As Ireland buried former Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, maybe we also buried a phase of history when we thought the State was able to guarantee personal security, in the same way that Messrs Lenihan and Cowan blithely assumed that the State was in a position to guarantee the Irish banks. Many people are still trying to wish them right, but really they should realize the truth by now. After all many is the person who has worked and scraped for a lifetime, and invested a meager, hard-earned life’s savings in, for example, Irish bank shares. Recently we have just had to think the unthinkable; the banks, the State and indeed the EU itself all currently teeter on bankruptcy, and meanwhile the mighty USA is in the same boat.

            For this state of affairs, we may adduce many reasons. Yes, there are all those post-war baby-boomers like myself getting to retirement age, and old people living longer. There are all those people out of work, there are the multiplicity of ways, family break-down and so on, in which society is becoming more and more dysfunctional. But there is one contributing factor  which sticks out a mile, which could be remedied by firm multi-national action but which it seems to me does not get the attention it deserves (clue – who owns the papers?), namely that both rich individuals and corporations can so easily avoid paying tax. You can read all about it here:- http://www.oldharborbooks.net/google-ebooks/treasure-islands-uncovering-damage-offshore-banking-and-tax-havens.

            Well setting sail from Kinsale, on my own as it happened, with the promise of a couple of days’ NW wind (not that there’s any scarcity of that lately), I was wafted in 52 hours to another island in the Atlantic, where our Bella and three of our grandchildren live: Guernsey. From Ireland , where people, who thought that their house was worth €900,000, have recently had to recognize they could only in fact sell it for half that, I landed in that magic little island where a similar house might still be valued at £2,000,000. Which goes to show that there must be considerable advantages in living there!

            Being so near La France, I had to take the chance to visit; time being short I went to the nearest port, Dielette, just 24 sea miles from St Peter Port. Chris Creagh, a friend of Bella’s from Guernsey and to whom I am indebted for the photos at right, was up for the trip, we had a fine afternoon sail there, past the beautiful isle of Sark, but trying not to see the hideous mansion built by the Barclay Brothers on its little sister Brecqhou. (They own the Sunday and Daily Telegraphs, the Spectator, the Scotsman….) 

           Considering what Dielette was like in a moderate NW breeze, I would hate to think what it’s like in an onshore gale, but otherwise it’s a grand harbor. Be warned also that the gauge beside the sill does not indicate the depth of water over it, as one might expect, but simply the height of the tide. If the base of the beacon marking the eastern side of the sill is covered, there is about 2 m over it.

          In the photo of it at low tide, you can just glimpse the cranes busy constructing two new reactors for the Flamanville nuclear power station, just over the hill. It is beside the sea, with a massive breakwater in front of it, reminding one of Fukushima. Not far away is the huge old plant at Cap de la Hague. To buy supplies one needs to go about 7km up the road to the pretty Norman town of Les Pieux. Taking a taxi there, I asked our driver what he thought of the nuclear power stations. He said there was no alternative to using nuclear power, that it brought many jobs to the area, including several factories dependent on the electricity, and that they were well used to the old Cap de la Hague plant, which did not appear to have affected anyone’s health. I refrained to comment that if it was so safe, why had they tucked the new plant right under a cliff? You could only see the extent of the outfit from the sea.

         I maintain there is no shortage of energy in the world, we have but to apply ourselves to harnessing it, and developing the new ways of storing and distributing it; fuel cells and so forth. That precious economic growth can only come this way. It needs to be as localized and decentralized as possible; the opposite of nuclear power, with all its hazards that would increase our dependency on dangerous power structures totally beyond our control. Whatever about that, just when I wanted them, there happily came two days NE wind to blow me home from Guernsey, complete with a crew, Louis-Marie and Gilbert, whom Fiona had magicked up from Brittany. She does some great things with this computer after all!

Archive:
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Midsummer report 2008
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October 2007 - 1
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May 2007 report
April 2007
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November 2006
October 2006

West Cork Sustainable Fisheries Group Launch

Tuna Trip 2007
On launching Wavedancing - 19 April 2006

IWDG Cabo Verde Expedition - 11th March 2006

Just a reminder:-

http://www.fastnetline.com/special_offers.html

The ferry is a much better idea than flying, though not so good as calling up the Anna M if you happen to have the time! The odd trip to UK, France or Spain is very welcome, and I'm planning a trip to Scotland late May this year.