adaptive response...

The biggest obstacle for someone intending to sail away and live on a sustainable boat is not about money, hurricanes, pirates, or restrictive legalities it's group think. Or, to put it another way, following the herd.

Now, herd mentality exists in all pursuits and walks of life and it's just part of the matrix we find ourselves in. As it happens, escaping the herd used to be the primary reason most people became cruisers. Read just about any cruising book from the sixties or seventies and it quickly become apparent that cruising was not a group sort of endeavor.

Of course, times change. We find ourselves in a world where there are enough people cruising that folks on boats are now an assemblage of various herds and something of a bastion of group think. Depending on which group you subscribe to, there are implied guidelines of how one cruises, what sort of boat is acceptable, and most importantly, what is unacceptable. Gone are the days when people sailed away to escape the herd but now go to sea to join the herd.

Obviously, folks of a VolksCruiserish bent don't quite fit in to the various popular herds and mindsets.Which, considering the alternative is actually non-problematic if not advantageous for those who don't quite fit into whatever herd/group think on offer.

Setting out on your own without the herds safety net forces us to adapt and adaptation is a good thing. My biggest issue with group think situations is that they often result in stasis when the group does not come to a clear consensus on what to do.

You know, like when there's a hurricane comings and everyone's talking about what to do and no one is doing what they need to do. Sadly, a situation I see with every storm that comes through.

Meanwhile, some folks not wired to the hive mind are already in the mangroves putting out anchors and preparing or sailing their boats somewhere the hurricane won't be.

Not being part of the herd allows you to make decisions and adapt to a given situation in a timely manner which is often the difference between surviving and not surviving.

I see some big changes coming soon and, I suspect, most cruising herds will have big problems adapting in spite of the fact that we all know they're coming. Charles Darwin made a good point when he said...

"It's not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change"