Monthly Archives: April 2017

World Bank: Caribbean Should Spend Better, Not More – Caribbean360.com (subscription)

Posted: April 10, 2017 at 3:06 am

WASHINGTON, United States, Sunday April 9, 2017 Amid concerns about high spending by some Caribbean governments, the World Bank says theres nothing wrong with spending. But rather than spend more, they need to spend better.

It says Latin America and the Caribbean can dramatically improve its infrastructure by better assessing priorities and improving spending efficiency.

In an April 7 report titled Rethinking Infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean Spending Better to Achieve More, the World Bank argues that although the region trails others in infrastructure investment, it should focus on spending better before thinking of spending more.

While Latin America and the Caribbean spends 3 percent of GDP on average compared to 7.7 percent in East Asia and Pacific for instance many countries spend more than 4 percent.

Infrastructure investment can be a powerful engine for growth in Latin America and the Caribbean as the region emerges from six years of slowdown, including two of recession, said Jorge Familiar, World Bank Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean. In todays tight fiscal context, it is essential that investments are as efficient as possible, and that the full potential of the private sector be tapped.

Rather than focusing on often poorly defined financing gaps, the report advocates for addressing service gaps, according to countries development priorities. This means putting in place efficient ways of addressing these needs, and developing clear rules for deciding when taxpayers should finance services, instead of users.

Improving performance in a constrained fiscal environment will require well-identified priorities. The report singles out sanitation and transport, in which Latin America and the Caribbean lags behind other middle-income regions, as potential focus areas. In addition, the region should also factor concerns such as climate change, urbanization and its changing socioeconomic profile, in particular a larger middle class, which are changing infrastructure service demands especially on energy and transport.

Latin America and the Caribbean has long been an innovator in infrastructure, said Marianne Fay, Chief Economist for the World Banks Sustainable Development Vice-Presidency, and one of the authors of the report. With its expertise in sophisticated regulations and its experience with public-private partnerships, the region has the means to improve its infrastructure services by spending better and on the right things.

Spending more efficiently could have enormous benefits. In the case of the energy sector, where transmission and distribution losses are high, Latin America and the Caribbean would need $23 billion per year if it were to follow the same investment path of the past. Costs would at least halve under an approach that favors efficiency, climate resiliency and renewable energy solutions.

According to the report, many of the causes for inefficient infrastructure investment have roots beyond the sector, including lack of institutional capacity for planning, regulatory uncertainty, and budgeting and implementation issues in many countries. Inefficient procurement processes, for instance, contribute to excess costs. Adequate pricing for infrastructure services is another important potential area for increased efficiency.

The report argues that pricing should go beyond simple cost recovery and take into account issues like social acceptability, quality, equity and attraction of commercial financing. In order to preserve taxpayers money, the report says that public and concessional resources should only be deployed where commercial financing is not viable or cost-effective.

Finally, the report concludes that allowing infrastructure operators to diversify their revenue can contribute to easing the fiscal cost. Water treatment plants, for instance, can generate electricity for self-consumption and even sale, and sanitized sludge can be sold as fertilizer, instead of having to be disposed at high cost in sanitary landfills, options not currently available.

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Caribbean students talk immigration and life in America – The Baylor Lariat

Posted: at 3:06 am

By Joy Moton | Staff Writer

Every year, thousands of people leave the clear water and sandy beaches of the Caribbean islands to enter America.

Houston junior Darnelle DesVignes is from Trinidad and Tobago, an island off the coast of Venezuela. DesVignes said the Caribbean is just a melting pot of different cultures.

Their festivals, food, clothes, music is all a collaboration of different cultures, DesVignes said.

DesVignes described Trinidad and Tobago as a place where people are more focused on their similarities than their differences. Coming to America was a culture shock for her because America was described as a big melting pot and, coming from another melting pot, she said she thought it would be the same.

In Trinidad, we have people who are Chinese, black, Spanish, French, Indian, and we dont categorize ourselves into different categories-you are just Trinidadian, DesVignes said. In America, you are black or youre white. Theres no mixing of different cultures-theres just separation.

New York junior Elissa Arthur, originally from Trinidad and Tobago, is a community leader in North Russell Hall. She said being a community leader at Baylor has good and bad to it. A downside has been dealing with people who do not understand what it means to be Trinidadian. She said it can be hard to explain a culture people have not been very exposed to.

Ive struggled so much with expressing my culture and struggling with making people understand who I am as a Trinidadian that Ive kind of molded my events to show who I am, Arthur said.

Last year, Arthur hosted events where she taught her residents how to cook jerk chicken and hosted a game where she spoke in an accent and residents had to figure out what she was saying.

I think that allowed the other community leaders on my staff and residents to say, Oh being Trinidadian is cool, I want to learn about Elissas culture. It also exposed them to who I was, so it made me easier to understand, Arthur said.

Baylor Alumna and Miss Green and Gold 2017 Amanda Plummer is from Jamaica and appreciates the way people from the country are family oriented and respectful of each other. Although she has family that is still in Jamaica, she said she tries to view both sides of the spectrum where immigration is concerned.

I understand the side of wanting to come here for freedom and having better opportunities than the country that you currently reside in, but I also understand the side of people coming illegally and all the negative things that happen with that, Plummer said.

Plummer said there is nothing wrong with people wanting to emigrate to another country until they go about it the wrong way. Plummer believes that immigration is an issue because it is not being dealt with correctly.

The issue is not that people are or that we need to get them out, its the process of how its done, and if we do want them to leave, that process needs to be correct too, Plummer said.

Plummer said America is seen as land of the free, but people also do not realize the amount of chaos that comes with that freedom.

When you have so many people without rules and so many people from different cultures coming to this place where they feel like they can do what they want, then it calls for this melting pot of craziness, Plummer said.

DesVignes said immigration is a good thing because it has the power to unify and diversify a country at the same time. She said preventing it would take away the concept of America as the melting pot.

There is no cookie cutter layout for what an American should look like, believe in or act upon. There is no blueprint of what America should look like. Immigration reform looks like removing the bans and walls that separate us from other countries so that we may hear and see their struggles and identify them as our own, Desvignes said.

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A half-moon taste of the Caribbean on National Empanada Day – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Posted: at 3:06 am

Most every culture has an iconic street food thats easy to eat with your hands. In Mexico, its tacos; Italy is famous for its pizza by the slice. And empanada is king on the Caribbean islands of Cuba and Jamaica.

These half-moon meat pies with the crimped edges can be spicy or savory, and depending on the country of origin (they also are popular in South America and Puerto Rico), the type of pastry and filling varies. Theyre always delicious, and no more so than on their biggest party day of the year National Empanada Day, which is Saturday.

Pirata Caribbean Cuisine & Rum Bar off Market Square, Downtown, takes its empanadas seriously. So seriously, that product developer Jodie McCann spent more than a year fine-tuning the recipes for the four varieties offered on its menu.

Its all about the dough, she says. A fried, Cuban-style Beef Picadillo empanada, for example, gets its crisp from lard, while the tender pocket holding a scoop of stew-like pollo (chicken) fricassee is bound with butter, making it reminiscent of a pie crust. A vegan empanada stuffed with a medley of fresh pepper, squash and cremini mushroom is made with coconut oil and tinted red with smoked paprika. And the Jamaican beef variety perfumed with a complex blend of fresh spice and herbs is colored yellow with curry powder and turmeric.

For every version, we experimented many, many times to get the best results, says Ms. McCann, a self-taught baker who holds a degree in biochemistry and worked in a lab doing genetic screening on newborns before coming to work in 1997 for Pirata owner Ron Molinaro, who also owns the Il Pizzaiolo restaurants in Mt. Lebanon and Marshall, and Pizzuvio, a fast-casual restaurant next door to Pirata.

Before Pirata opened last fall, he said, a fresh empanada made with love was tough to find in Pittsburgh. Kaya in the Strip did a good enough job, but they arent interpreted the way I would interpret them, he says.

His favorite were the hand-made, fresh-baked ones served at Julias Empanadas in Washington, D.C. He happened to be eating them out of a brown bag at 3 a.m. back in 2011 when he came up with the idea of opening a rum bar. He also was a huge fan of the Jamaican patties stuffed with spicy ground beef at Miss Lillys Variety, a pastry shop in New York City. So when Pirata moved from concept to reality, he sent his chefs in that direction.

Ms. McCann got a hold of one of Miss Lillys unbaked Jamaican patties and carefully deconstructed it. I remember the dough, she says, tinted yellow with turmeric and super-elastic. It broke every rule it was supposed to follow, but it was magic.

Mr. Molinaro also brought chef Douglas Rodriguez, known as the Godfather of nuevo-Latino cuisine, on as a consultant from Miami.

Chef Josh Ross, who joined the staff in December, guesses the restaurant makes upward of 500 empanadas a week using a dough sheeter, and its the slow season, he adds. Each five-inch circle is hand-folded after being stuffed with a scoop of filling, and baked or fried to order.

Properly crimping the edges, or whats known as making the repulgue, is integral to the empanada-making process, says Ms. McCann, in that it serves two purposes: It keeps the juicy fillings snug inside the pastry and it also gives diners a visual clue to the ingredients. For instance, theres a scalloped edge on the chicken empanada while the Cuban variety gets a simple crimping with a fork.

For National Empanada Day on Saturday, Pirata will offer a flight of all four empanadas regularly $4 each for the special price of $12.

Gretchen McKay: gmckay@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1419 or on Twitter @gtmckay.

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Mystery surrounds tragedy of newlywed on Bahamas honeymoon … – The Sun

Posted: at 3:05 am

The 32-year-old is understood to have fallen from the ship's ninth deck

POLICE officers are probing the mystery disappearance of anewlywed husband enjoying his honeymoon after he was seen apparently jumping overboard from a cruise ship.

Reco Scott, 32, from Decatur, Georgia, was on theCarnival Liberty cruise ship with his bride Angelijica Scott on their dream getaway when tragedy struck.

Facebook/ Rico Scott Snr

The incident, which took place at 5am on Friday, saw him fall overboard when the ship was10 miles north west of the Berry Islands in the Bahamas.

At that point the cruise ship turned around, making way for rescue boats to move into the area.

A helicopter was also dispatched by the US Coast Guard.

However he has not been found, and the cruise ship resumed its journey later that afternoon.

A Carnival spokesman said: The missing guests family has been notified and our CareTeam is providing support.

We extend our thoughts and prayers to his family and loved ones during this difficult time.

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368

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Gardiner breaks Bahamas national 400m record in Grenada meet … – Bahamas Tribune

Posted: at 3:05 am

STEVEN Gardiner broke his own Bahamian national 400 metres record to highlight the inaugural Grenada Invitational in St George's on Saturday night.

Dominating the B race, Gardiner, who was part of the Bahamas team to win 4x400m relay bronze at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro last summer, clocked 44.26 seconds to shave 0.01 from the national record he set in Nassau last June.

The 21-year-old Abaconians impressive performance was one of the fastest ever produced in the month of April, and sets the early season world leading time. Najee Glass, of the US, was a distant second in 45.70.

Gardiner's run upstaged that of local hero Kirani James, the 2012 Olympic 400m champion, who headlined the evening-capping A final. James won handily in 45.44 seconds, finishing nearly a second clear of Briton Martyn Rooney who clocked 46.35.

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Bahamas Drops Into Zone Iii After Davis Cup Loss – Bahamas Tribune

Posted: at 3:05 am

Support for the Bahamas at the Davis Cup. Photo: Perry Newton

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE mens team of player/captain Marvin Rolle and Phillip Major Jr gave it a gallant effort in the pivotal doubles, but it wasnt enough to get the Bahamas past Bolivia in the Davis Cup Zone II tie.

On Saturday at the Club de Tenis Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, Bolivia, Rolle and Major Jr fell 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-0, 6-1 to Bolivias duo of Hugo Dellien and Federicio Zeballos.

With the victory, Bolivia clinched the tie after winning the first two singles of the first day of competition on Friday to remain in Zone II for 2018. With the loss, the Bahamas dropped back down to Zone III.

The tie will be completed on Sunday, but the reverse singles will be relegated to the best-of-three matches instead of the best-of-five in the opening singles on Friday.

In those matches, Bahamas top seed Spencer Newman suffered a 6-2, 6-0, 6-2 loss to Dellien, Bolivias No.2 seed, while Major Jr, playing No.2, fell 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 to Zeballos, Bolivias top seed.

None of Team Bahamas players were available for comments.

But Bahamas Lawn Tennis Associations public relations officer Perry Newton said they had a rain delay after the third set and they were hoping that Team Bahamas would have regrouped.

The team tried to pull it off, but Bolivia just got the best of us in the doubles, he said. So we look forward to next year with the hopes of getting back into Zone II.

Newton said the BLTA is confident that with the calibre of players that they have to work with, the Bahamas has sufficient players to do it again.

Last year, Rolle captained the team that comprised of brothers Baker and Spencer Newman, along with Kevin Major Jr as they advanced out of Zone III.

However, the BLTA didnt have the services of Baker Newman and Kevin Major Jr this year, with both committed to playing for their respective colleges.

Without them, Rolle carried the same team of Spencer Newman, Phillip Major Jr and Justin Lunn to Doral, Florida in February where they lost 5-0 to Venezuela in the first round of the American Zone II tie.

Rolle and the trio of Spencer Newman, Phillip Major Jr and Justin Lunn made the trip to Bolivia in their bid to stay in Zone II. But Newton said Team Bahamas faced a high level of tennis.

Both Zeballos and Dellien are ranked in the top 1,000 on the ATP computer list, but none of Team Bahamas players are ranked.

Despite losing the tie, Newton said he and the other seven spectators who traveled to Bolivia to support Team Bahamas were treated with a lot of love and respect by the home crowd.

It was a lot of fun. Newton stated.

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Bahamas Drops Into Zone Iii After Davis Cup Loss - Bahamas Tribune

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‘Ghost In The Shell’ Rises To $93M Offshore; ‘Beauty And The Beast’ Tops $977M Global International Box Office – Deadline

Posted: at 3:05 am

UPDATE, WRITETHRU: This frame saw the first shift at the top of the international box office since Disneys Beauty And The Beast initially twirled through offshore turnstiles last month. With a $36.1M weekend, Belle and her beau dipped from their No. 1 perch to No. 3 in the session, trailing Ghost In The Shell ($41.3M) and The Boss Baby ($37.5M).

But theres no cause to weep for the star-crossed lovers and their enchanted pals. In its 4th weekend at the worldwide ball, BATB waltzed to a global cume of $977.4M, poised to cross $1B in the coming days. The Bill Condon-directed film also rose to $545.1M overseas, helping The Walt Disney Studios clock $1B+ in 2017 overseas receipts with $1.007B to date.

Meanwhile, coming off of a weekend largely led by China, Paramount/DreamWorks/Reliances Ghost In The Shell emerged as the No. 1 film overseas this frame. In the Middle Kingdom, the Scarlett Johansson-starrer earned $21.4M higher than the actress 2014 actioner Lucy which bowed to $20M there.

In the Japanese launch, Ghost came at No. 1 in with $3.2M. While the film has been decently received there, and the market is slow burn, neither it nor China are expected to fully bail Ghost out.

The international cume is now $92.8M and some industry estimates see it landing between $150M and $170M at the end of the day. Particularly with The Fate Of The Furious revving up in China on Friday and then in Japan on April 28. Beauty And The Beast hits the latter on April 21.

DreamWorks Animation/Fox

In other weekend activity, Sony Pictures Animations Smurfs: The Lost Village added $22M for a $42.1M offshore total thus far; and Warner Bros Kong: Skull Island pounded out another $16M for an overseas cume of $377.8M and a global warchest of $534.4M.

Also from Warner Bros, new entry Going In Style is coming in fashionably versus some comps and opened to $4.3M in 32 markets.

Setting a new milestone, Lionsgates six-time Oscar winner La La Land has reached $287.8M internationally to surpass the lifetime of The Hunger Games.

Beginning on Wednesday this week, Universals Fate Of The Furious gets off the starting block, muscling into eight offshore markets including Australia, France, Korea and Belgium. By the weekend it will be in 62 and on 688 IMAX screens internationally; 392 of those in China.

Breakdowns on the above films have been updated below.

NEW GOING IN STYLE

Warner Bros

Russia opened to $800K at No. 4 to more than double the results of The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, followed by the UK with $688K on 454. The UAE knocked off $520K on 45 for No. 2 and surpassing all comps. Holland topped Last Vegas by 11% with $320K including sneaks and more than doubled Luc Bessons The Family which WB is using as a comp. Brazil lifted $243K on 121 to top the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel sequel by 77%.

Releases this week include Spain and Germany. Australia and Mexico go the following frame.

HOLDOVERS/EXPANSIONS GHOST IN THE SHELL

Paramount

In the Middle Kingdom, where sci-fi does not over-index, the Rupert Sanders-helmed movie made $21.4M at 7,600 locations. Thats bigger than Johansson vehicle Lucy which bowed to $20M in 2014 and went on to $44.8M there. The film has a 6.6 rating on Douban and mid-weeks will count as The Fate Of The Furious will obliterate anything in its path when it opens on Friday.

In Japan, from whence the source material hails, the film opened to $3.2M at 327 cinemas. As Deadline reported last week, the whitewashing controversy seems to have sidestepped Japan because audiences are used to watching western actors, and word of mouth appears decent. While Japan is a leggy market of big multiples, Ghost also faces F8 there beginning April 28, just after Beauty And The Beast on April 21.

Sources are pegging the overseas final on Ghost in the $160M neighborhood.

In IMAX, Ghost In The Shell took $5.5M global for a $13.5M cume; the international weekend was $4.4M including $2.5M from 389 Chinese screens.

The Top 5 overall markets on Ghost are China ($21.4M), Russia ($8M), Korea ($5.5M), France ($5.3M) and the UK ($5.2M).

THE BOSS BABY

Fox

Despite warm, sunny weather in the UK, families went out for Alec Baldwins tough guy kid with $9.9M at No. 1 (including previews) and 49% bigger than The Croods, 47% bigger than Trolls.

Mexico held No. 1 in the 2nd session with $3.4M and a 40% drop ($12M cume). France likewise was No. 1 for the 2nd frame in a row, topping local newcomer A Bras Ouverts with $3.2M and a 37% drop from open ($9.8M cume). The next best results were in Brazil ($2.1M/$6.2M cume); Germany ($1.9M/$5M cume); and Australia ($1.8M/$8.8M cume up 21% versus last weekend).

The lead market remains Russia at $24M. In comparable markets and at todays exchanges, The Boss Baby is cooing louder than Trolls (+63%), Rio (+40%), The Croods (+20%) and Sing (+14%).

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Disney

In 55 material markets, BATB dipped 46% in its 4th session with strong holds in several plays including Belgium (-7%), Poland (-16%), Germany (-27%), the Netherlands (-34%), Brazil (-38%), Australia (-39%) and China (-39%). The Emma Watson/Dan Stevens romantic tuner has clocked No. 1 for four weeks in a row in Germany, Korea, Austria, Finland, Poland, Portugal, Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Switzerland and the UK (the latter holds No. 1 based on this weekends FSS but Boss Baby is No. 1 with previews included). Other No. 1 holds include Australia, Chile, Argentina, Malaysia and New Zealand.

In Europe, the cume to date of $217M has surpassed the total regional runs of Deadpool, Zootopia, Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, Captain America: Civil War and Suicide Squad.

Here are the Top 5 markets to date: China ($85.3M), UK ($73.2M), Brazil ($36M), Korea ($33.9M) and Mexico ($28.3M).

SMURFS: THE LOST VILLAGE

Sony

Major hubs on the earlier films included a mix of Germany, China, France, the UK and Brazil. Of those, only the UK had opened through last weekend on The Lost Village. This frame added Brazil ($2.2M), France ($1.9M with previews), Mexico ($1.6M), Germany ($1.5M with previews) and Italy ($1M).

The diminutive Peyo characters have a sizable international brand, but saw a drop-off between films one and two which legged out to $421M and $277M, respectively, at offshore turnstiles. There have of course been big currency swings between 2013 and today, and while some watchers are underwhelmed by the perf so far, Sony is where it expected to be given the strong competition.

With Easter and spring holidays coming up, the studio is anticipating runway on the pic which has a reported negative cost of $60M and a global P&A less than the $100M spent on the profitable Angry Birds Movie. China is due on April 21, the last film made $22M there.

KONG: SKULL ISLAND

Warner Bros

In the 3rd session, China added $11.3M for No. 2 behind newcomer Ghost In The Shell. This week, the movie from Jordan Vogt-Roberts crossed the 1B RMB mark and now has a local Middle Kingdom cume of $161M (1.11B RMB). Rounding out the Top 5 markets are the UK ($18.6M), Mexico ($13.9M), Japan ($13.8M) and Korea ($12.1M).

SABANS POWER RANGERS The Lionsgate title grossed an additional $6.1M from 75 markets this frame, bringing the international cume to $42.1M. The biggest new play was France with $1.3M. The film is playing younger than expected in Europe with only the UK in the Top 5 out of the majors. Currently, the No. 1 play is Mexico with $5.3M, followed by the UK at $4.9M, Brazil ($4.8M), Malaysia ($2.7M) and Australia ($2.4M). The kids morph into their next major with Korea on April 20, followed by hopeful key markets China (May 5) and Japan (July 15).

LIFE

Sony Pictures

SING

Universal

MOANA Coming out of its 19th weekend in offshore release, Disneys Moana has reached $386.1M at the international box office and $634.8M worldwide. This frame was worth $2.3M overseas in Japan which has now risen to $39.4M. That makes Japan the No. 1 offshore market, overtaking Frances $35.4M.

GET OUT

Universal

MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE

20th Century Fox

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'Ghost In The Shell' Rises To $93M Offshore; 'Beauty And The Beast' Tops $977M Global International Box Office - Deadline

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Proposal would prevent offshore wind project in Maine | WGME – WGME

Posted: at 3:05 am

A proposal before the Maine Legislature would prevent the state from permitting an offshore wind energy project in the vicinity of Monhegan Island. (MGN)

PORTLAND (AP) -- A proposal before the Maine Legislature would prevent the state from permitting an offshore wind energy project in the vicinity of Monhegan Island.

Monhegan Island is a tiny island about 12 nautical miles off of Maine's mainland that is well known as a home to artists, seasonal residents and lobster fishermen. Maine Aqua Ventus intends to install a two-turbine, 12-megawatt project off its coast.

Republican state Sen. Dana Dow, who represents the island in the Statehouse, wants to prevent the project from happening. His proposal would create a prohibited zone where an offshore wind energy test area would not be able to be located.

Dow's proposal would also prohibit the state from issuing a permit for an offshore wind project within 10 nautical miles of the Monhegan Lobster Conservation Area.

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Here’s Why These Offshore Drilling Stocks Fell Sharply in March – Motley Fool

Posted: at 3:05 am

What happened

In March, shares of offshore drillersEnsco(NYSE:ESV),Transocean (NYSE:RIG),Rowan Companies(NYSE:RDC), andAtwood Oceanics(NYSE:ATW) finished between 10.7% and 16% lower than they started. Since the beginning of the year, that puts all four drilling rig operators down between 12% and 30% at month's end.

There hasn't really been much in the way of material news in the offshore oil market over the past month or so following the quarterly earnings season in February. However, there wasa lot of chatter about oil prices.

Image source: Getty Images.

The biggest news affecting oil markets -- and therefore oil stocks -- was the growth of oil inventories, especially U.S. onshore supply. According to industry data, U.S. crude stocks increased 11.6 million barrels in early March, far higher than industry analysts were expecting.

Here's how that affected oil prices for the rest of the month.

ESV data by YCharts.

It should be pretty easy to see that these four offshore drilling stocks correlated with the movement of oil prices. This is typical -- and will remain so -- for as long as the downturn continues to keep oil producers from spending money on offshore drilling.

On an asset basis, these stocks are at fire-sale prices:

ESV Price to Book Value data by YCharts.

In other words, the market is pricing these companies at one-third or less of the liquidation value of their assets. But until producers start spending offshore, you can expect offshore drilling stocks to pretty much chase oil prices. When oil goes up, share prices will likely outpace them. When crude falls, however -- as it did in March -- offshore drilling stocks will probably fall farther.

At some point, offshore spending will pick up, simply because some of the world's biggest oil fields are offshore. And while they are very expensive to develop, offshore oil can be profitable at current crude prices.The problem is that it takes a lot of up-front money and a long time before the oil starts flowing. And there's some indication spending is set to pick up, with a number of new projects expected to go to bid before year-end.

The best approach if you're considering investing in this space, or if you already own shares, is to take the time to understand each company, particularly the strength of its balance sheet, how much (and when it's due) debt it has, and the size and stability of its contracted backlog of work.

But until there's more work to be had, there's going to be a lot more of the kind of volatility we saw in March -- and largely based on non-news and speculation.

Jason Hall owns shares of Atwood Oceanics, Ensco, and Transocean. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Atwood Oceanics. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Young family moves from high desert to life on the high seas – Grand Junction Daily Sentinel

Posted: at 3:04 am

Tyler and Kristy Hawkins, former Mesa County residents, pose on their new home, a 37-foot boat in North Carolina. The couple will set sail for the U.S. Virgin Islands in the fall with their children, Sofie, 3, and C.J., who is almost 1 year old, along with their dog, Riot. They will chronicle their adventure in a blog.

By Erin McIntyre Sunday, April 9, 2017

Tyler and Kristy Hawkins know that life is too short, and thats one of the reasons theyve sold everything, left their home in western Colorado and embarked on an adventure with their kids. But this isnt just a trip, its a new lifestyle theyre happy to share with anyone who wants to live vicariously.

The 27-year-old Plateau Valley High School graduate and his wife, a 25-year-old Fruita Monument High School graduate, call themselves the Windswept Gypsies, and are documenting their adventures on their blog, windsweptgypsies.com.

The Hawkinses started downsizing their possessions last year with the goal of living on a 37-foot sailboat with their two children. And for the past month, theyve been getting their sea legs on board the Night Music, currently docked in the Northwest Creek Marina just outside New Bern, North Carolina.

It has been quite the adjustment, moving from a 1,500-square-foot house with two small children in a landlocked state to living on a boat with their dog, Riot.

For the couple, the decision came after tragedies and the realization that they wanted to have a different lifestyle, and they didnt want to be the kind of people who spend their best years in the rat race to take a few weeks off here and there to spend time with their kids.

Their new lifestyle allows for a lower cost of living than the house and vehicles they were maintaining in western Colorado, and theyre embarking on this incredible adventure together, with their daughter Sofie, 3, and son C.J., who is nearly 1 year old. They hope to experience a more sustainable lifestyle that focuses on quality, not quantity.

Living on a boat has been a longtime dream for Tyler, and hes wanted to do it since he was in high school. The decision to make it happen was prompted by recent losses of family members. Tylers dad, Wes, was killed in a sudden, massive landslide less than three years ago near Collbran, with two others, and Kristys dad and brother have died in the past two years.

Lifes too short to not go and do something like this, Tyler said. We figured we could either continue down the path we were going and wonder if we were truly happy or make it happen.

Last year, the couple was in the process of trying to buy some property near Molina, which didnt pan out. Tyler was working long hours as an electrician and missed being with his kids.

They sat down to dinner one night and were discussing the problem, and Kristy said, Why dont we just move onto a boat?

And Tyler thought, Thats why I married you.

So far, they dont regret their transition one bit, although living with less in a smaller space has been an adjustment. Theres no hot water heater, no washing machine for clothes, no dishwasher. Theyre setting up a wringer for laundry, and C.J. is wearing cloth diapers, so thats on the list of things to learn how to do. Theres no TV and Kristy has to keep a hawk eye on the kids for fear they will fall overboard, as C.J. is learning to walk on the boat.

Their plan is to stay at the marina until fall, after hurricane season passes, when theyve worked out the details of living on the boat full-time. Then theyll head to the U.S. Virgin Islands, the destination of their first trip together only two weeks after they met years ago, and the place they fell in love.

So far, the couple has detailed their experiences getting to the marina and starting life on board on their blog, and plan on sharing their adventure with anyone who wants to know more about their lifestyle, including the nitty-gritty details, and is fascinated about life aboard with kids.

Were going to be pretty open-book, he said.

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Young family moves from high desert to life on the high seas - Grand Junction Daily Sentinel

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