Ray Jason has been writing the Sea Gypsy Philosopher blog, for the last twelve years largely touching on politics and social issues. His commentary is filtered through his unusual lived experience of being a longtime ex-pat open water sailor living on his boat, the Aventura.
Ray’s greatest contribution to the blogosphere is his Sea Gypsy Tribe concept — his belief that small bands of ocean-dwelling cruisers can both survive and flourish after any type of catastrophe which is the main thrust of our conversation here Ray’s personal life path has been quite out of the ordinary. Right after college graduation, he was drafted and ended up in Vietnam on a U.S. Navy ammunition ship.
Post-service malaise steered him away from the so-calleed Real World and he spent the next 20 years as a highly successful San Francisco street performer — juggling, his specialty. When that scene began to deteriorate, he commenced his sea gypsy life and has not lived on land since 1992.
We speak with Ray today aboard his sailboat somewhere in the Banana Latitudes of Central America.
The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger
This podcast is sponsored by Vaulted, an online mobile web app for investing in allocated and deliverable physical gold. Vaulted is backed by McAlvany Financial Group, which owns ICA, one of the largest and longest continuously operating full-service gold brokerage firms in the United States. To learn more visit: Vaulted.com/JHK
Fantastic interview Jim. Its nice to hear your thoughts on the folly of the technocrats moving into a high tech control system. I couldn't agree more. Complex systems based on alpha ape, point control is like a jenga tower that becomes harder and harder to keep up, the higher they stack on new pieces. Look at the huge energy, water, and technical resources needed to have AI. Data centers have probably a billion individual parts, and require an army of technicians with narrow skill sets to maintain. The more that can go wrong, the more that will go wrong. I personally think that peak oil, is preceeding peak complexity. I also think complexity will drop off a seneca cliff like we have never experienced. You know we are near the end when shows like Little House on the Prairie, or The Waltons start looking like a wonderful existence compared to the crazy world we live in now.
Just as Covid was starting, a friend of ours sold everything and took his family to Spain where they bought a 60’ sailboat for $22,000. It was a late 90’s model that had spent 20 years as a charter boat, so it was well cared for, and had new sails. It had two power plants, a desalination plant, all of the electronics, radar, navigation equipment, and new sails. It had crossed the Atlantic many times, but was primarily used in the Mediterranean. They planned on sailing the world.
He’s a retired Army Lt Colonel, so he’s quite capable of defending them if the need arose.
My wife's an online high school science teacher and she sees many students cheating by using AI to perform all their assignments and tests.
We're going from bad to worse, with education.
Very true. Even profesionals are "cheating" with AI. I personally think that muscles which are not used atrophe. For instance, my spelling ability did not improve with spell checkers; it got worse. It didn't improve until I turned that off.
Uneducated people are the most easily controlled.
please define education.....not the ivy league type , i hope you contend
Thanks! What an amazing interview and what a life Ray Jason has. It is something I've long considered but as a newly single woman and the product of a horrible divorce, I'm not likely to have a man I can bring along much less trust (LOL). It was telling that Mr. Jason suggested men start to learn the ropes of sailing and left women out of the equation. I'll have to see about contacting him at his blog site and pick his brain about the dangers of a woman alone on the high seas!
You should do some research. There are many women out on the water, and some single hand. And, everyone wants to cruise - on someone else's boat. We have a lady cruiser friend that does the Baja Rally and the Baja Bash, and she always has a full crew that pay their way, which pays the way to get the boat to Mexico and back every year. Hang out on the waterfront and you'll find people inviting you to crew and learn. It's not impossible. People love cruising and they'll go on the budget they have. It's shocking how some live, just to get on the water, on a boat.
Picked up a new word, gonna start using , "cruiser" ... like it, i am sure its in the urban dictionary
Thanks for the encouragement and advice!
OH, and Ray did say that he is appealing to White men so the other 90% also stay out of that equation.
Ray Jason was a fantastic juggler!!! And entertainer!! 'back in the day' i.e. the heyday of street performers at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. He was definitely one of the original trend setters which made waves around the USA and further. Around the same time in another part of town Union Square was the mime Robert Sheilds who was also one of the very influential originals. I would have seen Ray for the first time at the Wharf in 1976.
Very interesting. Ray sounds like he grew up around Baltimore/Eastern Shore. (water = "wooder")
I really enjoyed this off-the-beaten-path conversation. Such a romantic lifestyle! If only .....
Was a great conversation. I often wonder what kinds of amazing things Ray has seen on his travels. What a fascinating life. Really enjoyed this and the previous discussion with him as well.
Wow!!!
Fun and fascinating listen ... thank you!
Collapse is optional.
Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum, ehhhh? This guy's totally in cloud cuckoo land, now that real-time, quasi-open-access, hi-rez satellite imaging, and cheapo-but-deadly drones are about as available these days to non-state actors as to deep state or anti-deep state actors. Defending your hero mini-fleet with bows and arrows, ARs/AKs and pistols? For a thousand bucks you can buy a cal .50, scoped, super-accurate sniper rifle —semi-auto or bolt action— with an effective range of a mile or more. Your seaborne band of brothers with no logistic support or air cover, ehhh? You think when the SHTF that your handy-dandy emergency rescue beacon is going bring a boatload of Dudley Do-right coasties from some Third World failed, or well along towards failed, statelet to come rescue white boy yachtsmen? Puh-leeze!
Yes,that's all available, but I was shaking my head that he admitted what his weapons are. Getting caught anywhere, not USA, with firearms is a big no bueno. You, the weapon AND your vessel is likely to be confiscated and it will take a large sum of $$$ and a very good local attorney to get you free, and I'm not sure about the vessel.
That's why cruisers use items that are normally on the boat - like a spear gun, for example. There's lots of other possibilities, but that's just one.
Cruising south on the Baja, we had a big aluminum skiff with a couple Yamaha 100 horsepower outboard motors come upon us fast from behind. There were about three fellows on the boat. While I stayed at the helm (we had a trawler motor yacht) my husband went back to see what they were up to. It turned out they wanted to trade cervezas for lobsters. It was a good deal!
Very enjoyable listen. Great discussion.
One thing that always stands out to me with people who choose to disassociate from the current zeitgeist is how sane those people sound. Ray has it in spades, a real joy to hear.
Really interesting talk and I was reminded of this novel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gal%C3%A1pagos_(novel)
Excellent listen thankyou
Delightful discussion w/ a genuine "renaissance man".