Quote:
Originally Posted by Celestialsailor
It's easy to act balls out when the crap isn't hitting the fan. But if you saw a loved one in the water or disabled in some way onboard and had the chance to save their life via radio EPIRB or whatever, your thinking might change. I can't imagine someone bellying up to the bar bragging how their wife or child died while being self-sufficient.
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Well, when the **** has hit the fan - many times over the years, from near drownings, shipwrecks, knockdowns, etc - we don't call Mama for help. Our thinking hasn't changed at all. We knuckle down, stop the fan and clean up the ****. We have headed out to sea to
rescue others (once at the request of the USCG) but have come to a very personal decision to remove our own ability to call for long distance help.
By removing that capacity to call for help, it obliges us to be more prepared. Surely you can't disagree with that? Perhaps you will.
OTOH it does expose us to different risks - mainly
medical. It would absolutely break our hearts if one of us died or we
lost our boat. It could happen next month. But we accept that risk. Just as all people should accept risks for whatever they all do, whether it is driving down the highway or enlisting in the armed forces. It has nothing to do with bragging at the bar.
Anyway - and here is the kicker! - now that we are back in our own country, we have the obligation to obey the laws that apply to us (but they do not apply to foreign yachties). So I will buy an
EPIRB next week. Against my will but I will obey the law to avoid hassles.
Fortunately the law does not oblige us to have a life raft or
insurance.