Oct 23 2000:

Dear Group,

Never again will I have to worry about bureaucratic red
tape. I am now a Technology Sailor.

What does this mean? It means I have a portable PC, scanner,
printer, digital camera, and a stock of paper of various
types. I even have an old notary seal stamp with which to emboss
papers.

Let me give you just one example of what I can do. Take the
Bahamas, for example. They require papers showing proof of
rabies shots for my cat and it has to be dated no more than seven
days prior to arrival. No longer do I have to worry about being
held up by weather waiting for a crossing window and having to
get new papers if the weather does not cooperate. I can now scan in
the original, change the date and then print out a new one. (OCR
software makes it easy.) I can do the same thing with fishing
licenses, cruising permits, etc. Eventually, I might become
skilled enough to make my own money - especially the currency
of third-world countries where they don't have sophisticated
anti-counterfeit measures.

My flares are outdated - why, I'll just peel off the labels, make some
new ones with current date and glue them back on. My registration
expired - no big deal, I'll scan it in and up the expiration date. There is
no limit to how I can now snooker the bureaucrats.

Respectfully,
Capt. Neal