It seems to me that many people over-think this whole cruising thing before they set out and buy things they would never use in their land-lives. For example, if you didn't own a gun before, why is it necessary to own a gun when you move onto your boat?
Much like I would not make my home in the slums of (insert some city here) I would not take my floating home to the slums of (insert some country here).
Our boat is our home and we plan on living in places we like, and feel safe and comfortable in. We never owned a weapon to protect us in our houses, so why do we need one now? We chose to live in safe neighborhoods onshore and now we choose to live in safe anchorages or marinas.
Though I have to admit that we do own a gun - a flare gun. And if you've seen the movie Captain Ron you will know how much damage one of those can inflict. But if scary men with weapons want to rob my home I say let them! We're insured and I think fighting back would just tick them off and make us all the more unsafe.
Oh, and if that's not enough: Guns are illegal in Mexico so we didn't really have a choice anyway.
Oh, and if that's not enough: Guns are illegal in Mexico so we didn't really have a choice anyway.
Great post! could not have said it better.
ReplyDeleteExcellent point! Sometimes it helps to state the obvious, and you did it so well.
ReplyDeleteWell said! The whole guns/cruising conflict has always mystified me.
ReplyDeleteI have to confess. When started planning to go cruising, I was going to take a gun. Actually a whole arsenal. At one point I had planned on 5-6 guns of various types.
ReplyDeleteAs with most things, humans are typically awful at assessing risk. I was no exception even though half of my job is assessing risk (related to environmental cleanup). We often place too much emphasis on things that are not that risky, shark bites at the beach for instance, while not paying attention to things that are truly risky, like driving in traffic.
I was reading the book Freakonomics and it made me rethink the whole gun thing. I realized I was putting way too much weight into the outlier stories of pirates and other boardings and not enough on all of the people out safely cruising. Now I don't plan to bring any guns.
Good post.