VANISHED

[GordMay]

Vanished:
About Richard Carr aboard the 36-foot Union Cutter “Celebration” ➥ https://www.outsideonline.com/236081...arance-pirates

[zeehag]

richards daughter showed me this. she relayed to me that perhaps a low level of carbon monoxide poisoning was affecting richards mentation at the time of his interchange of strange messages. that is not impossible. he did have engine issues before leaving mazatlan for puerto vallarta. these were repaired in mazatlan, a notoriously bad area for repairing, with a 90 plus percent return rate. there could easily have been an issue post alleged repair that affected him.

[danielamartindm]

Wow, a really harsh read, and a reminder that we are ultimately the weak link in in the cruising chain, especially in solo cruising- a physically and mentally challenging situation for even a young man. He was obviously a person of strong will, and perhaps that and his advancing age moved him to make a "now or never" decision to undertake such a trek alone; and to ignore advancing sleep deprivation to the point of psychosis. In the end it seems that he died afraid and alone, not "doing what he loved;" and it's especially heartbreaking to hear his family speculate about the exact manner of his death.

[zeehag]

regarding richards advancing age---he was younger than many of our age. active and loved sailing. he had a goal-- his goal was to get to hiva oa solo.
he was driven to do puddlejump by his own motivation and will. he had a very active inner child and used that to his advantage.
regarding the possibility of co poisoning--that is a reality to which all sailors with auxiliary engines need to address. this was figured by his feeling bad inside boat and better when outside boat. this was in his interactions with his family. i believe it was also mentioned in the article.
this has been most difficult on his family as there was no closure. he merely vanished off face of planet. here today and then gone.

[SSgtPitt]

A sobering and tough read. Thanks for posting it.

[Steven UK]

Just read this... I’m going to hide it from the wife...!

[SKG56]

I just read this also, there is a book I read called Singlehanded Sailing by Richard Henderson, it's a good read, there is a section in that book that looks at the different personalities that you seem to find in a Singlehanded Sailor, it's too bad what happened to this guy,