Go? To where? If conditions turn to crap here in the US they turn to crap everyplace else. Sailing is wonderful, but you are still tethered to land for supplies, and what will be the conditions of the land closest? A lone sailboat crewed by family or a few friends will be (and now is) a ripe target for pirates.
Perhaps you've seen it, but search YT for a ~6 minutes video titled "BEHOLD THE SEASTEADS" for possibilities. But yes, you're correct, if America falls, it rapidly becomes a dystopian fight for survival.
There have been two things stopping me from getting a small sailboat:
1) The high cost of dock space here in SW-FL, which is just money down the drain.
2) The time it would take away from homesteading my land.
I figure we'd have to spend every other weekend afloat to build up the proficiency needed to E&E by sail, and we just can't commit that level of time while maintaining and expanding our food production.
and I believe, my little primer book on the Public Weal is now more than ever for those who can't sail and end up staying on land. : ) My sailing days are long past me. Good work as always Matt!
If I had stayed in Maryland many years ago I would've gotten my boat already. Lol. But since I live in Arizona now I must improvise. A team of horses and a 30ft buck board should do the trick don't ya think. Thanks Matt for the read.
Oh. Tristan Jones. Now that’s a sailor. Put a sailboat in the highest and lowest bodies of water on the planet. Meantime actually removed his own Appendix, sewed up the pocket knife incision and survived. In the Amazon River no less ! Named by his mother as the steamer she was on gave birth as they passed the island of Tristan de Cahuna in the S. Atlantic. Sweet.
I Love Tristan Jones. Read his book about the Vertical Sailing Record. Fantastic yarn, that was. Living aboard, at sea is a constant chess game and endurance test!
The photos in your essay brought back memories of boat harbors and boat facilities in Southeast Alaska. The smell of spring, the sounds of boat owners readying for summer and the "pleasant misery" of scraping and painting "the bottom".
The huge tides of Southeast Alaska make sailing to the outlying coves very difficult. Power boating is the way to go .... diesel only, if you please.
My wife and I are solidly middle age, me more towards the sunset of middle. We’ve followed this exact outline. We still have a business in the US which supplies our income but are moving our home (boat) and life slowly to Mexico.
Where people are happier. There’s more liberty (oddly enough, the truth just isn’t known by many USers). And we can live life pursuing our individual measurements of success, rather than corporate ones.
A sailboat is a perfect means to that end. Great story btw. I’m sure some young men and women will take your advice and jump in.
Fabulous empathetic quasi paternalistic proviso from swashbuckler Matt..yeah .a fun read focusing on the undertone of...."escapism' "from the uniparty in power...but more like a hobby or fantasy ...than the sense we have which is...no one can escape from what s coming..a new America? ..worst case scenario....hell on earth 15 minute Talmudic bolshevist extermination cities thanks to ......Wef BLACKROCK ziocon ..zograts.....in that case...some of the young people will have to fight back or be exterminated..but a 30 . 40..footer escape could possibly still work...tomorrow never knows ..great...fun...wise writing Matt*
If anyone is considering single-handing, rebuilding GRP boats to purpose, and soberly plan surviving at sea, you should research Roger Taylor and his MingMing boats, I and II. Pay attention to "The MingMing Challenge".
Personally, I decided long ago that steel is the ideal material, junk rig the ideal rig on unstayed lightpole masts. They are all compromises anyway. You won't win regattas or wow the superficial npc's in the marinas, but you'll get by a lot better when you need to dodge BB and avoid the consumer market.
Figure about 3 tons displacement per person, minimum.
THanks, Matt! I'm 68, and I've been chasing boats my whole life. Robin Lee Graham and Nat'l Geo triggered me as a child in the late 60's, and I've since read and followed all the greats, from Slocum to Dana, to Motessier. to Robin Knox Johnston, continuing on thru the amazing crew of Sailing YouTubers out there today.
I have bought, sold, abandoned, sunk and bartered many many boats in my lifetime. I'm at it again now, I have near-max income from SS after 45 years of hard work, single, and debt free, on a cash basis with the world now. Recently re-homed to North Florida, Gulf side, I am constantly watching the boat market. $3-4000 will get you into a sound craft, $8K will get you into luxury, and $15K will buy nearly anything one might hope for. I just saw a Rhodes Swiftsure, pure, total 1968 stock, with wire tailed halyards and hank on jibs, in Bristol condition up in the NE for $15K, and, if i had that many bills squared away, I would not have hesitated to fly up there and own that beauty.
My one bit of wisdom: Money first, then go deal. Off and on thru life, I've been one or two thousand short of an asking price, and learned it is really futile, and just plain not fair and disrespectful to the seller, not to approach a deal with cash in the bag, ready to offer or pay the asking price, whichever comes first.
I'm looking at the dearth of reasonable moorage and dockage in the SE, and everyone must recognize that there are people out there who hate boaters, especially recent transplants to Florida, in charge and in power in municipalities up and down the otherwise 'free' waterways. Florida is debating a 30 day anchor limit, with is insane only if you understand the issues, but plays well to the "normies" out there looking at $2000+/month rent for the most basic of homes.
I'm stacking money away, looking at 30 footers - Alberg 30 being probably the most capable and prolific - and getting ready to cast my fate to wind, once again, and die out there on the water somehere, somewhen, rather that anethstasized in a hospital bed.
Appreciate you and your work, read your Trilogy non-stop over a week's time, couldn't put it down, and have always appreciated the Sailor side of you and your wisdom.
I knew you had a bug-out boat story stored away somewhere.
Go? To where? If conditions turn to crap here in the US they turn to crap everyplace else. Sailing is wonderful, but you are still tethered to land for supplies, and what will be the conditions of the land closest? A lone sailboat crewed by family or a few friends will be (and now is) a ripe target for pirates.
Perhaps you've seen it, but search YT for a ~6 minutes video titled "BEHOLD THE SEASTEADS" for possibilities. But yes, you're correct, if America falls, it rapidly becomes a dystopian fight for survival.
There have been two things stopping me from getting a small sailboat:
1) The high cost of dock space here in SW-FL, which is just money down the drain.
2) The time it would take away from homesteading my land.
I figure we'd have to spend every other weekend afloat to build up the proficiency needed to E&E by sail, and we just can't commit that level of time while maintaining and expanding our food production.
and I believe, my little primer book on the Public Weal is now more than ever for those who can't sail and end up staying on land. : ) My sailing days are long past me. Good work as always Matt!
Yours in liberty,
Vince
You are so right and lucky is the individual who follows your advice. We swallowed the anchor some ten years ago and miss it a lot.
If I had stayed in Maryland many years ago I would've gotten my boat already. Lol. But since I live in Arizona now I must improvise. A team of horses and a 30ft buck board should do the trick don't ya think. Thanks Matt for the read.
A 38 footer allows a bigger galley and more berthing room. Just saying. Not to mention a bigger sail
inventory in the forecastle.
Joshua Slocum, Tristan Jones. Those are my favorites.
Oh. Tristan Jones. Now that’s a sailor. Put a sailboat in the highest and lowest bodies of water on the planet. Meantime actually removed his own Appendix, sewed up the pocket knife incision and survived. In the Amazon River no less ! Named by his mother as the steamer she was on gave birth as they passed the island of Tristan de Cahuna in the S. Atlantic. Sweet.
I Love Tristan Jones. Read his book about the Vertical Sailing Record. Fantastic yarn, that was. Living aboard, at sea is a constant chess game and endurance test!
It's tough being an old boat man without a boat.
The photos in your essay brought back memories of boat harbors and boat facilities in Southeast Alaska. The smell of spring, the sounds of boat owners readying for summer and the "pleasant misery" of scraping and painting "the bottom".
The huge tides of Southeast Alaska make sailing to the outlying coves very difficult. Power boating is the way to go .... diesel only, if you please.
My wife and I are solidly middle age, me more towards the sunset of middle. We’ve followed this exact outline. We still have a business in the US which supplies our income but are moving our home (boat) and life slowly to Mexico.
Where people are happier. There’s more liberty (oddly enough, the truth just isn’t known by many USers). And we can live life pursuing our individual measurements of success, rather than corporate ones.
A sailboat is a perfect means to that end. Great story btw. I’m sure some young men and women will take your advice and jump in.
Fabulous empathetic quasi paternalistic proviso from swashbuckler Matt..yeah .a fun read focusing on the undertone of...."escapism' "from the uniparty in power...but more like a hobby or fantasy ...than the sense we have which is...no one can escape from what s coming..a new America? ..worst case scenario....hell on earth 15 minute Talmudic bolshevist extermination cities thanks to ......Wef BLACKROCK ziocon ..zograts.....in that case...some of the young people will have to fight back or be exterminated..but a 30 . 40..footer escape could possibly still work...tomorrow never knows ..great...fun...wise writing Matt*
If anyone is considering single-handing, rebuilding GRP boats to purpose, and soberly plan surviving at sea, you should research Roger Taylor and his MingMing boats, I and II. Pay attention to "The MingMing Challenge".
Personally, I decided long ago that steel is the ideal material, junk rig the ideal rig on unstayed lightpole masts. They are all compromises anyway. You won't win regattas or wow the superficial npc's in the marinas, but you'll get by a lot better when you need to dodge BB and avoid the consumer market.
Figure about 3 tons displacement per person, minimum.
THanks, Matt! I'm 68, and I've been chasing boats my whole life. Robin Lee Graham and Nat'l Geo triggered me as a child in the late 60's, and I've since read and followed all the greats, from Slocum to Dana, to Motessier. to Robin Knox Johnston, continuing on thru the amazing crew of Sailing YouTubers out there today.
I have bought, sold, abandoned, sunk and bartered many many boats in my lifetime. I'm at it again now, I have near-max income from SS after 45 years of hard work, single, and debt free, on a cash basis with the world now. Recently re-homed to North Florida, Gulf side, I am constantly watching the boat market. $3-4000 will get you into a sound craft, $8K will get you into luxury, and $15K will buy nearly anything one might hope for. I just saw a Rhodes Swiftsure, pure, total 1968 stock, with wire tailed halyards and hank on jibs, in Bristol condition up in the NE for $15K, and, if i had that many bills squared away, I would not have hesitated to fly up there and own that beauty.
My one bit of wisdom: Money first, then go deal. Off and on thru life, I've been one or two thousand short of an asking price, and learned it is really futile, and just plain not fair and disrespectful to the seller, not to approach a deal with cash in the bag, ready to offer or pay the asking price, whichever comes first.
I'm looking at the dearth of reasonable moorage and dockage in the SE, and everyone must recognize that there are people out there who hate boaters, especially recent transplants to Florida, in charge and in power in municipalities up and down the otherwise 'free' waterways. Florida is debating a 30 day anchor limit, with is insane only if you understand the issues, but plays well to the "normies" out there looking at $2000+/month rent for the most basic of homes.
I'm stacking money away, looking at 30 footers - Alberg 30 being probably the most capable and prolific - and getting ready to cast my fate to wind, once again, and die out there on the water somehere, somewhen, rather that anethstasized in a hospital bed.
Appreciate you and your work, read your Trilogy non-stop over a week's time, couldn't put it down, and have always appreciated the Sailor side of you and your wisdom.
How big should the boat be for a family of four plus pets?