Interesting times...

According to the news this morning, Egypt has shut down the internet and cut cell phone systems to avoid a repeat of the recent silliness that just toppled the President of Tunisia...

Interesting times indeed!

Off hand, I'd be very nervous these days if I was a politician living high on the hog while the citizens of the country I was supposed to serve were poor and underemployed and being fed tough love while the wealthy and big business got to do whatever they wanted to. We are, needless to say, talking about various Arab and middle-eastern countries, of course...

Which has me thinking of various cruising plans over the next couple of years as, whenever possible, I prefer to cruise in interesting places that are not "interesting" to the point of having to pack Kevlar for day to day wear... Well, unless they start making Kevlar in festive Hawaiian prints!

The real bug in the ointment with our plans for the next couple of years has been The Schengen Agreement which make staying for any length of time  with a sailboat in Europe somewhat problematic these days and the fact that the Suez canal was part of the exit plan in doing an ass-backwards circumnavigation.

The Schengen, is doable and simply a pain in the butt of keeping the i's dotted and the t's crossed but more so as Turkey has also decided to do some serious additional red tape and visa hassles which add to the problematic nature of things Schengen...

But, Suez to me is the real hassle as I simply don't want to fuss with the bureaucratic nightmare and baksheesh that is part and parcel of doing the Suez canal (pretty much the same sort of reaction that has me no longer flying on planes in the US of A  as it is simply no longer fun) these days... and if it's not fun why bother?

I'm thinking I need to spend some serious time looking at my copy of  "World Cruising Routes"...