Cruising During Corona - Tyler Buckingham from Holland America's Last Caribbean Cruise | Field Notes

October 4, 2020

A Special Field Notes Edition From the Last Cruise

The last Caribbean cruise for awhile just reached the dock and ASPN's Tyler Buckingham was on-board.  What was it like to be on an extended cruise as the coronavirus slithered through the cracks and crevices of society and across the globe?  Tyler was part of the "JoCo Cruise" staff from March 7 - 13, departing from Ft. Lauderdale to Half Moon Cay on to Santo Domingo and then to Turks and Caicos, or at least that was the plan.  It changed.  Get the inside skinny on the last cruise -- a sort of Comic Con at sea -- and what it was like to sail along as the world awoke to the specter of this new virus.  There is a lot to talk about.  The virus is and will continue to crush not just coastal tourism but the larger travel and leisure industry for some time, including Spring Break.  Coastal conferences of all types are off too and it looks like we'll all be spending a lot more time at home.  When Tyler set sail, this was not the show we expected to do when he returned.  But, as it painfully evident, things have changed.  Come aboard the MS Nieuw Amsterdam and inside the minds of the crew and passengers as the coronavirus swirled through the air around the globe.  A surprising take on something we're all thinking about.  Only on the American Shoreline Podcast.

Show Transcription
This transcription was generated by a computer. Please excuse any errors.
Peter Ravella & Tyler Buckingham

Peter and Tyler joined forces in 2015 and from the first meeting began discussing a project that would become Coastal News Today and the American Shoreline Podcast Network. At the time, Peter and Tyler were coastal consultants for Pete’s firm, PAR Consulting, LLC. In that role, they worked with coastal communities in Texas, Florida, and North Carolina, engaged in grant writing, coastal project development, shoreline erosion and land use planning, permitting, and financial planning for communities undertaking big beach restoration projects. Between and among their consulting tasks, they kept talking and kept building the idea of CNT & ASPN. In almost every arena they worked, public engagement played a central role. They spent thousands of hours talking with coastal stakeholders, like business owners, hotel operators, condo managers, watermen, property owners, enviros, surfers, and fishermen. They dived deep into the value, meaning, and responsibility for the American shoreline, segment-by-segment. Common threads emerged, themes were revealed, differences uncovered. There was a big conversation going on along the American shoreline! But, no place to have it. That's where CNT and ASPN were born.