Dan Gladstone, 19, and Zachary Weindel, 26, have built a raft, and a dream — they hope to have a self-sufficient boat, a community and a way of life.
It’s called seasteading. Think homesteading. Now imagine it on the ocean.
“It’s freedom,” Gladstone says.
It’s bold, idealistic and, perhaps, quixotic. It’s living off the land while living on the sea. It is, Gladstone and Weindel say, a life without leases and rents, mortgages and taxes, electric bills and grocery-store visits.
“We like to think of it as an open biodome system,” Weindel says. “It’s like a micro-continent.”
“You’re not sustainable if you can’t grow your own food,” Gladstone says.
What you see and what they envision are far apart. The Providence men, both artists, activists and self-described amateur engineers, have big plans for their boat. This includes a garden and a small pasture for small livestock.
Lots of other entertaining stuff in the article: Two artists set a course for sustainability — on the ocean. Not sure if they know about TSI, but these are our kind of people!
Don’t remember if I mentioned this before, but I accidentally typed “seasteading.com” instead of .org, and it turned out that this address is also a valid website. It seems to be run by a guy called Jerome Fitzgerald who has much the same ideas as us. Worth a look. Jerome seems to be an accomplished sailor with a libertarian bent of mind. He’s even written a book about the topic.
He is an avid live-aboard boater. He doesn’t think much of our big business, big engineering approach.