atlas shrugged, ayn rand novel

[porttack]

If you believe you can survive Armageddon on the ocean, off Newport Beach, California or off Mogadishu, Somalia or anywhere in between, without an adequate crew, sufficient source of rations and water for them, critical spare parts, GOLD or Women and heavy weapons and ammunition to keep it all, you have read too many fantasy dooms-day sailing books, or something. Imagine trying to “cruise” off any countries coast during the “End times” with that cargo (Assuming women being more valuable than men and men more than GOLD).

Try timing the “end times event”, with the above requirements. Even if you scrape it all together, eventually you’ll find yourself short of critical shtuff, and/or you’ll find yourself up against a real threat, because you won’t be the only sailors with survival in mind.

If you are serious about survival of such a magnitude, then buy land (it can’t be sunk) with fresh year-round water (water) and arid soil (food) and bunker down. Don’t think the world’s ports will welcome you under extreme social turmoil.

IMHO.

[porttack]

Oh... And Merry Christmas.

[bruce in oz]

Originally Posted by anotherT34C

..snip
First stop, Wal-Mart. Lots of survival gear, no large windows. It's perfect.

now i've just spent the afternoon, with friends who had a guest call by yesterday. they told me how the (62yr old) guest related that she had lost her life savings in some dodgey real estate deal in new orleans recently and had returned to oz to recoup & regroup. she mentioned that it was becoming common place to see or hear about folk who were locking their homes and moving into their vehicles to camp in wal-mart parking lots.

are those of you familiar with current day wal-mart parking lots witnessing this?

if things are that crook how safe is an unattended yacht on a public waterway in that area, or that country for that matter....

[anotherT34C]

Originally Posted by bruce in oz

are those of you familiar with current day wal-mart parking lots witnessing this?

Good grief, no. But then I live in one of the civilized parts of the US. We only had ONE Wal-Mart worker trampled to death by rushing holiday shoppers.

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by bruce in oz

now i've just spent the afternoon, with friends who had a guest call by yesterday. they told me how the (62yr old) guest related that she had lost her life savings in some dodgey real estate deal in new orleans recently and had returned to oz to recoup & regroup. she mentioned that it was becoming common place to see or hear about folk who were locking their homes and moving into their vehicles to camp in wal-mart parking lots.

are those of you familiar with current day wal-mart parking lots witnessing this?

if things are that crook how safe is an unattended yacht on a public waterway in that area, or that country for that matter....

I don't know if your friends are being facetious, Bruce, or if you are - or if you are all simply unaware of one particular aspect of American culture - but the phenomenon you describe is far less dire than your description might lead some to conclude.

Many people in this country own recreational vehicles - RVs - and when they leave their houses to travel in their RVs, I'm sure that almost 100% of them (a few probably forget) lock their homes when they do so. Wouldn't you?

As to how it is that so many of them gather in Wal-Mart parking lots each night, this too has an innocent explanation: Wal-Mart (in most instances, but not all) have no objection if late-night travelers opt to stop for the night in their (huge) parking lots, after the store is closed, and are welcome to stay there until it opens again the next morning. It is the equivalent of a free anchorage.

The reasoning behind this gesture is that many of the over-nighters will spend money in the store the next morning before they hit the road again. The losers in this situation are the RV parks who lose the nightly income when these thrifty RVers choose the free parking lot instead of their RV park.

If an RVer is en route from, say, New England to Florida in the fall, it is not uncommon to either travel at night to save the cost of a campground, or pull into a roadside rest area for a few hours at night to sleep, then continuing on. I've done it, and I've even spent a night in the parking lot of an Indian casino in New Mexico (with their blessing) while waiting for a tire store to open the next day.

So, no, it hasn't gotten quite as dire here in the US as your post infers. As in Australia, common sense should guide everyone's decisions when it comes to personal safety or the security of their vessel - or RV.

TaoJones

[bruce in oz]

thanks for the clarification, no malice intended and apologies to any who read anything derogatory in my earlier post.