All at sea

A common theme between Libertarians and survivalists, or preppers if you prefer, is one where we get out of the clutches of big government. It is a pipe dream really. Government does not want to let us go because we are the productive part of society and we have to fund the rest. Of course many of us are objecting to that funding and have decided that opting out and going off grid is the best we can do. Many however, who do not want to fend for themselves as we do have actually looked at escaping those clutches by leaving the country and, to stop themselves falling under another governments hands, they look at seasteading.

Seasteading is where a new country is set up in international waters. As all land is claimed by existing countries they look at creating artificial islands or floating platforms to live on and declare themselves a citizen of ‘new countria’ or something. However, I think that these people will never be allowed to do that. Governments everywhere will band together to protect their monopoly on squeezing funds from these people. So we cannot go that route but there is a half way house that would suit Survivalists.

A few years ago I spent some time on a friend’s yacht. I loved it. He lived on the East Coast and travelling back and forward between the UK and France without the benefit of paying through the nose for a flight and without having to bend over and take one from the Border goons asking for my papers in their curt and officious way was fantastic. The French customs barely glanced at my passport.

I thought about buying a yacht myself and was surprised to find they cost about the same as an executive style car. The mooring was the issue though as obviously it needed to be near the coast and as I live in the North West of England I need a berth not far from my home. That makes quite a journey to take a trip to France so I didn’t bother taking it too far.

From a Survivalist perspective it is certainly viable to move on to a boat and stay off the grid at the moment. Although, you would need somewhere to pick up supplies and some method of support. It would not be much different from buying some woodland and living off grid there.

My thoughts however were leaning towards not going as far as that but how about using a boat in a survival situation? It is viable for people with the right training although in my case I would need a lot more experience. It is a totally different environment and a little experience in piloting the boat in a calm sea with an experienced sailor on call is not enough for me to consider going to sea on my own in even a slightly rough sea.

However, for someone with the skills it makes an excellent GOOD (Get Out Of Dodge) vehicle. Unlikely to be stopped, can contain all you need to live out of reach for a few weeks or even months. The yacht my friend had was diesel, ran on paraffin and had an electric engine as backup, it was covered in solar panels, had a solar cooker, a solar still and fishing points for rod and reel as well as net attachments. In addition it had radar, auto pilot, depth sounder and a radio. He has lived on it for several months at a time, including winter time, although he did land to get supplies. His hold has enough space for several months of food for eight people and room for eight berths. My real concern though would be with the family and so I’d be looking for something a bit bigger, a bit more stable and, obviously, more expensive with plenty of storage and a lot more stability which then drives it well out of my reach. None of my family like boats either which is a different problem.

I’ve put a boat on my shopping list though, OK. It is right at the bottom just above my nuclear reactor and it will remain there until I have enough spare money to buy it which will be about 2105 at this rate although I will be gaining experience while I wait. Maybe then it will change priority.

If you have the training and experience and have a boat or access to one you should consider it as a GOOD vehicle. Providing it is not too far away from your home and you can secure it. Moored and floating out in a river is not secure. If a situation arises then plenty of people will be in their rowing boats seeing what they can salvage.

Sure, it is not for everyone but that in itself is an advantage which makes it worth considering the training alone.