Ray Jason has been writing the Sea Gypsy Philosopher blog, for the last twelve years largely touching on politics and social issues. His commentary is filtered through his unusual lived experience of being a longtime ex-pat open water sailor living on his boat, the Aventura. Ray's greatest contribution to the blogosphere is his Sea Gypsy Tribe concept — his belief that small bands of ocean-dwelling cruisers can both survive and flourish after any type of catastrophe which is the main thrust of our conversation here Ray's personal life path has been quite out of the ordinary. Right after college graduation, he was drafted and ended up in Vietnam on a U.S. Navy ammunition ship. Post-service malaise steered him away from the so-calleed Real World and he spent the next 20 years as a highly successful San Francisco street performer — juggling, his specialty. When that scene began to deteriorate, he commenced his sea gypsy life and has not lived on land since 1992.

We speak with Ray today aboard his sailboat somewhere in the Banana Latitudes of Central America.