RANT: The " Danger " of Sailing

[Target9000]

Note... This is an excerpt from our blog that I posted a while back that I feel is applicable to this thread. This came after we returned home from a week and a half sail and found our home burglarized.

The Real Pirates

You know, I try really hard to keep a positive spin on our blog and all we do revolving around the boat. I don’t like being too negative. In a long term plan you cannot afford to get bogged down in crappiness along your way. Its important to focus on the small successes instead of the small failures. I wrote about that just a couple of weeks ago, but I’m going to take a moment now and vent about something.

When Dani and I tell non-cruisers about our plans, the conversation inevitably turns to pirates and piracy on the high seas. I had long ago assured myself with research and hard facts that piracy is in fact a rare event in the cruising world. So usually I would just brush off the comments about piracy and tell people we’ll just stay away from pirate infested waters.

The fact of the matter is that living in United States can be just as dangerous or worse than cruising many of the places in the world. As much as I love our country, the stats don’t lie. And they just got a lot more personal.

When I walked up to the door of our condo upon our return from our trip I knew something was wrong when I saw the mail slot ripped out of the door. I tried door and it was unlocked. I burst into the condo to see if someone was inside and attack them but no one was there. Only the leftovers of violation.

This is what real piracy looks like.


It isn’t some ******* Somalian. Its the guy that walked by and noticed we weren’t home for a week and was fiending for his drug du jour. Its living in civilization where thousands die from car accidents, murder, and theft. Its the FAMILIAR crime that is so awful. Its awful because we’re used to it. Its “safe”. God forbid someone sail through the Indian Ocean but its just fine and dandy to live in the good Ol’ US of A where crack fiends break your doors down and kids texting while driving murder others via car wrecks. No one says to the guy that is like, “BUT WHAT ABOUT PIRATES?!” ”But what about drunk drivers?”

I know that is all a bit dramatic. I’m just angry and venting right now. I don’t want to live in a place where our home looks like this.




And yes the board on the right is marine grade ply.

Yes, cruising is dangerous. Yes, dreams are hard to achieve. And yes, sacrifices must be made. However, there are pirates in every place and in every land. You just get so used to them that they don’t seem as scary anymore until you become one of the statistics that fades into the noise that the machine called civilization is humming.

[David M]

Yup, what is life if we never venture out of our safe little cocoon? Wouldn't it be called unfulfilling?

[Mr B]

Sailing has to be dangerous, Those boats tied up in the Marina's,

All the marina's here are behind fences and locked gates,

Maybe the boats are viciuos and bite people,

If it wasnt dangerous, they wouldnt keep them locked up,

And they all have a sunken boat story to tell,

But if you ask them about a car crash they have seen, Well thats different,

Its because of this or that, But the car didnt sink, Hahahahahaha

[goldiphlox]

Well...i was laughing my butt off reading this thread until it got serious with targets message....which reminded me of something.....when my son went off to Afghanistan...of course everyone said all the negatives about how dangerous it was....well ....we chose to stay positive and then we read some interesting facts....
I read an article today entitled..... An Interesting Suggestion: If you consider that there has been an average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theater of operations during the past 22 months, and a total of 2112 deaths, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers. The firearm death rate in Washington DC is 80.6 per 100,000 for the same period. That means you are about 25% more likely to be shot and killed in the US capital which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the U.S., than you are in Iraq... Conclusion: The US should pull out of Washington!

I guess people think they are safer with familiarity.....

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by Amapola

They have visions of piracy, the Titanic, the Perfect Storm and piracy which stem from the fear of the unknown.

So frightening you had to mention it twice

Personaly I'm more afeard of yachties with guns or yachties that DONT have a Rocna or Manson supreme

[IslandHopper]

The bane of my existence as an adrenaline junkie.....

[bobconnie]

Down here no one talks about boats sinking !! they talk about the drunks who drive into the Bayou and drown !! some at 80 mph sure can be different depending where ya live !! But then every body boats down here one way or another!!

[Celestialsailor]

No...I usually don't hear the thing about the dangers of sailing. What I get are the usual mindless redundant sayings like..." Duh...a boat is a whole in da watta you thowd money into". At which point I tell them..."No...your old lady is that"!

[SurferShane]

Originally Posted by micah719

Kraken are easy if you use a fish knife:



They seem to work well on landlubbers, too.....

Nice, I an keen to get a set of bone handled cutlery for my classic little cruiser. I might as well live in comfort with a bit of opulence while I actively avoid landlubbers for many of the reasons mentioned above!

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Cyrus Safdari

Has anyone else received an earful about the dangers of sailing, from landlubbers who regularly drive at 80 mph just a few feet from other cars going the same speed on freeways, at least twice a day everyday of their entire working lives? I mean come on, what's really more dangerous and who is really taking risks!!

Umm, why do you even care what ignorant people think?


By the way, sailing in the ocean actually can be pretty dangerous if you don't know what you're doing or if you're not sufficiently careful. But that's true of lots of things in life including, certainly, driving a car.

[K_V_B]

Originally Posted by SkiprJohn

Yes, getting out of a bed/berth in the morning is dangerous. Just think of what could happen with a very hot cup of coffee if you weren't careful. Danger is everywhere.

Even staying in bed is dangerous...

But then again, I always think of the following saying: "accidents are a feature of a life well lived".

Things do go wrong. Keeps your head on, exercise common sense and enjoy your life.

[carstenb]

Well just to get a perspective........

Does anyone have, or know where, to get some statistics on how many ocean-going cruiser there are and how many of them suffer some type of serious accident?

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by sarafina

I have VERY selective hearing... Turns all that blather into "Blah Blah Bla, Bal Bla Bal Blah Blah Blab"

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah

I needed more practice.

[Jimbo485]

Ha Ha! Yeah, a lot of landlubbers are like that and I would say quite a few of the sanctimonious CF arm chair members are similar. Far too much talk about post-event safety (ie. calling the nanny authorities for help rather than prevention) and not enough talk about the planning during prevention and the adrenalin, fun and excitement during self-rescue.

I saved a bloke´s life a few weeks ago in the Marquesas and, to tell you the truth, it was a buzz! I am sure the SAR people go thru the same sensation. The major lesson for me was that the pistol grip on the chin, which I had been taught so many times over the years, was useless. In a pool it works fine to drag a drowning victim across to the edge, but in the real world, with a little 30 cm chop across the water, it did not maintain his head high enough. The chest grip (ie. my right arm under his right armpit and grabbing his left tit) was better for the victim because his head was higher and the chop did not enter his mouth. However it did require more effort from me for us both to stay afloat.

But let´s look at the stats according to Beth and Evans at this link:
Cruising Life.

So....offshore sailing is slightly more dangerous than golf but safer than riding a bike. I would be interested to see where coastal sailing fits in. My intuition, not stats, tells me that it would be more dangerous than offshore cruising but maybe someone has hard figures?

We sail without an EPIRB, no liferaft, no MOB pole and the life jackets are buried in a locker far away. Each decision has its own basis and I won´t bore you with the details - it is a personal decision anyway. The SSB has been out of action for 6 months and we couldn´t care less because we never used it anyway. All the methods of calling for help AFTER the **** has hit the fan annoy me. If we have problems, we will solve them and if we can´t, we will just die without bothering anyone else. I was probably brain washed by my old man when cruising as a kid in the 80s. Bastard! Ha Ha! Thanks, Dad!

When I have occasionally played golf, I don´t use a helmet (oooohh, what a risk-taker!), but obviously that is the logical piece of safety equipment to prevent death and injury on the golf course. The risk while sailing is about the same according to the stats presented by Beth and Evans.

Dirt dwellers risk their lives on the highways everyday. Those from the USA risk a death from a gunshot so much more than the rest of the world. For prevention (far more important than the EPIRB/911 scream for help), they should be wearing not only a seatbelt, but also a bullet proof vest. But do they? Oooohh, what risk-takers are those who don´t! And yet there are many from all over the world who use a harness when on deck in FINE weather? And concentrate their planning on post-accident wails for help from others? What logic am I missing? Is it all about emotions and human perception and not about logic and facts?

Another ironic personal fact is that the only time I ever came under fire during 40 000 miles and over 60 countries was from a crazy, drunken Vietnam vet cruiser. WOW! Where was my Somalian mate at the time to assist me?

I have rambled a lot but I guess the point is: before some CF members decry the ignorance of the dirt dwellers too much, they should look more closely at their own paranoia and their own focus on safety. Dirt dwellers are quite understandably ignorant of the sea, but are you aware of the stats and the difference between pre- and post-accident safety devices?

The difference between the devices and tools which are for:
a) prevention,
b) self-rescue, and
c) calling in the the baby sitters?

I will put up another video shortly which shows our own fun and games during a recent leg from the Galapagos to the Marquesas.... just for entertainment.

[micah719]

Oi! According to the hairs on my wrist, it's been three and a half shortly's since you promised an entertaining vid from the Galapagalos to Marquesas; what's the delay?

Hope you haven't been clipped on the nut by a helmet-wearing american golfer on a large capacity assault bike.....ya never know......