RIHLA #20

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Ahoy my kitten bats!



So...let me let you in on a little secret: I'm a boater! Quite unexpected, right? When I was about 6 months old, my parents took me out sailing on our old Irwin 30' named "Little Bear". I became a sailor; therefore, I learned the tricks an tools of the trade. If you showed me a picture of a sailboat, I could point out the various parts such as the keel, mast, main sail, jib sail, boom, cockpit, cabin, sternum, bow, rudder, cleet, lines, port, starbort, and so on. Since my early days boating, my family has upgraded to a Irwin 34' name "Bare Bum".

Now, my Dad is the comadore of a 'yacht' club whose nickname is "The Pirates of Chicago" (*actual yacht club name undisclosed). The yacht club services boats and their owners who cannot afford to be apart of the ever-so-expensive Chicago Yacht Club. Because the yacht club and its members are based off of poorer standards, we are known as The Pirates, which is a pretty ill-fitting nickname considering the fact that we do not plunder other boats. We are just loud, crazy, technical, Rum-loving (21+), Jack Sparrow-admiring, die-hard sailors. The name 'Pirates" should not be used vainly to describe the lower class of boating; 'Pirates" should be used to describe the ACTUAL plunderers of the seas.

Piracy was and STILL is a major probem in the world. The marauders of the old world used guns, cannons, an brute force to take a ship; similarly, marauders of the present world follow the same feats, but, with more advanced weaponry and less bulky boats, they cause a lot more damage.

Sadly, international efforts are not stopping the Somali Priates that strike in the Arabian sea and off of the coast of Africa. The "Puntland Maritime Police Force" was an antipiracy army that was too shady in its nature to be supported by international efforts and was eventually dropped. Since then, raids of Somali pirate bases, which have destroyed many of their cumostary fiber-glass skiff boats, and tougher antipiracy laws have cut the Somali pirates forces in half, yet the Somali pirates still remain a terror at sea.

Personally, I can never see a point where piracy is justifiable (maybe if there was a Robin-hood like cause behind the pirates, but I am doubtful). Stealing is stealing no matter what name you call it by.

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Photos

Halei
My best friend eating breakfast while we were sailing home from a Michigan City Trip.

Water!
View from the bow of Bare Bum.