance, it's all going to hell in a turbo charged wicker basket. So, if you plan to visit and cruise down here I'd do it sooner rather than later...

Listening to Greg Trooper

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a quick thought on a fragile infrastrucure...

Just an Earth Bound Misfit points us to a new low, a needful read, and so much for higher education for profit in my book...

Yesterday I went shopping and I couldn't help but notice some stuff that didn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense...

For instance:

Octopus was on sale but it was from Indonesia, there was salmon at a good price but it came from Russia. No lobster anywhre but there was crab from Alaska.There were potatoes but they were from Idaho and apples weren't on sale but they were nice and came all the way from the Yakima Valley in Washington state....

I could be boring and go on but the bottom line was that I simply could not find anything in a well stocked Caribbean grocery store that had not traveled at least two thousand miles for me to buy.

Just something to think about...

Listening to Brandi Carlile

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Now, here's a thought...

Kinda creepy, yet another good reason (of many) to not visit SeaWorld, and when Dick Dorworth writes something I pay attention...

It occurs to me that someone should really do a cruising guide for Peru.



Ya think?

Listening to some John Hiatt covers

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You could say I'm not a happy camper today...

Something I found worthwhile, an interesting riff on intelligence, and a truly great post from Antonio Dias...

Last night I saw that the French powers-that-be are back on the "Let's tax boaters for anchoring so they'll all go away" bandwagon. You can read more about (if you don't read French simply run the page through Google Translate) it over on the Voile magazine blog and more importantly there's a petition  that you should add your voice to. Seriously, this is important stuff if you're someone who ever plans to go cruising.

Really...

Speaking of important stuff in the same vein, Dave Z (of TriloBoat infamy) recently said a lot of important stuff that very much needs to be said. You should read it and give the content some very serious thought and then share it with others... It's more than time to get seriously proactive on this sort of stuff before we find our favorite anchorages either disappeared or with a MegaYachts only sign.

Listening to Soko



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and in the not-everyone-wants-you-to-anchor department...

Unspeakably heinous acts in California, stuff you need to know, and something worth the time it takes to read...

Over at SailFeed there's a very good piece about anchoring laws in Florida and everyone really needs to read it. More importantly, folks on boats really should get vocal with the various Powers That Be and let them know how you feel... It's important.

Just to show you that political anti-anchoring skullduggery is not just a Florida thing but a problem worldwide... Voile Magazine has a story about 20 Euro a meter anchoring charges per night (or in non metric that's $228. a night to anchor your 32-foot boat). Being that, if it were to happen, it would also include a sizable chunk of the Caribbean (St Martin/Martinique/St Barts/Guadeloupe) so you might find it a needful read. For those who don't read French you'll find that Google Translate does a good enough job to make sense of it all.

Talk about interesting times...

Just in...
Good news about the twenty Euro a day anchoring tax is that it did not go through (more information here and here). That said, it does not mean they won't try it again...

Listening to Bob Dylan covering Frank Sinatra

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Some more from the Eco Sailing Project crew...

Not good at all, the reason you won't be seeing a lot of rocket science coming from Texas in the foreseeable future, and in the dueling debt department...



Listening to a medley of soul, funk, blues and folk

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the better days/good old times conundrum...

Just another responsible gun owner, Krugman making a lot of sense, and an open carry movement I could actually support...

This morning, listening to a food program on the BBC, I heard that the largest employer in Mexico happens to be WalMart and it got me thinking about how the world is changing. More importantly how those changes are going to impact the whole sailing and cruising gig.

Now, admittedly, being able to provision and buy stuff at an American super store does have its advantages but at a cost we don't often think through or even notice till it's too late to change.

As many of you know we have a charter business but unlike most of the people who do what we do we don't offer bareboats because, in our view, the bareboat industry is bad for the economies and ecology's they're selling. Having been in the Caribbean long enough to have met some of the folks who actually invented the concept of the bareboat industry and listening to their opinions of the current state of affairs is a lot like listening to a loving parent trying to sort out why the child they raised and nurtured is currently doing 15-20 in prison for robbing banks...

Which brings me to a book I've meant to read for a long time which has zero to do with chartering or big box stores in third world nations but a lot to do with how stuff happens and gets out of control because we don't pay attention to what's going on or think things through. World War Z has a lot to say and it really is a riveting read. While not horrible, the recent film of the book did not do it justice at all though it was entertaining.

Well actually when you come to think of it, bareboaters and zombies do seem to have a lot in common...

Listening to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

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