March 14, 2026
It’s 11:10 here in Hua Hin, and I’ve just made myself a Negroni that turned out rather well—both in taste and color. I like having one when we go for brunch by the beach, but the restaurant Natalia chose today doesn’t serve Negronis. So, in anticipation, I’m having one at home instead. Reading a Financial Times article about a buzzy lunch the author—Henry Manse—had with Nigel Farage may also have prompted the sudden urge for the cocktail.
I was scheduled to travel to Panamá today to sail BEHEMOTH to Galápagos but I won’t. This time the change of plans has nothing to do with monsters. Natalia has been promoted: she will be based in New Delhi starting April 1st, and Woland and I will follow. The logistics of the move require me to stay put until the end of May.
Since returning from Ecuador in mid January I have been in Hua Hin aside from a short trip to Morocco and a couple of days in BKK for a colonoscopy and a general health check up. The results of the various tests indicate I am a healthy 56-year-old man.
The only other event to report was Sofia’s visit during her school spring break, from February 22 to March 7. We had a great time, but as always, it was too short.
I was supposed to fly to Beirut the day after her departure but had to cancel because of the war. I was working on programs to support the recovery and create jobs but everything is now on hold; another setback for a country that seems unable to control its own destiny and is trapped in a perpetual crisis.
I have been doing some work on the impact of AI on jobs. Much has been written on the topic over the past couple of years, but it is one of those cases where we face deep uncertainty. This is uncertainty that goes beyond standard risk, when we do not know the probability distribution of different outcomes. Don’t trust anybody who tells you they know what will happen — good, bad, or in between.
As for BEHEMOTH and the next passage, I’ve worked things out with Natalia. After moving with Woland to New Delhi and getting settled, I plan to fly to Panama and spend a couple of months cruising the Gulf of Panama aboard BEHEMOTH. The passage to the Galápagos will have to wait until December. Sailing between April and November is not ideal: the ITCZ tends to be broader and more unstable, with light, erratic winds, frequent squalls, and adverse currents.
Sailing to the Pacific 