I just came off of
vacation and apologize if this has already been discussed as I have not read every post, we were out there in the area where they went down sailing to Venice from
Key West, on the day they went down.
It was uncomfortable, I furled the
Genoa and took a deep reef on the main, leaving the Staysail up and slept, leaving the wife and Daughter to stand watches, it wasn't
weather that worried me enough to keep me from sleeping, nor bad enough to keep me from sleeping.
It wasn't
weather that should sink a boat, it was exactly the weather that had been forecasted, CG did keep repeating weather was bad on 16 and all boats should seek shelter immediately, hours before the weather got bad too. Of course you would have to have had a
radio to receive the warnings.
I'm afraid their boat may not have been all that sea worthy, nor the crew prepared.
On my trip, I was astonished at the number of ill equipped boats that were crewed by people that apparently had no idea at all of what they were doing.
I consider myself a newby, someone who really doesn't have much knowledge or experience, but many people I met I think had essentially no experience at all, just bought a boat down South and moved aboard, hoping I guess for the best.
I pulled a couple of small boats with my
Dinghy off a grounding in Garrison Bight, nice people, but the condition of those boats, their ground tackle etc., they weren't at all prepared for a squall at
anchor, much less any kind of storm.