wrote

It's all political name calling at this point but
*http://bigpicture.typepad.com/commen...tory-exem.html
is interesting.


That *is* interesting, thanks.

(brief quote)
"...the events of the past year are not a mere accident, but are the
results of a conscious and willful SEC decision to allow these firms
to legally violate existing net capital rules that, in the past 30
years, had limited broker dealers debt-to-net capital ratio to 12-
to-1.
...... the five that received this special exemption? You won't be
surprised to learn that they were Goldman, Merrill, Lehman, Bear
Stearns, and Morgan Stanley. " (end quote)

I dunno if it's the same with fiscal regulations as it is with
environmental & safety regs, but federal agencies handing out 'get-out-
of-jail-free' cards defeats the whole purpose of regulation. Why
didn't the competing companies call foul, and why didn't our
supposedly free press get the word out? Betcha this was not mentioned
in any of the five's report to their stockholders, either.


To put a sailing bent on it my plan is to go cruising in the
developing world; a place where everyone understands that most folks
are broke.


Good thinking.

I lost enthusiasm for piddling around in the tribal areas, myself...
not as afraid of being knocked on the head as I am of picking up
intestinal parasites or malaria or something. Besides, it's easy to
go to someplace along the swampy south-east US coast where there
aren't any people at all.

As for good boat bargains, the window of opportunity may be rather
short, since the time frame between sellers needing cash deciding to
unload cheap, and sellers needing cash deciding to simply duck out
from under and letting the boat go to pot, may be short

An awful lot of the boats I saw destroyed in pics of Hurricane Ike's
aftermath were obviously not taken care of. Case in point- I would not
buy a boat from the sort of owner who left a roller-furler jib in
place with a hurricane imminent, no matter how good a deal it is. You
just don't know what other sorts of dumbass things he's done with/to
the boat, and those kinds of surprises are usually unpleasant.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

On Sep 18, 12:54*pm, wrote:
....
I lost enthusiasm for piddling around in the tribal areas, myself...
not as afraid of being knocked on the head as I am of picking up
intestinal parasites or malaria or something. ...

We've had a lot of good experiences in seriously tiny and remote
places, but we've had some _interesting_ talks with our travel doctor,
too. Also, had a good friend pretty much wiped out for years because
of malaria and another on permanent disability because of a horrid
belly bug. And, we hear lots of horror stories. So, I understand your
view on this. We do take some precautions --we epically try to avoid
large population centers in the 3rd world and malaria hot spots-- but
we realize that we are at enhanced risk not just from tropical rot but
from acute medical issues that would be dealt with easily in the
States but will kill you in the bush. In the Pacific Islands we've
been lucky and happy. I'm keeping an open mind about Mexico, but if
it sucks the islands are to leeward!

-- Tom.

The Sea of Cortez is great... pretty much untouched. Just make sure you have
fishing permits aboard. They are really picky about it. We were boarded by
the Navy, and that's all they cared about... I guess there's a poacher
problem.

When are you off?

wrote in message
...
On Sep 18, 12:54 pm, wrote:
....
I lost enthusiasm for piddling around in the tribal areas, myself...
not as afraid of being knocked on the head as I am of picking up
intestinal parasites or malaria or something. ...

We've had a lot of good experiences in seriously tiny and remote
places, but we've had some _interesting_ talks with our travel doctor,
too. Also, had a good friend pretty much wiped out for years because
of malaria and another on permanent disability because of a horrid
belly bug. And, we hear lots of horror stories. So, I understand your
view on this. We do take some precautions --we epically try to avoid
large population centers in the 3rd world and malaria hot spots-- but
we realize that we are at enhanced risk not just from tropical rot but
from acute medical issues that would be dealt with easily in the
States but will kill you in the bush. In the Pacific Islands we've
been lucky and happy. I'm keeping an open mind about Mexico, but if
it sucks the islands are to leeward!

-- Tom.



--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

On Sep 18, 3:51*pm, "Capt. JG" wrote:
....
When are you off?

Soon? We're planning on following the ha-ha out of SD. They take
off in the 3rd week of October. So, all else being equal we're
looking at arriving SD thenish and departing when the wx looks ok
(with a fishing license). We've still got a steering issue to get
fixed before we take off from here. So, I guess twoish weeks... Or
something else... It's starting to get cold for us tropical types so
I think that will drive us off before all that long anyway.

-- Tom.

You should probably keep in mind that you'll have problems finding dock
space in places like Cabo. You'll probably be ok at La Paz. You might want
to check the last couple of issue of Lat. 38 for info about reserving spots
if that's what you're intending.

wrote in message
...
On Sep 18, 3:51 pm, "Capt. JG" wrote:
....
When are you off?

Soon? We're planning on following the ha-ha out of SD. They take
off in the 3rd week of October. So, all else being equal we're
looking at arriving SD thenish and departing when the wx looks ok
(with a fishing license). We've still got a steering issue to get
fixed before we take off from here. So, I guess twoish weeks... Or
something else... It's starting to get cold for us tropical types so
I think that will drive us off before all that long anyway.

-- Tom.



--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

On Sep 18, 7:27*pm, "Capt. JG" wrote:
You should probably keep in mind that you'll have problems finding dock
space in places like Cabo. You'll probably be ok at La Paz. You might want
to check the last couple of issue of Lat. 38 for info about reserving spots
if that's what you're intending. ...

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll check that out. We're so bad at keeping
a schedule that reservations are hard for us. We tend to prefer
anchoring (which I gather is limited there) or moorings to the dock.
Maybe there is more room on the balls than on the docks. Folks I've
talked to about Cabo have such different opinions of the place that
I'm not sure if it would be a bad thing to give it a miss if there's
no room... Thoughts?

Other tips on Mexican cruising are very welcome, too!

Cheers,

-- Tom.

From what I've been told, if at all possible, skip Cabo and head north to La
Paz. Between Cabo and La Paz there are a couple of places, which might be
ok. You should be able to find an anchorage near La Paz, no problem. We
started there. There are several within spitting distance. Further north,
you'll not find it to be a problem. There are some beautiful anchorages
between La Paz and Mulege, especially off the bigger islands. We got Gerry
Cunningham's charts, which were stunningly accurate and detailed. The
"official" charts I don't think have been seriously updated since the late
1800s (yes, you read that right). GPS coordinates are way off in any case.
Gerry has been all over, so if you're going to hang for a while, it would be
worth getting the other packages as well.

I'm happy to stop by and let you look, borough, etc., what I have. I'm
supposed to be in the general area next week.

We got as far as Bahia Agua Verde (about 100 nm from La Paz) before we had
to turn around. That was a beautiful, isolated spot. We didn't anchor there,
because it was crowded - one other boat, so we back-peddled to Bahia San
Marte, which was even more isolated.

I'd also recommend just about any place on Isla San Jose, Isla Partida, or
Isal Espiritu Santo. In fact, if I get a chance to do it over again, I would
stick to those three places - there are plenty of different anchorages.
There's not much on the peninsula between La Paz and Aqua Verde (well, a
couple of places, but none that great for staying unless in a pinch).

I can also scan and post a list of GPS coordinates from Gerry's
documentation. No pictures, but it's better than nothing. I have them for
Cabo, La Paz, Isla San Jose, and Aqua Verde. There are about 90 positions
listed.

wrote in message
...
On Sep 18, 7:27 pm, "Capt. JG" wrote:
You should probably keep in mind that you'll have problems finding dock
space in places like Cabo. You'll probably be ok at La Paz. You might want
to check the last couple of issue of Lat. 38 for info about reserving
spots
if that's what you're intending. ...

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll check that out. We're so bad at keeping
a schedule that reservations are hard for us. We tend to prefer
anchoring (which I gather is limited there) or moorings to the dock.
Maybe there is more room on the balls than on the docks. Folks I've
talked to about Cabo have such different opinions of the place that
I'm not sure if it would be a bad thing to give it a miss if there's
no room... Thoughts?

Other tips on Mexican cruising are very welcome, too!

Cheers,

-- Tom.



--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com