Merchant Bulker Rescues Four from Sailboat in Mid-Atlantic

[Boatyarddog]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

Of these type of threads yes. It's akin to posting everytime there is a car crash or building fire. Sailors seem to get some kind of perverse thrill from sea rescue or disaster threads unlike any other group i've been part of. "Oh but sailing is dangerous, we might learn something" So if off-road motorcycling, but you don't see these type of threads all over the place in overlanding forums.



Hmm yes, what could they possibly be doing Mid Altantic this time of year i.e the prime time to cross from Europe to the Caribbean. It's a real mystery. Mwahahaahaha

Small boat and inexperienced crew?
Not really safe this time of year.
Seems I remember reading about Blue Pearls Incident


Would it not be prudent to cross in say April even May?
Seems unsettled and less predictable this time of year.
Haven't done this as I'm on the other side.

Thanks for the Info.
Cheers,
SV Cloud Duster

[mikedefieslife]

Originally Posted by Boatyarddog

Small boat and inexperienced crew?
Not really safe this time of year.
Seems I remember reading about Blue Pearls Incident


Would it not be prudent to cross in say April even May?
Seems unsettled and less predictable this time of year.
Haven't done this as I'm on the other side.

Thanks for the Info.
Cheers,
SV Cloud Duster

Not sure if serious.

No-one crosses form Europe (note the Spanish flag on the boat) to the Caribbean in April/May, since hurricanes start in May. late November, Dec-Jan-Feb are the prime times for people crossing east to west.

Also it's over 11m so a typically sized cruising boat. Not really small at all.

[boatman61]

Blue Pearl was much further North and in summertime and they were heading for Europe from the Caribe if memory serves.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by tarian

Lol its the X files on CF the mud slingers and the crystal ballers are out to , lets critique once the FULL story is out , I know I know its fun to tell stories but its all fantasy until the truth becomes apparent

It seems like in a lot of these cases the full story never comes out.

Once they are back on shore and settled at home maybe they realize that abandoning a seaworthy sailboat is not looked upon favorably. They might not want to talk about it or the "fish that got away" gets a little bigger.

An interview (by a sailor) with one or more of the principals and a subsequent article or story would be more useful than our speculation. I've done 1 or 2 of these type of stories (when the crew ends up here) and there is always some contributing factors that the mud slingers (including myself) are not aware of but the "I hate this, I wanna get off!" factor is usually predominate.

[mikedefieslife]

Originally Posted by wingssail

It seems like in a lot of these cases the full story never comes out.

Once they are back on shore and settled at home maybe they realize that abandoning a seaworthy sailboat is not looked upon favorably. They might not want to talk about it or the "fish that got away" gets a little bigger.

An interview (by a sailor) with one or more of the principals and a subsequent article or story would be more useful than our speculation. I've done 1 or 2 of these type of stories (when the crew ends up here) and there is always some contributing factors that the mud slingers (including myself) are not aware of but the "I hate this, I wanna get off!" factor is usually predominate.

Here you go. Here the story of the German guy that lost his boat in Cape Verde late last year. Oddly there was no car crash CF thread on this one.

The guy gives a sincere account. You'll enjoy the shot of the tackle he was using on anchor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x6fpDXR4_w&t=128s

[tarian]

Originally Posted by wingssail

It seems like in a lot of these cases the full story never comes out.

Once they are back on shore and settled at home maybe they realize that abandoning a seaworthy sailboat is not looked upon favorably. They might not want to talk about it or the "fish that got away" gets a little bigger.

An interview (by a sailor) with one or more of the principals and a subsequent article or story would be more useful than our speculation. I've done 1 or 2 of these type of stories (when the crew ends up here) and there is always some contributing factors that the mud slingers (including myself) are not aware of but the "I hate this, I wanna get off!" factor is usually predominate.

You are again making up a story based on tales of the unexpected , if a boat needs to be abandoned it will be abandoned , there is more flotsam in the sea risking navigation than a sailboat , so those who look at it unfavourable is their prerogative but nothing to do with the owners and really need to stop chittering about this and that, like a school playground or a rubbish who dun it movie
, the boat also had a skipper on board and no doubt have a good healthy chat with the owners in regards to options which would normally be in his best interests to save lives and not put them at risk as the code of the sea dictates.
Remember the skipper of a boat is responsible for the lifes aboard no matter if the owners are and want to get off as you put it

[dbraymer]

Too bad I never had the money to abandon vessels under my command when the wind rose and the water got rough.

The picture where the freighter is along side the sailboat does not appear to show a difficult situation or a truly distressed boat.

If they had not yet EATEN the dog, things were not really that bad!

The real injury is to all those sailors who sailed through hell with all those really badly designed old wooden Galleons, rafts, Polynesian canoes, Roman galleys, etc.; made it to port and just went ashore to get a bottle of rum and possibly a bit of human companionship, and then returned to their vessels to go out and face the next storm or the next battle...

I do not count this group as sailors, unless there was a mother-in-law aboard.

[Poche]

They must have had their reasons. Hopefully, someone will find the boat before it goes ashore.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by dbraymer

Too bad I never had the money to abandon vessels under my command when the wind rose and the water got rough.

The picture where the freighter is along side the sailboat does not appear to show a difficult situation or a truly distressed boat.

If they had not yet EATEN the dog, things were not really that bad!

The real injury is to all those sailors who sailed through hell with all those really badly designed old wooden Galleons, rafts, Polynesian canoes, Roman galleys, etc.; made it to port and just went ashore to get a bottle of rum and possibly a bit of human companionship, and then returned to their vessels to go out and face the next storm or the next battle...

I do not count this group as sailors, unless there was a mother-in-law aboard.

I general I would agree, however the pic has the boat in the lee of the bulker.

[GrowleyMonster]

Originally Posted by atoll

two solar panels in overcast conditions are probably not enough to keep up with demands from the



auto pilot,

Turn it off.

fridge

Turn it off.

and nav gear.

Electronic? Turn it off, navigate by DR if no Navigator is aboard, and turn GPS on for a fix once a day.

lack of progress if they are unable to hand steer

Should be able to set that boat up to self steer pretty easy.

24/7,seasickness ,no engine = low morale.
+2 on psychological or interpersonal breakdown

They should have figured all that out on the shakedown cruise. And thought to have kerosene running lights. They were totally unprepared. When you find you are totally unprepared, you just got to man up and gitter done.



Well, anyway there goes a perfectly good boat somebody can have. On behalf of the sailing community, to the previous owners, THANKS FOR THE BOAT! GONNA BUY US ANOTHER ONE WHEN YOU GET HOME?

[HeinSdL]

If I were to abandon like that then, assuming the batteries are still in an OK condition and getting charged by the solar panels, I would turn everything off except the AIS. Just out of interest to see if I would ever see my boat again on eg MarineTraffic once it gets near land...


I definitely would find it odd to step off like that (probably there was a perfectly valid reason) but then the oddest thing would be just to leave everything behind, a ghost ship. So would try and leave some life on board in the form of an AIS signal... or would it be better to open a disconnected seacock? I think the former.

[swordds]

Whenever I want a reminder of just how sanctimonious and mean spirited people can be I need only look at these speculative posts in Cruisers Forum.

[flee27]

[QUOTE=GrowleyMonster;3063241]

""They should have figured all that out on the shakedown cruise. And thought to have kerosene running lights. They were totally unprepared. When you find you are totally unprepared, you just got to man up and gitter done. ""


Do you mean "running lights" as in navigation lights? If so how many people have back up kerosene running lights on their boats? Thats a new one for me...

[southseasailor2]

Shows like so often the boat is stronger than the crew

[JPA Cate]

^^^^
Yes. Fortunately, the cruising community behavior described by the guy in mikedefieslife's video is more typical.

Ann