Tragedy Strikes.

[kmacdonald]

Quote:
Originally Posted by brianlara 3 View Post
Bare with me if you will. Will be brief.
In the forrests of Africa there live an endangered group of animals called BONOBOS, AKA Black Pygmy Chimpanzee.
When wandering 'round the jungle if a Bonobo comes across a sick or wounded animal, rather than instinctively devouring it, the Bonobo prefers to gather the sick animal up, carry it backto its home and then nurse it back to health before eating it.

Originally Posted by StuM

There, fixed it for you

Good one Stu!!!!!!!!!!!

[hellosailor]

Bottom line, even if the projections are right and the boat is currently a vague 20 miles due east off Jacksonville...How many people are going to take a detour to check out "lust another 26 foot sailboat luffing around" even IF they can see it? From cockpit height, given haze and glare...they might have to be within six miles of it, AND paying attention to it.


Right now the best effort would be a mass email to all marinas within a hundred miles of Jax, asking them to post a notice to sailors: BOLO, 26' boat drifting approx..." and to the USCG on a daily basis, asking THEM to also put out the notice to all mariners asking for special attention in that area.


Air traffic is unlikely to be low and slow enough to see or check on it, but if there are any National Guard units or other military units doing routine maneuvers in that area, THEY might be asked to keep an eyebrow peeled as well.


Sure, there's traffic out there. None of which would glance twice at a little boat drifting out on the horizon, unless they'd been warned to do so.


What's the saying? Oh lord, the ocean is so big and my ship is so small?


Yesterday a boatload of Cuban invaders [sic] were arrested ON THE PERIMETER FENCE at the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant, about 30 miles south of Miami. Authorities had no idea how their boat got all the way into the shore, they just found the guys hugging the perimeter fence.


And THAT'S an area that is supposed to be under a large and highly secured perimeter, by land, air, and sea.


BTW, you guys DO realize that the DEA has a couple of blimps (not in this area) with downward-looking radar, because from anything near sea level, the average 26' sailboat, with or without sails or radar reflectors or any kind, is just about INVISIBLE under the best of conditions?


There's no magic here, the OP will simply need great luck, unless the boat runs ashore in the continuing east winds, and someone finds it.

[monte]

Well done Pyxis

[hpeer]

Originally Posted by kmacdonald

Charming!!!!!!!!!!

No,brutally honest.

[SaltyMonkey]

Well, let's see, what did i learn today...

gilgsn, th sea spirit, has made a lot of good friends on CF.

kmacdonald, the amateur of sea moss, has made a lot of enemies.

Time for a banana.

[puffcard]

We need to sponsor a King Mac tourney out of J'Ville, when the wind laids down. They get over a 100 boats and they go out that far. Split the cash with biggest fish and who finds the boat. These guys use 48-mile radars, that makes a apox 100 mile sweep as they run. Someone should let the marinas/fishing centers and charter fleets know there is a boat adrift out there. Best of luck, can't imagine.

[kmacdonald]

The unfeasible and unrealistic suggestions never cease to amaze me. It's way past time to face reality.

[Prairie Chicken]

I'm a bit surprised we don't have some pilots willing or able to fly out to the projected coordinates & do a short grid search when Chris' projection puts Dagny so close to shore.

I'm wondering if there is a civilian SAR group who may be interested in doing an 'exercise' in the area. I recognize this is beyond gliding distance from shore for a SE aircraft, & therefore undesireable, but I know when I was involved with our civil aviation SAR group, an 'excuse' like this was the sort of thing we glommed onto right away. Some such groups may have some light twins which could be tasked for such an exercise.

Also, in Canada, we have pollution patrol a/c patrolling our coastlines & I know they'd be well equipped & positioned to keep a watch out for such a vessel if the request reached the right ears. I'd be surprised if the US doesn't have a similar group.

Lastly, I'm wondering if the 'hazard to navigation' card isn't being played to it's full extent.

These are long shots I know, but I'm grasping at straws.

Hoping for good news soon Gil. Don't lose hope.

[rognvald]

Originally Posted by Rustic Charm

I'm surprised it's still being talked about as a 'drift', when I would surely think by now it's a theft and need to cast the net wider, get pictures out asap. Poor OP must be beside himself.

I find it amazing that after 27 pages of posts that the possibility of theft has been completely eliminated by most on this Forum with the exception of Rustic Charm(did I miss someone?). An unattended boat in a open anchorage with no one in sight for most of the day and next to an island that is not that greatly different from Nassau in regards to poverty and crime and no one considers theft? This boat was easy pickings for a thief and could be en route to anywhere in the Caribbean with little or no possibility of ever being recovered again. This, unfortunately for the OP, appears to be a hard lesson earned with the loss of his vessel. Only luck will return his boat at this point. My sincere regrets for your sad loss.

[kmacdonald]

^ WOW, it just gets more and more bizarre. Even if the boat was located, there is still the issue of retrieving it. Gil has NO RESOURCES to do that. I don't understand how you think all these organizations are going to drop everything and help poor old Gil. Wake up!!!!!!!!

[kmacdonald]

Rogmvald, you could be right. If a boat was going to be stolen it would happen in the evening when it could disappear into the dark.

[LEOCAT66]

If Gil's Dagny is recovered by the right person or persons, no resources will be needed. Better to give than to receive.

[Milenka]

Gil - Mon Amis du Mer,


A bit of Cointreau and enjoying my pipe as I follow your voyage(s). As you know, I cannot sail anymore due to health, but whether land, sea or in the air, you're doing it right by doing it at all. Most people never work to attain their early dreams, the weakest of them will resent you for it. I speak from experience on this.

A boat is like a lovely mistress, fine companion and often a defender who watches your back when you least expect it. So, the loss of a boat is something a landsman may not sufficiently understand. However, you'll likely have more than a few boats, but only one life - so, you are WISE to live it well (as you are doing).

73 de Ray ..._ ._

Ps. I can think of an amazing world sailor, excellent author and conservationist who required THREE boats before sailing began to work well for him: Bernard Moitessier.

[LEOCAT66]

Originally Posted by kmacdonald

Slocum was lost at sea. I don't care to comment on your childish name calling.

Am I to assume that you have documentation to support that statement about Slocum?

[Time2Go]

Originally Posted by Pyxis156

In my past life I worked extensively with satellite imagery. Yesterday and today I reached out to a few of the contacts I still have at SPOT Image (Airbus Defense and Space) and Digital Globe. Since the boat went missing, there has been no imagery of the type that would be most useful for this purpose (i.e., high-resolution, visible wavelengths) acquired for the area covering the recent drift estimates from Chris Parker. I looked for imagery from Palm Coast in the south to Saint Simons in the north (roughly 29.5N - 31N) and extending from the coast out to roughly -79W, a total of approximately 45,000 square kilometers. Unfortunately nothing available at all.


The problem is that high resolution imagery is expensive to acquire and process so they do not set their imaging systems to acquire over open water unless specifically tasked to do so by a paying client. Because of this, the likelihood of obtaining an image with sufficient resolution to pick out a small boat like Gils is really slim, and the cost to custom acquire this type of imagery is in the thousands of dollars.


I dropped the hint that this could be great PR for them if the boat was found and recovered with the help of their systems and that a freebie might be worthwhile to them in the long run. While very sympathetic, with the area being so large and close to the Florida coast, acquiring for this task would potentially interfere with programming for paying tasks that have priority.


At this point, I would not hold my breath on imagery being very helpful in this endeavor. Fingers crossed that more conventional means are successful...

Hi Pyxis
Thanx for the effort
on behalf of all real sailors here
Cheers