Does this mean that women can't operate boats?

Okay, I just found this:

The boat's captain, Jennifer Appel, said she has traveled the Hawaiian islands and planned the Tahiti voyage for more than two years. But she said she and Tasha Fuiava may not have been as ready as they could have been.

"I had no idea what I was getting myself into," she said. "When I asked Natasha, I told her I have no idea what's going to happen out there and she said, 'That's OK, I've never sailed.'"

Suspicion confirmed, total incompetence. I still find it difficult to imagine how you can damage an engine in such a way as to make a SAILBOAT incapable of SAILING. Even if their mast was damaged as they said it was, it was still standing without visible damage. It looked capable of holding some sail. And, if it looked that good, then what was damaged should have been within the realm of repair or patching. On top of that, they couldn't wander down to the electronics store and pick up a GPS unit and SATphone?

They should have gone to the bottom and saved the Navy the bother. Sorry, but lack of common sense on that scale gives me a rash.

 

Well, I'm glad they didn't go down or have to eat the dogs. They'll be improved in their skills next time out, a bit older and less bolder.

 

Sheer, dumb luck on such a cosmic scale can't be counted on a second time around. Those two should get office jobs and take up bowling in Boise.

 

"We learn by doing, by taking risks, by failing, and, only then, by succeeding. We grow from our mistakes and from our failures.
If we cannot see that failure is the essential other half of success, then we try to avoid the failure and, in so doing,
we avoid success." ~ '2150 AD' by Thea Alexander

 

I notice your list of items which "matter" doesn't include, you know, a F'ING SATELLITE PHONE!!!!!!

 

You have one woman who sailed around the Hawaiian Islands and another who was a novice trying to cross the Pacific Ocean. Brilliant.

I'm glad they survived, but this is one situation where they should have to pay for the cost of rescue.

The Ocean is an unforgiving place. I dream of sailing the Pacific or rounding Cape Horn but I know with my skill level the former would be idiotic and the latter would be pure suicide. If I was a billionaire I'd give it a try - with my own personal 300 foot yacht never more than a half nautical mile away.

 

“They two sailors acknowledge not being as prepared as they could have been for the 2,600-mile trip from their home in Hawaii to their planned destination of Tahiti.

Fuiava is a newbie sailor, and although Appel has been sailing the Hawaiian islands for a decade, she described them as “landlubbers” and “greenhorns in the sailing world.”

http://nypost.com/2017/10/30/women-rescued-after-spending-5-months-lost-at-sea-plan-their-next-trip/

Inexperienced sailors on what probably was an ill prepared boat. The navy said "there were just too many things that needed to be solidified to make that vessel seaworthy again … so that’s why we brought them on board.” They wouldn't make that call unless there were lots of problems with that boat.

They had no business trying to cross as ocean.

You can see from the video that the mast and rigging were still up. Why they couldn't rig a sail even if theirs was damaged is beyond me.

And now they say they're going to do it again next year. Candidates for the Darwin award.

 

Or an epirb.

 

...

 

Amen. It just blows my mind that something like that can happen in this day and age.

They learned a very valuable lesson: You should never rely on your vessel for communications in an emergency situation because if there's something wrong with the vessel, there is a good chance there will be something wrong with the communications. I mentioned earlier how I have fantasized about crossing the Pacific.... it is something I'll never do (on a ship of my own) but that doesn't stop me from fantasizing about what I would bring. The very top of that list is 3 devices (probably 2 satellite phones and a beacon) which are completely independent of each other which I can use to signal or call for help.

The next item on my list is batteries, backup batteries, and more batteries.

 

You were wrong to insult the sailors and are wrong about me being pissed. The seas have claimed the lives of many experienced sailors and these ladies lived to tell their story.

 

I'm glad they survived. However, dumb luck is not necessarily an admirable trait.

These people were inexperienced sailors in an ill found boat. They had no business trying to cross an ocean.

 

A well found boat with a capable captain and crew would be first on my list.

 

How the flying **** do you manage to pretend that this is a political issue?

 

When we were fourteen and fifteen four of us swam the Mississippi where it's a mile wide. We didn't know anything, such as: it takes more than a mile, sometimes two miles, for a towboat with barges to stop on the river; people in the water don't show up on radar; it's very unlikely that someone in the pilot house will see you in the water and they can't hear you; you can't hear a tow coming in certain atmospheric conditions, you got to constantly glance behind to see it coming; if you even get close to a tow you're going to be sucked toward it, pulled under, and cut to pieces by the wheels of the towboat. Even tied off barges in current, or a large boat tied off in current, will suck you under if you get too close. The cans and nuns that mark the channel are often in fast current and will suck you toward them and bang you up hard if you get too close, and maybe knock you drowned. Dams will kill you in fifty different ways, even a small low-head dam.

By absolute dumb luck, strong swimming, kind weather, and youthful endurance we survived. We didn't even look both ways for tows before setting out.

Dumb luck has been my benefactor more than I care to admit.

 

Laura Dekker - A 16-Year-Old Girl’s Solo Sail Around the World
https://video.nationalgeographic.co...-16-year-old-girls-solo-sail-around-the-world

Jessica Watson, the girl who sailed round the world, comes home to cheers
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/may/15/jessica-watson-sailed-world-home

 

She was sad because she wasn't stopping in New Zealand! She's incredible.

That's the universal problem of travel, even adventure travel, you can't stop everywhere that beckons.

 

If what I'm seeing is right, they should be embarrassed to tell their story.

 

Heading: World News.

 

Yeah, but when you started off, I'll bet you knew how to swim.

 

It sure makes a difference when you know what you are doing.

 

More to the story:

Jennifer Appel and Natasha “Tasha” Fuiava, who said they left Honolulu on May 3 aboard aboard a 50-foot sailboat, told Coast Guard officials that they never turned on the boat’s Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) because they never felt "truly in distress," nor did they think the situation was "dire" enough to warrant it, a spokesperson for Coast Guard District 14 confirmed to ABC News on Monday.

Yet yesterday one of the women reported that they were almost out of food (because of the dogs) and would have been dead in 24 hours. WTF?

Something is definitely fishy about this story.

 

None of the sentient beings aboard looked like they had been on rations or had missed a single meal.

The Coast Guard has found that the survivor locator beacon aboard (PLB) was never activated and that there is and was no known storm near when and near where the women say they lost engine propulsion.

Publicity stunt? A reach for fifteen minutes of fame?

 

A well trained, strong body with strength and endurance and an empty brain without knowledge of the locale you are in is not enough when you're off the beaten path and completely on your own.

 

Looks like it may be a hoax......