Yachting FAIL - Jessica Watson

[osirissail]

Anybody know the world's record for longest CF thread? We have got to be nearing it, let's keep this thing going . . .
Oh, and keep it civil - we are "filling" here waiting for Jessica to make her next move and the "views and opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the company" or some such thing. 7 Billion people on this planet with probably 10 billion opinions based on very different experiences.

[John A]

osirissail,
Hang in there! Only two more months of the hurricane season to go.

where are you? If you're in Granada do you still need to renew your visa every so often? Or if in Trinadad was there a hassle to get an extension?
regards
John A

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

... Anyone who sails around the world and does not expect some kind of serious failure from a latent defect is kidding themselves.

Visual inspections of all key equipment is a normal part of sailing, but if Kristopher can see, then no problem ...

I believe it can be done - sailing around the world and not having a critical equipment failure (not racing, not an old clunker, not in a modern under-engineered boat). I believe one has to be ready for all sorts of repairs, anyway. The likelihood of technical problems is certain, our ability to overcome them is essential.

I believe, based on info from his site, that he suffers from what is called the loss of peripheral vision - he is still (my belief based on info available) able to visually check the equipment, conditions and scan the horizon.

To sww914: "I don't like this thread. It's hurtful. "

Well, if you do not like this thread, do not follow it. If you think it is hurtful, report this to the moderator.

Making a statement like yours without naming the things you found hurtful leaves no space for others to re-think and re-act.

b.

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by osirissail

Anybody know the world's record for longest CF thread? We have got to be nearing it, let's keep this thing going . . .
Oh, and keep it civil - we are "filling" here waiting for Jessica to make her next move and the "views and opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the company" or some such thing. 7 Billion people on this planet with probably 10 billion opinions based on very different experiences.

Not even close, osirissail. The OpenCPN thread had over 1300 posts when it was moved to its own sub-forum with four new threads starting from there. A couple of the Bumfuzzle threads have been longer, and the "An Appalling Example of California Justice" thread stands at 650.

This thread could get there, though, especially if the posters follow your advice and "keep it civil."

TaoJones

[osirissail]

That is not going to be easy as the OpenCPN thread is about serious important stuff and attracts serious people. We are trying to set the record for world's longest thread by psuedo-16 y.o.'s talking about anything and everything not necessarily important or useful. We should have our own special category in the record book. And if we don't get it we will go sulk in a corner and not eat our brocolli.
- - - -
""John A
where are you? If you're in Granada do you still need to renew your visa every so often? Or if in Trinadad was there a hassle to get an extension? regards, John A""
- - Actually yes, we are in Grenada with nothing to do but sweat and swim and eat mangoes and wait for November. And yes as in most Caribbean islands you get from 2 weeks to 3 months initially as a transient/visitor visa and then have to renew. Grenada is great as you can renew for any number of months you want for EC$25/month (US$9.37). No hassles except that you have to climb a steep hill to get to the main immigration office and do the normal Caribbean "wait" for your turn to see the official. But you can request as many months as you want up to 12. But few do that as it is a use it or lose it thing. Leave early you do not get a refund of unused months. The island is pro-cruiser as tell us - we are their main source of visitor/tourist income from when the land tourist and cruise ship season ends in June until December when it starts up again.
- - Good food, great social activities with about a couple hundred other cruisers waiting out the season. Twice as many store their boats here and head home for the summer season.
- - Trinidad is comparatively not as easy and the officials not that friendly, probably only because cruisers are a miniscule amount of their country's income. It is not a tourist island but instead an industrial gas/oil producing country.

[John A]

osirissail,
Granada is really a friendly island and I enjoyed my stops there as I staged to Trinidad. I'd wait to contract for work in Trinidad until I could schedule the work after my visa expired so I could take a letter from the contractor to immigration for an extension.

barnakiel,
Your comment about doing a circumnavigation in a well founded boat without problems is a "maybe" from me.

I have a friend who has sailed many years, even working for Boat US on the ICW helping boats in distress.
He left Trinidad in 2004 on a very well equipted Baba 40 and is currently in Thiland where just after getting his boat back together from an encounter with a water spout, he was struck with a major lightning strike which not only destroyed all his electronics, it melted the insulation on his wiring.
I guess what I what to say is that stuff happens out here. We should all be gentle with our judgements for those unfortunant enough to have bad luck even when it appears to be self-induced. We weren't there.
regards John A

[gs41escapade]

Originally Posted by Ocean Girl

Actually, at times it can be dicey avoiding a freighter. If you read the lights wrong, the ship will be on you faster than you can yell "I have the right of way" over the radio .

This is so true, and may have been a factor in the poor girl's incident. Once I was off the shore of New Jersey at night, bringing the submarine back to New London. Lot's of commercial traffic all around. I picked a course to split between two 'freighters' only to (thankfully soon enough) realize it was really an ocean tug with a tow trailing 1000 yards behind!

The lights can be very tricky to decipher at times.

[sarafina]

Originally Posted by gs41escapade

The lights can be very tricky to decipher at times.

no doubt. especially when below. asleep. with navigation warnings turned off...

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by John A

barnakiel,
Your comment about doing a circumnavigation in a well founded boat without problems is a "maybe" from me.

I have a friend who has sailed many years, even working for Boat US on the ICW helping boats in distress. He left Trinidad in 2004 on a very well equipted Baba 40 and is currently in Thiland where just after getting his boat back together from an encounter with a water spout, he was struck with a major lightning strike which not only destroyed all his electronics, it melted the insulation on his wiring. I guess what I what to say is that stuff happens out here. We should all be gentle with our judgements for those unfortunant enough to have bad luck even when it appears to be self-induced. We weren't there....

Well, you can take any other excerpt from my post and prove any other point. If you had more patience to read on, in the next sentence I said: "...I believe one has to be ready for all sorts of repairs, anyway. The likelihood of technical problems is certain, our ability to overcome them is essential..."

What you said about your friend's adventures does not imply everybody has them. I did not, and many of my friends did not either.

I have seen many more would be circumnavigations unfinished because of personal issues than because of technical ones.

So, your comment on waterspouts and lightnings is a "maybe" from me ;-)

b.

[Nauticatarcher]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Jim, they only go around Cape Horn and Cape of Good Hope once. Whats the problem?

Now, I hand to you in evidence the January Pilot of Australia to Cape Horn - is January the best month? I think thats when she is expected there - Look at the percentage days of Gales above Force 8. Hardly ever a day of blow... 18%, 19% chance only. And in some places between Australia just 15% chance of a Force 8. Nearly negligible! Theres even a 10% square! Lower!
And the passage would only be 2 months (perhaps 3 months)... say its 2 months @ 15% Gales = 9 days.

So she will only be expected to get 9 days of gales 34+ Knots on this leg. Thats nothing! Any 16 year old should be able to handle that!

Look at her experience: In the Brisbane area a place of 0% gales or 1% gales. So in all her years of sailing she will have had 0% or 1% of her days in Force 8 gales. Shes a regular Gale girl!

If she gets into trouble she can ring home: 1/2 way is only 3,000 NMs a bit more than the distance between New York and LA. Then Mumma can help and Dada can complain to the media and Ella Bache can move their sponsorship onto the 15 year old American girl...




"Sea Life" is in a Zero % Gale area I'm glad I don't have to prove nuffin



Mark

Once again not quite correct, she has done a passage to NZ in a 34' Yacht, she has also crewed on a Racing catamaran from Qld to Tasmania and also spent time on a Expedition Yacht south of NZ, all of these to gain experience in Heavy weather so to say she has no experience is incorrect

[cat man do]

Interesting

From this story
Jessica Watson warned after yacht collission: Don't sail

The MSQ report found Jessica had set her vessel on autopilot and checked her radar about 2am, noting "a target at about six nautical miles" and "determined the vessel was passing to starboard well clear and not in a crossing situation" before going below deck.


"Satisfied there were no immediate dangers, (Jessica) put her head down for 10 minutes," the report says.


"The master (Jessica) . . . may have dosed (sic) off. The master recollects the roar of a close vessel and went topside as the boat scraped port side to port side."

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by cat man do

Interesting

Originally Posted by cat man do

From this st

It was another ship!

the MSQ investigation into the incident, which occurred less than 24 hours into her journey.

It reveals that Jessica sailed dangerously close to another ship off Point Lookout, StradbrokeIsland, just before her collision with the 63,000-tonne coal carrier Silver Yang on September 9.
"Ms Watson had passed within seven cables (about half a nautical mile) of another northbound ship about half an hour before the collision, which in the view of Maritime Safety Queensland amounted to a less-than-safe passing distance if the master of the vessel (Ms Watson) was not awake and on deck," said Transport and Main Roads Director-General David Stewart.

Nauticatarcher - Once again not quite correct, she has done a passage to NZ in a 34' Yacht, she has also crewed on a Racing catamaran from Qld to Tasmania and also spent time on a Expedition Yacht south of NZ, all of these to gain experience in Heavy weather so to say she has no experience is incorrect

I am not trying to be 'quite correct' I am just putting discussion points up in a digestible manner
Also if you have another look at the Pilot chart you will see that the gale percentages for Trans Tasman and Tasmania never get above a 2! And those are 2 passages can be very inhospitable.

The 13 year old Dutch kiddy has North Sea experience solo yet you wouldn't send your 13 year old daughter out, nor would I.

nother viewpoint

Brisbane round-the-world sailor Mark Carlile, who sailed solo from Britain to Brisbane in 2006-07, said yesterday the hand-written checklist revealed Jessica was too inexperienced to do the trip.
He had been sailing more than 25 years and logged 35,000kms at sea before setting off across the world and spent two years planning and writing up his trip.
He described being petrified by the 10m waves, and that Jessica would encounter 15m waves on her particular route.
"She does not know what she is letting herself in for – it is really dangerous," Mr Carlile said. "I have tried to get in contact with her to warn her about the dangers, but there has been no response."

Finally, If her projected voyage duration is 6 to 8 months and she leaves, say in one months time that puts her south of Cape Leeuwin in April at best. Or south of Cape Leeuwin in June.

I raced on a S&S 34 in the 1970's (Boomaroo 2) and as good a boat as it was, and the number of Sydney Hobarts they have done I'm stuffed if I want to be on one in the Southern Ocean in winter.

Hands up who would send their 16 yo kid accross the Southern Ocean in winter! I would be really interested to know. Seriously.

[barnakiel]

Looks like her family have attained their primary goal - huge publicity ...

b.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

Looks like her family have attained their primary goal - huge publicity ...

b.

Oh? So you would think Ella Bache's Pimple Cream sales would have shot up?

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

It was another ship!

I put it up for the highlighted comment

as the boat scraped port side to port side."

Have a look at the picture and tell me which side she scraped?