[fc] BearerBoat '03???

[R. A. Hettinga]

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The Bearer Boat Sails Again?

R.A. Hettinga,
IBUC


Dateline: Roslindale, MA, with winter coming on. ...From the "shoot
me now before I sail again" Department... 


So, someone sent out a feeler to me recently about a panel at
Financial Cryptography '03 <http://www.fc.ai/fc03>, and, when I
popped up on Hotwire today to nip such lunacy in the bud, I saw a
$633 round trip Boston to Guadeloupe, Saturday 1/25/03 to Saturday
2/1/03, which, frankly, was annoying, because said bud wouldn't nip
so easily. 

*That*, in turn, reminded me of the giant glossy SunSail package I
got little while ago, because SunSail
<http://www.sunsail.com/usa/bareboat/index.html> is who we chartered
the cat (okay, barge, but it was a big and comfortable barge when you
kept it out of the open ocean) that was the BearerBoat at FC2K, and,
opening this four-color monster up to find the rate sheet so I could
disabuse myself of such a bizarre fantasy, I noticed two very
annoying things: 

One, SunSail has got *much* better cats than they used to,
Fontaine-Pajots
<http://www.fountaine-pajot.com/nfountaine/6_gamme/listeGamme.asp?type
Gamme=fp>, which are, with the exception of Catanas, just about the
fastest cats you can get for Carribbean cruising, (mostly) fast and
roomy, and certainly spiffy to look at, and, 

Two, SunSail's Guadeloupe base is, in fact, at Gosier
<http://www.sunsail.com/brochure/bareboat/bareboat_baseinfo.cgi?rescod
e=chlegu&languageid=us&origin=2>, the very harbor Guadeloupe that FC
'03 is being held on... 


So, in order to dissuade myself of any further idiocy, I called
SunSail, and got a quote for a boat, and a skipper to keep us out of
trouble, and that was annoying, because it wasn't that bad,
considering. 

Okay, so it's not nearly as cheap as the deal we got at the last
minute last year, but, it's not *too* bad, considering that the
boat's guaranteed to be less than 2 years old (and heh, a Fontaine
Pajot, instead of a barge disguised as a Wauquiez catamaran. Which
was just fine for a sunset cruise with cocktails or as a snorkel
platform, you understand, but you needed to turn on the engines to
tack, and heaven help you when coming out of St. Martin's Oyster Pond
into the teeth of those settee-bashing 12 foot rollers from Africa.
Something we won't have to deal with at Gosier, by the way, because I
just checked a chart... :-)) 

And, while it's not nearly as cheap as even a *suite* at the
conference hotel -- which is a pretty damn good deal for the
earth-bound -- it's probably about what you'd pay for moderately
pricey hotel elsewhere on the island, per person. You'd be sharing
your "suite"
<http://www.fountaine-pajot.com/nfountaine/6_gamme/plans.asp?typeGamme
=&gamme=Belize+43> (click "Quatour" for the floorplan, buried in
Javascript) with a few people, but you'd have your own cabin, and
there are four, count 'em, four shower/heads on this thing, plus,
being a Caribbean cruising cat there's *lots* of room in the cat
itself. And, hey, your hotel room goes for a day-sail every
afternoon, and/or a sunset cruise, or even in the morning, should you
only be attending the "social program", as the conference delicately
puts it. You're also sleeping on something anchored in the harbor (or
maybe, since it's at the base anyway, they'd let us have a slip...),
which may or may not have its charms, depending on your vestibular
system, or lack thereof. 

I figure, along with renting a van like we did last time on Anguilla,
plus a tip for the skipper, and provisions (including various
libations...), discounting possible reductions on same of eating at
the conference and attending various soirees on the "social program",
and, apparently, a 5% discount they gave me for being a repeat
customer :-), we're looking at between $1,250 and $1,500 a head for
the whole week. Not including airfare, of course. Which, according to
Hotwire, is cheap. At the moment. Or, obviously, attendance at FC03
itself, which varies by all kinds of factors
<http://www.ifca.ai/fc03/index.php?page=registration>. 

No, don't ask me how, with a company which could politely be called
"hibernating" (and not bleeding out on the beach while the shark
swims away, that was *last* year), with still polite but possibly
restive creditors, and a $3000 Harvard Club bill to pay before we can
even do DCSB again :-), I'm supposed to make this junket to Mrs.
Slocomb's "Carribeano" work out for Carol and me. 

Right now, I'm just talking, right?

So, if you *also* want to "just talk" about doing this, email me, and
I'll get you the details. 

Hey, *weirder* things have happened at FC, right? :-). 

Cheers,
RAH

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-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'