Some real nut jobs

[FZR1KG]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.1424256

No experience, no real planning, leaving at the wrong time of year and no repair skills but want to sail away from the USA because of its state controlled churches...ok...
Then they need to be rescued.
Sheesh. Wonder why.
They are planning to get a bigger boat and try again, so a total incapacity to learn from their mistakes.

[cid]

I was going to comment on this...













...but then I saw who the OP was...

[SciFiFisher]

Darwin Award candidates.

[SciFi Chick]

I was going to comment on this...













...but then I saw who the OP was...

? I don't know if you're making a joke or what, but we're nothing like these idiots. We didn't get lost. We were never in any danger, and we learned a lot.

[Swift]

Darwin Award candidates.

Too late, they already have children.

From the article

Their flights home were arranged by U.S. Embassy officials, Gastonguay said.

Why? They don't like government interference. We shouldn't interfere with god's plan to let them die at sea or leave them stranded in Chile.

[FZR1KG]

Most people fail to consider the time I have on water no matter how often I repeat it.
Nor is planning such a trip since about 2000, that's 13 years a factor.
It seems the time I started planning this was when the relevant person found out I was planning to do it.
Human nature I guess.

I even remember experienced sailors (that have done this previously) being questioned for the same thing.
So I'll say this, my experience isn't your own personal experience.
The time frame that I started planning wasn't two months ago when most people found out.

Also, since we're at it, I'll also clarify the knot-distance issue.
When the wife asked she asked what unit the knot was, though I know its used as a speed and even know the conversion for it I also knew the history of it and know that it was counting the number of knots that passed a known point on a sailing ship in a given time.
The knots were a specific distance apart from each other, IOW it was a distance that was converted to speed by the count over time.

Initially that distance was several fathoms between them but I can't remember the exact number (I must thus be an incompetent sailor) but was changed later once the nautical mile was defined. No I can't remember the spacing between the knots for that either. Whatever will I do if I am forced to make a speed guage with rope because our multiple GPS units failed and the speed sensor failed and I can't predict exactly when I may arrive at a destination within the accuracy window of a competent sane person out sailing a vessel.
Oh, I just noticed that I spelled gauge wrong too. Damn, I must be an incompetent engineer too.
Oh we are going to be doomed. I can't even spell gauge how will I ever build one using coconut shells and seaweed so that we can stop ourselves from sailing off the edge of the Earth into the abyss...

Sometimes I get asked why I don't tell people what is going on in my life, well, because its my life and I do things and have always done things differently to others. I've spent weeks on my own living of the land in the Australian bush and outback. No one knew where I went, just that I was not at home. I guess if I said I'm heading to the outback in a 4wd (which I've also had decades of experience driving and repairing in extreme conditions) they would think me crazy as well.

So, hence forth, I'll just shut the fuck up about what we're planning on doing, when we're planning on doing it and that we've been up to. If you don't hear from us for a while, its because we're not at home.

[SciFi Chick]

So, hence forth, I'll just shut the fuck up about what we're planning on doing, when we're planning on doing it and what we've been up to. If you don't hear from us for a while, its because we're not at home.

Sounds like a plan.

[code monkey]

From the article

Their flights home were arranged by U.S. Embassy officials, Gastonguay said.

Why? They don't like government interference. We shouldn't interfere with god's plan to let them die at sea or leave them stranded in Chile.

oh swift, you just don't understand. that wasn't interference. that was part of G_D's plan. it was to their advantage, wasn't it? something that they don't like? clearly not.

[code monkey]

I don't know if you're making a joke or what, but we're nothing like these idiots. We didn't get lost. We were never in any danger, and we learned a lot.

sfc, this the person who posted links to stories about

someone undressing a model using earth-moving machinery
video games at urinals that were dependent on output

and you wonder if he was joking?

[code monkey]

... Oh, I just noticed that I spelled gauge wrong too. Damn, I must be an incompetent engineer too.
Oh we are going to be doomed. I can't even spell gauge how will I ever build one using coconut shells and seaweed so that we can stop ourselves from sailing off the edge of the Earth into the abyss...

Sometimes I get asked why I don't tell people what is going on in my life, well, because its my life and I do things and have always done things differently to others. I've spent weeks on my own living of the land in the Australian bush and outback. No one knew where I went, just that I was not at home. I guess if I said I'm heading to the outback in a 4wd (which I've also had decades of experience driving and repairing in extreme conditions) they would think me crazy as well.

So, hence forth, I'll just shut the fuck up about what we're planning on doing, when we're planning on doing it and that we've been up to. If you don't hear from us for a while, its because we're not at home.

please, fz. cleansing breath. now another. to me it's clear that it was a joke. you've known cid how much longer than i and you couldn't tell? a bit of needling. you are a world-class needler and you didn't recognize it?

for the record, whenever one of your planned adventures came up, michael would say that if anyone could pull it off it would be you 2. i always agreed and i still do.

[Rommie]

Agreed, I read it as a joke.

Also, I don't understand how the folks in the article aren't arrested for child endangerment, or on a more basic level why they can't just buy a fucking plane ticket if they really want to leave the US.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Because they're little less than automatons.

[FZR1KG]

Agreed, I read it as a joke.

Also, I don't understand how the folks in the article aren't arrested for child endangerment, or on a more basic level why they can't just buy a fucking plane ticket if they really want to leave the US.

Yeah, that was my bad going off the handle.
I've appologised to cid in pm and email.
Sometimes I get brainfarts and this was one of those times.

Hitting them with child endangerment is going to be tough. There are many cruising families that have young kids aboard and when it comes to the sea nothing is guaranteed nor is there any universally accepted rules of preparing or dealing with unexpected situations. Hell, there is debate about how to handle things like storms which are going to happen but even experienced captains can't agree which is the better technique to use and when.
Add to that most people not understanding the seas and I can see a lot of sailing families being accused of the same charge for totally invalid reasons.

My rule for going out somewhere where you need to be self reliant (not just the ocean) is to have a plan, a backup plan and a ditch plan when everything turns to shit.
If you don't then you'll inevitably find out that you're going to have to be really resourceful right when you can't afford the luxury of time of don't have what you need to do it.
I have read about people with no real plan let alone the backups still getting away with it but I think that's more luck than common sense.

[cid]

Apologies have been exchanged and accepted, The Flying Spaghetti Monster is in his marinara sauce bath, and all's right with the world.

Open mouth, insert foot.
Good thing I cleaned my boots before I made that post...
Gotta thimk a little more on occasion...