Sounds just like him make that, them. Actually I have acquired all the
charts, once down the St. Lawrence, hanging a right at Belle Isle and
wandering right by. One of the benefits to this job is getting all the
'old but up to date with corrections' charts. Ii'll be sure to pick your
brain by email or phone for some voyage planning. Then there's the
Trent-Severn waterway in Ontario which most never see. Looking forward to
it and I think the results will make or break the case for bypassing the
'ditch.' Panama is like Tahiti. Sounds good in the books, not that big a
deal in real life.



Bush family seems to have a talented habit of screwing up a golden
situation. First there was 'read my lips' George who made deals with the
enemy and wondered why his supporters weren't anymore. And now we have
Version II who took on Saddam and the DNC. Sort of a "Bridge Too Far"
redux. Over the months I've got to talk first hand to a lot of the guys and
gals coming out of Iraq. We get a group of them aboard every return trip.
Bush scored high for letting the military run the war instead of the
micro-management style we all learned to hate so well inthe past, the people
on the front did a superb job of getting the initial job done with a
remarkably low casualty rate (compare for example to the names on that wall
.. . . .) but none of them do well, hell no one anywhere does well, at long
term urban combat. Except maybe examples like Warsaw in WWII or Pol Pot in
Cambodia and that we're not prepared to emulate. The biggest enemy beyond
those aforementioned is time. We USA types tend to think everything is a
big video game and you get it over with, turn off the Play Station and go on
to watching the tube. No stomach for the long haul. Besides arranging a
new version of "Peace With Honor" a la' Nixon when he cleaned up to some
extent LBJ's fiasco, the one major thing though that will turn it around for
the Bush Bunch is to finesse a drop in the price of fuel at the pump. Mr.
and Mrs. Unwashed in the heartland respond to that much more than anything
else. As for the troops both those in Kuwait and those in Iraq. They are
tired when we get them back but still proud of the job they did. Those who
committed excesses, such as in those prisons, they want to hang them . .
...but then we had our Captain Medina and Lieutenant Calley just like all
wars I suppose. Given a vote today . .. still 70% of the military will vote
for Bush. That's no surprise. Whatshername Pelosi? Made that ridiculous
announcement about supporting the troops better? That cost them lots of
votes in the military segment. Military people don't go by what you say but
by what you actually do. Getting crapped on continuously by those people
since the Korean War and then making silly statements like Pelosi did was
hugely counterproductive. . ..but what do you expect? The one thing; you
don't do is make statements antagonizing a large group of voters when you
have gone over to the other side. Two other huge mistakes the DNC made.
First, was discussing military records of the candidates. They should have
just kept quiet because it brought up the Clinton years in recent memory and
the professional military (which includes 100% of them these days) remembers
the "military service is not important" mantra hammering they took for
eight years, among other things. And that brings up the ability of each
party's candidates to conduct wars. DNC is the big time loser on that one,
the shoulda just kept it quiet. Second was promoting a return to the
draft. That told the troops they expected to have to return to military
slavery to get anyone to fight for them. Sent the wrong message big time on
that one. But as I said the troops are very tired. And it's not a WWII
mindset anymore. A lot of the reservists and National Guard (another form
of reservists in the USA) learned what it's like to fulfill the contract.
The days of being LBJ's darlings are long, long gone. When the military was
downsized, especially under President Clinton, the reserves were given a
major role for future combat needs. But under the volunteer system you can
safely say absolutely no one is there against their will. Everyone had to
volunteer for service in the military. A far cry from the dark days of
universal conscription. Remember the words of Robert Heinlein, "If a
society is worth saving enough will come forward; if enough do not come
forward it follows the society was not worth saving." What you are seeing
today is the handwriting on the wall. The ballot box is at the enlistment
office's. That's something RNC and DNC would do well to consider.

In short, troops did a great job, politicians are screwing it up, Bush will
still get 70% of the military vote.

But on to important questions . . ..Where's the capital of North America
going to be? Two official languages? Or three? Next 20 or 30 years will
tell. In my remaining lifetime for sure.

Cheers

Michael




"Capt. Mooron" wrote in message
...
Hi.... good to hear from you! Sounds like you've had quite the adventure.

All things are going well here on the coast of Nova Scotia. Let me know if
you are ever headed for Halifax.... I'll meet you there and we can go for
a
sail.

From what I understand Capt. Neal is in Cuba. He's running the branch
office
of Bush's oil company "Arabusto" and living with a child prostitute. It's
all funded by Al Quaida. Bush intends to retire there to avoid the
repercussions after they discover how badly he screwed up during his only
term as President. :-)

CM

"Michael" wrote in message
...
| We just returned to the USA after a longer than expected voyage. Will
be
up
| on the Chesapeake for a month or so then off on a long overdue vacation
on
| the new boat. Sort of a test cruise before the final
rebuild/refit/upgrade
| is accomplished by my good friends in PortTownsend. Was able to get in
some
| sailing in Diego Garcia of course and also off the coast of Spain this
time.
| Also did some instructing (DGYC uses more the British style competent
| crew/competent skipper etc. system which is far more demanding than the
US
| ASA training so I had to dial up quite a bit. One more school to finish
the
| leap to both 200 ton and one from NearCoastal to Oceans and that will be
| done by September as well. So it will be nice to check in from time to
time
| and see whats up but mostly I'll be concentrating on finishing up this
job
| and then puttering around the San Juan Islands in Washington and BC.
This
| working all but 3 weeks a year helped me catch up but it's time for a
| break! And like the Persian Gulf it's a safe area with no trailer park
| residents . . .so to speak. I think playing catch up was the most
important
| thing. You can't regain the lost time but I did regain a lot of the
lost
| money simply by filing a set of 1099 forms for the last two years. IRS
for
| once was quite nice about it and no fines for late filing from 2002.
The
| one and only thing that still hangs and will probably keep doing so is
| wondering when some shoe will drop. Security investigations aside (and
all
| positive) there's no telling what little surprises await but what the
hell!
| Life goes on. Biggest lesson learned . ..don't let anyone no matter how
| close get ahold of your identity. You just don't know. Thankfully the
US
| Navy demands a complete check and the Coasties did another one besides.
| Plan is still to finish up the new boat and then truck it to the Great
Lakes
| on onto the ICW and down to Caribbean with stops in Florida of course ,
| then it's flip a coin East or West but I'm thinking about Corpus Christi
to
| San Diego (all part of research on an article called Canals On Wheels).
If
| that happens in both directions it'll be off back to the S.Pacific.
Mexico
| and CentralAmerica? I've got the T-Shirt and it's sort of like driving
to
| the end of the block but not crossing the street after the first few
times.
| Don't know how many of you caught it but my first published article is
in
| the middle of Lats and Atts current issue, look for the pictures of the
| freighters! Two more accepted but no pub date and two more in the
machine
| to be finished up. IRS loved that too and my laptop got a complete
write
| off!
|
| So life is sweet and the future looks so good I gotta wear shades!
|
| Cheers and Smooth Sailing to all . . . . So whatever happened to Neal?
|
| Michael
|
|