It’s incredible to think that it has been three years since the first seastead was established in international waters, at an equally incredible cost of $150,000. Three years since that first seastead passed “the wine test”.
Three years since the harrowing events surrounding Chad and Nadia Elwartowski occurred off the coast of Thailand. Three years since the Thai Navy sailed out to them with gun boats and assault rifles and helicopters.
What has happened in those three years? A LOT!
We’ve come leaps and bounds since then. Grant Romundt, who helped Chad and Nadia escape Thailand, is now the CEO of Ocean Builders. They are preparing to launch their new and vastly improved SeaPod model this coming spring. We’ve spread the message of seasteading far and wide, and our global community has grown immensely. We’ve had new startups from our Ambassadors and others, such as Arktide, Atlas Island, and Flexbase (you can read our previous post about Flexbase here). We’ve had great learning experiences, from the events surrounding the MS Satoshi, to deep dives into potential seasteading businesses, such as integrated multi-trophic aquaculture farming (which you can read more about here). I myself joined The Seasteading Institute in December of 2020, and joined the wider, global, seasteading family.
The world has also had great upheavals. From the ongoing global COVID pandemic that’s lasted nearly two full years now, to the ever growing concerns about climate change and rising sea levels. More and more, we’ve been seeing increases in the public, media, and government interest in seasteading as a solution to some of these problems. People are talking. People are listening. More and more, people are asking questions and waking up to the possibilities that seasteading can give us.
I’m excited to tell you about the new book that’s coming, in which Joe Quirk will tell the true adventure story of what happened during those critical events three years ago for the first time:
The Freest Person in the World:
How the First Seasteaders Escaped the Greatest Manhunt in Thailand’s History
“We’ll take you from the first moment they learned of the death threat through the moment they build seasteads again in Panama.
“In between, the most harrowing, hair-raising, swashbuckling, death-defying, insane and inspiring true story I’ve ever heard is going to be told, derived from transcripts of the people who lived it.”
– Joe Quirk, President of The Seasteading Institute
If you know of the best way to self-publish this book, and want to share your knowledge, please email us at info at seasteading.org. While Joe has had a lot of success in the past with previously used publishers, this time around, we want to publish this book ourselves.
It’s amazing to think of just how far we’ve all come in three years.
Imagine where we’ll be in the next three years.
