Forum Member's Boat and Daughter in Trouble off of Mexico

[ShaktisBoy]

Originally Posted by deckofficer

An opportunity has presented itself to defend both Eric and the family cruising lifestyle. As all are aware the Mail has picked up the story and run with it. In their typical sensationalism reporting, they for some reason gave Eric a fair shake, but their massive audience in the comments section have not. Take the time to sign up to Mail and leave well constructed comments. Lets try to educate the masses that raising children to be confident, nonjudgmental, and happy by spending serious amounts of time with them cruising beats letting TV and video games do the molding of their characters.

'Are we there yet?' Family's round-the-world sailing trip ends after just two weeks as sea sickness and broken boat turn dream voyage into a nightmare | Mail Online

I left a couple of comments for the mundane masses over there. Hope it wasn't to much of a rant. I intended it more as a kick in the head to get people off their high horses.

[Capt Phil]

Originally Posted by deckofficer

An opportunity has presented itself to defend both Eric and the family cruising lifestyle. As all are aware the Mail has picked up the story and run with it. In their typical sensationalism reporting, they for some reason gave Eric a fair shake, but their massive audience in the comments section have not. Take the time to sign up to Mail and leave well constructed comments. Lets try to educate the masses that raising children to be confident, nonjudgmental, and happy by spending serious amounts of time with them cruising beats letting TV and video games do the molding of their characters.

'Are we there yet?' Family's round-the-world sailing trip ends after just two weeks as sea sickness and broken boat turn dream voyage into a nightmare | Mail Online

Already did, Decky' good suggestion... phil

[Prairie Chicken]

Charlotte's sister's posts indicate she has received a message from Charlotte--good news about the baby; not so good about the family's plans.

For any WWS she is posting there. I hesitate to repeat what isn't mine to repeat.

PS, I've been thru & added my thumbs up & down to the comments--looks like we're making progress there.

[deckofficer]

Originally Posted by ShaktisBoy

I left a couple of comments for the mundane masses over there. Hope it wasn't to much of a rant. I intended it more as a kick in the head to get people off their high horses.

Whatever you and others from CF have left on the comments, the tide has been changing since this morning. I had left a suggestion that folks search the Internet for family cruising blogs and just maybe they might have a better understanding of the dynamics instead of just condemning what they aren't familiar with.

[TaoJones]

I hope that Sariah is wrong and that Eric doesn't choose to abandon Rebel Heart, probably scuttling her to remove a hazard to navigation because he's aware of his responsibility. There's very little he can accomplish by accompanying his family after they're taken aboard the navy frigate. They will be in good hands and he can rejoin them after getting the vessel to Cabo.

If Charlotte is in a bad way, though, I can see how he might choose to leave the boat to support her in this difficult time. But Charlotte is a very strong-willed individual and I have every confidence that she and Eric will decide together what is in the best interests of their family.

Whatever they choose, no one else should question that decision.

TaoJones

[Sailing Cowboy]

Originally Posted by TaoJones

In early January, Charlotte and her sister Sariah outed their father on Charlotte's blog for molesting them when they were adolescents. They have many siblings, and one sister and one brother attacked them for revealing what their father had done.

The brother who was opposed to their revelations sent Charlotte an email stating, "You get uglier with very [sic] passing year. Get back on your boat and disappear." (From Charlotte's Blog of January 19, 2014)

Was it the brother who appears in the channel 7 piece? I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me. At the very least, her brother James obviously doesn't understand the value and appropriateness of a simple, "No comment."

TaoJones

I read the abuse piece on the blog as well. Boy oh boy this thing could really escalate in the media with the whole family. Not sure if a good thing or bad thing at this point.

[atoll]

Originally Posted by Paul Annapolis

Tore their drifter!! Heavens to Betsy......limited fuel? Well they are a sailboat??? Drifting....900 miles offshore?????.Yes--send out airplanes, medics, drop inflatable boats....Nobody wants a baby to be ill or die of course...but here is probably more to this story--a whole lot more that should be brought to light but I have plenty of questions, for example--what were they doing out there? With a baby? Without enough fuel? If they used a drifter it was light air--yes? But they ripped it so what's the danger here? And how and why did they use up their fuel presumably so soon after departing? What is missing from this story? Let's stay tuned but I have my hunches....

don't worry too much about the "DAILY WAIL" they have a very short attention span!

it's our own home grown nutters on the forum that are more worrying

[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Finally, many who are critical of young people cruising long range are jealous.

More than once we were flat out told by older cruisers that we were too young to be "out here" with our kids. They were 1/2 joking and 1/2 bitter I think that they waited so long.

If they wanted to hear kids playing and swinging off the halyards at anchor they would have brought their grandkids along, the VHF once broadcast over the anchorage. We of course then turned on our "young wippersnapper music" and told the kids to scream and play louder...ha ha ha. The Judgemental folks are not just trapped back on land folks...they sometimes share an anchorage with us loud kid boats.

[Prairie Chicken]

https://twitter.com/129RQW/status/45.../photo/1/large

129th Rescue Wing ‏@129RQW 26m
1:30 brief to discuss with crew and Pjs Rescue of ill 1yr on Rebel Heart

129th Rescue Wing ‏@129RQW 2m
Rescue Update Child is healing
Meds working Rendezvous is still on 2200 Transfer of patient to frigate first light.

For those of you not following on Twitter too....

[Sailing Cowboy]

Originally Posted by atoll

don't worry too much about the "DAILY WAIL" they have a very short attention span!

it's our own home grown nutters on the forum that are more worrying

OMG....don't get him going on this thread too..........

[satdiver]

I grew up from toddler to my late teens as a passage making liveaboard with my brother and two sisters. In fact my oldest sister was born prematurely offshore which required Chilean Navy assistance and I fell ill to Fifth Disease when we were 3/4ths across the Atlantic but were able to make it on our own. None of my siblings would have traded our childhood experiences for the world although I'm the only one that has remained livingaboard it's something we all do not have a single bit of resentment for mom and pops sharing with us. I hope this family continues on and reattempts their journey.

My point is the same bad stuff that can happen on land can and will happen out there. Plenty of teachers, parents and random people attacked my parents for the way they were raising us with plenty of truancy threats and DSS threats, we were called hippie kids (which is ironic because my father was a huge capitalist) and I even ended up in a few administrators offices in trouble for telling teachers they were wrong about some culture they were teaching us about because my parents actually took us there.

All of us completed college, My brother the smartest of all of us went on the finish a PhD and and become one of those teacher types. All of us are alive, and with the exception of me are are married with great families.

People spend too much time speculating what they think they know about situations rather than basing anything on experience. I really hope they are able to figure things out and continue on their journey. They and their boat are in my prayers.

[dpddj]

Cheechaco - remember, it was on CNN. They do not have a stellar record for not letting facts get in their way of reporting the news. Is that a double negative - does that count?

[Gadagirl]

Relieved that the situation has improved for the baby and the family. My best wishes and thoughts are with them. I genuinely feel bad for the situation they are in.
I've raised three children and am helping to raise my grandchild. I can soooo empathize with what they must've felt while the baby was in such a serious condition. I can empathize with what they might be feeling now. And I've been subjected to plenty of judgmental idiots in my life but I just can't imagine having to deal with what they are about to. And totally agree that they made the right decisions. Both the decision to go in the first place and the decision to call for help.




As an aside, I have a question about the earthquake and tsunami that occurred off of Chile. Could these swells been affecting them?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU9w...4EB2DA&index=2

[SkiprJohn]

When a tsunami occurs the safest place to be is out past the 100 fathom mark because the wave doesn't materialize until it gets close to shore.

[Gadagirl]

Originally Posted by dpddj

Cheechaco - remember, it was on CNN. They do not have a stellar record for not letting facts get in their way of reporting the news. Is that a double negative - does that count?

Is there any news source that that doesn't let the facts get in the way of their reporting? Does one exist?