The Victory Lap

But it is very much a sailing-related post nonetheless. You have to be pretty daft not to connect the dots that dead dolphins, turtles, fish and seabirds drowned in an oil slick the size of Florida directly impacts sailing. Much more important, however, the responses to this disaster are clearly illuminating, more everyday, what priority level our beloved oceans are currently receiving.

It does not matter whether or not a rag-tag bunch of cruisers love the ocean. The people with POWER AND MONEY are the ones who will save our seas or sell them off and let them die.

Although this post does not compare anchors, or speak about fractional rigs, or give waypoints to my most-secret anchorages, it speaks to a reality check about our marine world, its wildlife, and where it rates in the political world, news/entertainment industry, and business world (the people with real power and money).

I have been silent for a few days while simply trying to understand what the response is to this BP debacle. In the evening, when the news comes on and they show the dead/dying wildlife, Melissa openly cries and, like I have said before, there is a rule on The Moon: nobody cries alone.

Dolphins have been choked and been killed just like the birds that are dead and rotting too. There is obviously some hanky panky going on with the Coast Guard and BP keeping photo ops limited.

Last night the media exposed that only a tiny number of boats are actually collecting/skimming oil . . . when BP says there are thousands of boats working it’s not indicative of the ones actually WORKING ON THE SPILL. Their CEO is being “slick” when he claims all those boats are working. Only 116 are skimming.

Miles of Louisians’s beaches and marshes are barron of any people or help. Many Louisiana islands have severe oil, but have never been inspected by the authorities yet, much less cleaned or protected.

That dour turd who runs the Coast Guard always has a look on his face like he just committed an axe murder and buried small children, or else was complicit in allowing someone else to do.

BP’s CEO is the worst brand of arrogant British Prick I’ve seen since the San Blas where one ruined a sunset party for cruisers with a level of classic Brit arrogance that was radioactive.

I am cycling between ranting by myself and crying with Melissa over the mass murder of her most favorite living things on earth: the beautiful creatures of the sea.

So, how does the rest of the world feel?

Gee, when there is an earthquake in Haiti, every show-business grandstander shows up. Travolta fuels the jet . . . stars can’t wait to be photographed holding little Haitian babies. Rock stars can’t wait to sing songs and stage benefits and save somebody else’s world.

But when it comes to sea life, none of those stars give a damn enough to show up and use their celebrity. Where are all the movie stars and rock stars? Why aren’t they picking up oil, or sick birds, or singing “We are the World” on Grand Ilse and putting it on tv?

The same thing happened in Katrina. Maybe it’s Louisiana.

THIS IS NOT POLITICAL! I am desperately trying, in my own mind, to understand why when everybody else in the world gets a terrible disaster laid at their feet, people jump up and take action . . . rock/movie stars actually fuel the jet!

But let Louisiana get decimated and, for two times now, Hollywood says, over dinner and the evening news on tv: “Gee that’s too bad; honey can you pass the salt.”

The awful lesson I am starting to learn is that NOBODY gives a damn about Louisiana. There can be no broader demonstration of this than having two VERY different Presidents have Louisiana disasters take place on their watch and go out to dinner and go on vacation and let somebody else MIShandle it.

When Katrina hit, Bush was out to lunch and stayed there. When the BP blowout hit, Obama was out to lunch and stayed there far too long and precious time to appreciate the scope and mobilize was lost . . . much more effort should have been organized to keep oil OUT of the marshes and offshore.

The lack of efforts and personal attention to Katrina and BP, from both Presidents, is an insult and a disgrace if you are watching through Louisiana eyes. Do you all realize that Katrina damage is STILL THERE BIG TIME?

But that is a digression. The SEA is in our hearts and the primary subject here.

I am very troubled. If Hollywood is not incensed and involved, and if the federal government had been delegating/capitulating to BP and helping to “spin” this and even control images of dead wildlife, then it does not bode well for the long term health and safety of Melissa’s best friends.

Melissa still talks about the teenage girl “Fiona” we met in Roatan . . . yes the dolphin we swam with.

Whatever that compelling connection is when people see a dirty orphaned Hatian baby after an earthquake and will fuel the jet . . . well, Melissa’s connection to the sea creatures is just that strong or stronger.

Perhaps, the explanation is that all person’s have seen and loved human babies in their immediate families, but for many, the sea is a mystery and an environment they have no personal connection with.

And that may foster our ulitmate heartbreak one day as sailors and cruisers and oceanographers. The next few centuries will be a turning point and I am terrified for the creatures of the sea. If our oceans have become nothing more than a “gee that sucks, please pass the salt” dinnertime commentary, then that is a MUCH bigger disaster than this terrible blowout.

I am praying and trying to understand.

Melissa and Fiona in Roatan

Anyway, where is the celebrity outcry? Where is the sense of urgency from our federal government? Last night, an ABC poll showed that people have rated the federal government’s response to the BP spill as WORSE than the response to Katrina. Does that mean that dolphins rate even lower on the scale?

I don’t know. But it sure looks like it. And considering our love for the sea and its populations, this is a cruel and heartbreaking litmus test that is cutting us to the bone.

Buddy