Boating Europe: He, she and a lifeboat

What is the best way to get away from the country (and why not, everyday life)? Buy a lifeboat from an oil rig, change it’s interior and set sail. Climate change no longer scares them (so much).

Luís Octávio Costa
June 15, 2019, 12:12

https://www.publico.pt/2019/06/15/fugas/perfil/boating-europe-1876034

Circumnavigation is a sea voyage around a place, which can be an island, a continent or the whole Earth. What Wikipedia and other compendiums do not tell us is that it is possible to circumnavigate Europe – or a good part of it – by river. Five hundred years after Fernão Magalhães (circumnavigated the globe from 1519 to 1522), this new adventure is halfway through. A Portuguese woman, an English man and a lifeboat.

Hamish Campbell, 55, had been writing reports on climate change and other environmental issues for 20 years. “It’s a disaster and we’re not doing anything to change,” he says in a video conference with Fugas after docking his Fassmer CLR-C (7.2mx 2.89m; 3200Kg) alongside a “rusty barge” in Galati, Romania . He met his traveling companion in a bar three and a half years ago. “Ana was looking for an adventurer and I invited her to meet my boat,” he smiles. Ana Reis, 44, is an architect from Porto. She has been working for a dozen years in London offices (with a two year interregnum at an NGO in Cape Verde)

Their boat was bought seven years ago “more or less as a joke, more or less in desperation,” says Hamish, who wanted to live on a boat and did not want to live in London. “I thought ‘what’s the best way to get away from London? I could have bought a narrow boat that would allow me to sail on English canals, but I could not escape the country. Instead, I searched and found a lifeboat from an oil rig in Scotland. And I started to change it so I could live in it. It was a boat designed for 61 people. It came with 61 seats and 61 lifejackets. “

Now the vessel has a bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen, a woodburner in the middle, solar panels and a windmill for electricity in the winter – and many, many tools. And on the roof a garden perfect for two vegetarians who stop more or less every other day to buy fresh vegetables, milk, bread and some croissants. The lifeboat, that looks like a machine out of the science fiction series Thunderbirds, was standing still. It never came to be used for its original function. “When the platform exploded,” his commander fictionalizes, “the lifeboat, with 61 people and oxygen reserves, would cross the blazing sea for twenty minutes. He could be submerged and return to the surface. It is designed to survive everything. You can survive the end of the world for a couple of hours. It’s an unsinkable boat. “

Before buying the boat, Hamish saw in a map that the planned circumnavigation was possible. “We want to prove it,” Ana says. They left London (from the Limehouse marina) to the small seaside town of Ramsgate. We followed the crossing to Calais via the English Channel (which normally takes 30 minutes on a ferry). It took us eight hours. “It’s a slow, safe and reliable boat,” says Hamish, who got seasick – Ana drove.

The first part of the journey, from London to the Black Sea, is completed. Calais, Paris, Montceau-les-Mines and Strasbourg (France), Frankfurt (Germany), Linz and Vienna (Austria), Bratislava (Slovakia), Budapest (Hungary), Novi Sad and Belgrade (Serbia), Constanţa (Romania). It took them three years to reach halfway – 501 locks (the deepest of 30 meters), six tunnels (one of them six kilometers in an hour), eight rivers, 18 channels and nine highest point at 406 meters of altitude). There were 5 thousand kilometers in 15 months distributed over three years. They took this time because they hibernate. When winter comes, they return to London (to work, which is like someone who says to return to “real life”), and the boat is in a dry dock waiting for the crew ( happened in France, Austria and Romania) “We go back, we work and we earn some money, it’s all about finding a balance.” On return there are always small problems to solve, “they say, sitting in front of a webcam in the last EU country, already very close to the Black Sea ( they will now descend the Danube to Sulina).

It will take “at least” another two years to get back to the starting point. They follow along the coast to Odessa and from there Europe. Kiev (Ukraine), Brest (Belarus), Warsaw (Poland), Berlin and Hannover (Germany), Holland, Belgium and France. “It’s incredible,” Ana sums up. “Everyone waves and smiles along the way.” When they do not have to stop, they try to anchor. And live the river. “We search for a place far from the stream or a tributary, we launch the anchor and sit surrounded by beautiful nature, forests and trees, many birds. No Internet [Fugas had tried the interview a few days before, but nature won]. Beautiful. When there is little current and a good day of sun one can swim. The water is clear many times. But Ana is not swiming because the fish are very big and she is afraid. We’re in the middle of nowhere, “sighs Hamish.

To the traditional question “why are you doing this?” He often says, “why are you going to the office every day?” “When we wake up in the morning we do not know where we’ll be at the end of the day,” Ana explains. “Go with the flow.” In the most literal sense of the expression. She says, “Find your balance.” He: “Live your life!”

In Serbia, Hamish established contact through binoculars with one person. They waved and ended up staying for a month. “We meet a lot of nice people along the way,” says Hamish, who coordinates online projects and teaches storytelling with the smartphone. Registering everything along the way for a future documentary. “We can search for information about rivers and canals on the Internet, but the only reliable information available is the word of mouth. The information does not exist. “Day-to-day life also depends on the” generosity of strangers “(like the friend of the friend who is an engineer and only a few moments ago came around and said that the engine is good). “In the world of boats we have to be friendly with everyone. We have to help everyone because we need help often. This is a very generous open community. It’s a bit like the world should be, “points out Hamish, who used to hitchake around the world.

In the first half of the epic adventure, they found “some German adventurers” and “couples of retired Englishmen” (“everyone voted for Brexit, everyone travels abroad “) who also travel by boat through the rivers. “I was the second to have such a boat in London,” recalls Hamish. “There’s about 20 now.” a dignt of changing times, maybe. Within a few years, predicts the captain of the lifeboat, there will be many more. “Move to a hill or a mountain or live in a boat. Either one or the other. “There will be no return.

Boating Europe
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The #dotcons put shiny on there poison pill and we swallowed a heap

Q. but then facebook fucked it all up
http://members.aye.net/~hippie/hippie/special_.htm

A. Yes, well we kinda fucked it up before #failbook came along. The #ossification of #indymedia network from my memory comes to mind. Tecnolagy as individualism over tecnolagy as social, the blogging revolution and years of pointless #encryptionists projects are good examples. Then the #dotcons puts shiny on there poison pill and we all swallowed heaps of “socialmedia” and here we are deep in the #deathcult with a vernier of the #openweb on the edge #OMN

The problem of the green party attack on social democracy

Q. Small scale local anarchic permaculture type economies based on barter. That’s my opinion, what’s yours? And what are you doing to facilitate it.

A. This is a hard question to answer for most greens as they push small scale local economy which cannot scale to the billions of disinterested not to say hostile people that they need to change to there view. The is a time scale to this urgently needed change, in this the green view is not real for the 95% outside there world view.

A. Think the green view can and should be applied to the 1% who can move in this direction. This leaves 99% who need some way to survive this transition. Maybe 4% will die from climate chaos this still leaves 90% that need a different solutions and the current choice is a reboot of a “greened” social democracy, the corban project or pushing us back into fascism as a top down “solution” what ever happens we face the move to a war time economy in the next 20 years. The is no role for neoliberalism and only a secondary role for liberalism in this war on “climate chaos”

A. The green party’s in hand with the right media attack on the labour party is a direct push for the fascist outcome. Of course to play devil “fascist eco polices” could save our environment. But do you wont to live in the world of the “Hand maiden’s tale” or our other popular dystopias? You have the power to choice over the next few years.

Tesla is greenwash #deathcult

A. Musk says Tesla will be out of money in 10 months without ‘hardcore’ changes – The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/17/18629166/elon-musk-tesla-money-changes-cfo-employee-expenses All the #greenwash is a part of the #deathcult its simple to understand this.

Q. what are you saying?

A. that tesla is greenwash #deathcult

Q. what does that even mean? Should I sell my Tesla now? Am I being scammed ??????

A. It’s fine to enjoy your car, but look clearly at the social/economic system that built it and sold your desire to owen it. that’s all a #deathcult and its not getting better soon #XR

Q. Tesla didn’t get bailed out by the US government. Why weren’t GM, Ford, and Chrysler allowed to fail? They socialize their losses and privatize their profits.

Tesla is the most American car company that exists right now. There is no death cult or green washing.

A. just about all the #dotcons in transport and space are heverly government subsidised its basic stuff and is thus part of the neo-loberal #deathcult that its currently killing us all #XR

Q. The solar city investment doesn’t sit well, tbqh.

A. just do a search, here is a link to start you off https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-musk-subsidies-20150531-story.html state socialism for the #dotcons and a #deathcult for the rest of us.

Q. my desire to own it is to have a simpler car and also one that doesn’t pollute. It’s easier to reduce emissions from power generation than to audit the tailpipes of every car on the road. It also doesn’t affect air quality of the humans around the car. It’s quite simple, really.

You can’t be mad at Tesla for leveraging programs the government created to increase innovation and build American technology and then ignore the money small businesses can get to bootstrap their ventures. It’s the same thing, different scale.

You are being willfully ignorant about the government’s role in a healthy capitalist economy.

A. Am actually saying the capitalist economy is a deeply unhealthy #deathcult and Musk and his private/public state enterprises are clear to see simption of this. His projects we keep feeding on public subsidies which I have nothing against. But as you say it’s billed as “healthy capitalist economy” which as the article points out it is not my problem.

Q. oh, so what kind of economy will solve the world’s problems?

A. Now that is a question that is hard to answer, what I can say is that the neoliberal #deathcult we have currently is not going to save us. #XR movement in the UK highlights this, we are likely to move to social democracy or fascism in the UK over the next few years. I don’t think either of those can save us. so it’s an open question we currently do not have an answer too. I champion a move away from the #dotcons back onto the openweb as a #stepway project, my small part.

Capitalism is now visibly a #deathcult its basic stuff

Reminder: Climate Change Was No Accident

As far back as 1982, fossil fuel executives knew they were trading a few…

Q. I notice you have used the #deathcult hashtag a few times recently on posts about capitalism, neo-liberalism and green consumerism, so I thought I would look it up. Wikipedia says that Death Cult may refer to an early name for the British rock band The Cult or a compilation album featuring all the songs from Death Cult. Under “See also” it links to the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (also known as the Southern Death Cult), and to Southern Death Cult as yet another name for the band. Finally it says it is used as a synonym for the term “destructive cult”.

Destructive cults are described in the Wikipedia entry for Cult as “groups whose members have, through deliberate action, physically injured or killed other members of their own group or other people”. John Gordon Clark cited totalitarian systems of governance and an emphasis on money making as characteristics of a destructive cult.

A. good research, am trying to get #XR beyond liberalism were #deathcult solutions are discussed with out a thought. A step.

Q. Hamish just loves a hashtag! Once he gets his hands on one he uses it until it falls apart.
A. The idea is to spread um so that they join the mainstream discussion and then becomes the mainstream. Simple idea, very hard for #stupidindividualism #fashernistas to actually do anything so simple. Much like #stepaway from the #dotcons is simple #OMN One can but keep trying, while sailing away on a lifeboat #boatingeurope

Q. I am beginning to suspect you are getting money each time you mention one of these 😉

A. Sadly not, though when I recommend stuff on my blog I anyway put an affiliate link, more outa curiosity to see if it works than any income. Think the is a little money in a paypal account which I have lost the PW and can’t reset die to old phone number 😉

A. #hashtags click on um, search the web with um, use them to create conversations across the #dotcons and out onto the #openweb it’s a little stepaway that is easy to do. It’s a shame about #stupidindividualism #fashionistas that they can’t be a part of this #stepaway its basic stuff.

A. Of course neoliberal Capitalism was always a #deathcult just now with #XR it’s kinda ok to say this. A good example to give people is the Irish potato famine, as we are likely to repeat this soon with climate change hitting industrial agriculture. We really don’t want to be in the dogmatic neoliberal world when this hits as were then, lots of death and despair to go around.

From the #dotcons

“Thrown into the mix are the US Evangelical Christians who are waiting for Armageddon, the End Times, and the Second coming of Christ, and who welcome climate change catastrophe as a confirmation of their twisted beliefs.

The only time – to my knowledge – that I was ever unfriended on Facebook was by an Evangelical Christian Zionist, now living in the USA, who was offended by my posts showing The Israeli military bombing the hell out of civilians in Gaza. It confused me at the time, but I only recently found out that Jews returning to Israel is also a ‘sign’ of the approaching End Times for those Christian Fundamentalists.

It really is a death cult. US Republicanism, especially in its Christian Fundamentalist form, is a death cult of the most dangerous kind, and is without doubt the greatest obstacle to the continued existence of life on Planet Earth.”

Tools for portable video screening

If you are interested in a portable screening projector, this is a full cost 1000 lumens LED solution. I have been useing the older 500 lumens version of this projector for a few years https://amzn.to/2VvnmhC it works well and most importantly you can run it off an external laptop battery https://amzn.to/2WL1LmP

This battery is cheap and is the only one I can find that works with solar, will charge off USB and 12v solar panal. You could do this cheaper with a LED projecter from china but its toss a coin that the projecter will work in a good way, and the specks are half lies.

How to be an Admin in the SPAM era?

How to admin #failbook group in the era of the #deathcult were SPAM has economic value.

First step have a list of questions to answer, you will likely still have a growing list of people who have not answered them, if you have the time to try this.

Using there profiles:

* Friend of a friend, they are likely to be connected to the movement if the are a number of friends of friends, if they have friends you trust in common than they are likely not to be spammers so let them though.

* groups – if they belong to eco – non spammy groups then likely OK if they have groups in common then probably OK let them through.

* then if in doubt check their timelines if the is spam then decline, if there is no eco stuff them it’s debatable. I would leave them in the que.

Of course only do this process if you have the time, its optional.

How do #openweb projects deal with this issue?

It is a media war and we have no media

We are in befuddling times and the #dotcons and #conspiracynutters agenders are not helping. In fact they make it much wereas, that’s why it best to not spread the chemical crap, it’s not good fertilizer, keep media organic #openweb

In the westen world I would say almost all the war that matters is fought in the media. YES the disadvantaged are the casualties and the 3ed world will be disseminated. BUT they do not matter to the power plays that fight the war, collateral damage. The war that makes a difference is fought in the media and we have ZERO media distribution of our own, its a problem that undercurrents mediated for a time.

It is a media war and we have no media #OMN

A Q&A on altmedia

Q. First question, to start things off. Setting aside the negative aspects of social media platforms like Facebook for a moment, what does, say Facebook do well? In other words, how can platforms like Facebook be used in a positive way by your average person? How can it be used in a positive way by someone who considers themselves an activist?

A. Its a pay to view platform for any outreach beyond family and a few friends. So you can keep in touch with family and a few friends while being reshaped by the algorithms into god knows what, but probably not very social.

You can run fluffy activism on #failbook but agen this will be shaped by the algorithms to create friction and then amplify this into social fires. Trolls will take over your pages after a time.

So good for making a few events happen then failing.

Q. Second question. Can you give an example of an alternative to a platform like Facebook, and describe two or three things that this alternative platform does better?

A. There are many good projects on the #openweb at moment, most of them built around a standard called activertypub. Currently you can reach over 2 million users based on thousands of different services that all talk to each other.

For activist you could try http://campaign@openworlds.info for a fluffy view or http://actavisam@openworlds.info for a more spiky.

These platforms do not have the addictive algorithms that the #dotcons have so you get out what you put in. If you put focuses and activity in you will find yourself taking responsibility for building your own communities of new interesting people who tend to be much nicer that the people that #dotcons connect you too. The applications work easily across all formats with modern ui’s its a simple step, if you can focus for a time.

Q. Third question. Can you briefly describe why we need alternative platforms like the one you mentioned above.

A. The #dotcons shape us into being isolated individuals feeding our attentions/lives to depressing consumption and ecological disaster. All the time distracting us with cat memes and news gossip, to this despair its bread and circuses, an old trick.

Q. And if you’d like to add where you think a conversation like this ought to go, in terms of direction, topics to cover, that would also be really helpful.

A. Could talk about #XR

Our citys under Capitalism #deathcult

Next 20 years you are looking at shifting the economy to a wartime footing to deal with climate change. State Socialism is an outcome, horrific fascism another. I don’t think there is a role for liberal democracy for the next few generations. Currently we have none of the technology infrastructure for a tech utopia. Green solutions do not scale to human social levels, ecological political views are not likely to have a good “social” effect on the mega cities.

Which means Extinction for the big cities… am not sure people will allow that to happen. Likely to get messy, thus it’s inevitable that we have some form or war economy – fascist/socialist etc. The idea of small experiments is a good one but it wont work for 90% of the city people. Still good to support that as a side stream.

The city’s are just going to fail, they are building 1 million new homes in london, most near water. The new super sewage system along the Thames will be flooded and destroyed, the power stations are mainly at water level. A city of this scale which is even now expanding without basic infrastructure is asking for disaster.

Capitalism is now a #deathcult what does 21 century war economy look like?

The fluffy/spiky debate and #XR

Updated with this image

The fluffy/spiky debate in #XR is well on the fluffy side, not a bad thing. You’re seeing noise from the confused, spiky side of the tribe in reaction to this.

Fluffy/spiky is not a moral judgment, rather it is a respect for diversity. Think #XR was fab, what comes next. They are doing it badly and without expirence from a spiky point of view, much like #XR is doing social change. Though it’s good that someone is doing it 🙂

I wish the spiky/anarchists would slow down the flow of piss on #XR and do something useful themselves, it’s a bad look pissing on social change from outside. As far as I can see, activism has been a fuckup since occupy etc. Pastime the spikeys did something other than talk, says the man sailing away on a lifeboat #boatingeurope now keep it focused

On this path it is best not to point links at the conspiracy loons, post screen captures if you need to. Don’t feed the trolls. I did try a plan to get people to post good fluff/spiky outreach videos to celebrate/connect activist history to the current #XR groups, but is not working, the image is of the viewing figures for the last 48 hours, just 12 views for one of the videos. If you want to help make this move http://hamishcampbell.com/…/anarchists-please-stop-the-sni…/

Anarchists please stop the sniping at #XR from the sidelines and get stuck into some direct action

Feel free to share the #climatecamp videos widely in Facebook/Twitter/openweb pages for #XR as it’s good that the new generation have a connection to their history.

If you’re an anarchist please share these videos, if the #XR admins don’t block them then they radicalize #XR if they block them they question their credibility, simple effective social change.

Please stop the sniping from the sidelines and get stuck into some direct action.