Keeping the elephants away:
An engineer is out walking in the park and sees a wild-eyed man hitting a strangely painted block of wood with a stick. The engineer's curiosity gets the better of him, so he asks the wild-eyed man, "Why are you hitting that block?"
The wild-eyed man replies with a bit of a crazed smile, "The sound keeps the elephants away."
The engineer, now fully intrigued, digs deeper, "But why? There are no elephants here."
As the wild-eyed man continues to make his noise with renewed vigor, he says, "See! It's working."
A quick “Google” on “Man Survives” turns up all sorts of interesting stories, including:
Latvian man survives deadly binge:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3335019.stm A Latvian man has recovered after drinking enough alcohol to kill two normal people.
Tests showed that he had 7.22 parts per thousand of alcohol in his blood, while four parts per thousand would usually be fatal.
The man was taken to intensive care on Wednesday, but was well enough to talk to journalists on Thursday ...
Man Survives Jump Into Lion's Den:
http://www.local6.com/news/3887764/detail.html A man was attacked and injured after jumping into a lion's den at the Taipei Zoo and trying to convert the lions to Christianity. The 46-year-old man leaped into the den of African lions and shouted "Jesus will save you," according to the report. He also said, "Come bite me" before one of the male lions attacked and bit the man ...
I don’t think that anyone would suggest that drinking a double-fatal dose of alcohol, or jumping into a den of lions is a good idea, just because it’s been done (more or less) successfully. I don’t think anyone would even seriously suggest that it’s “doable”.
Why then, should we assume that the fact of Pat & Elly’s survival (without major mishap to themselves or to others) on a semi-circumnavigation (c/w major ocean passages) suggests that newbi’s can successfully cruise with an absolute minimum of preparation, skill, and knowledge? I don’t think it does.
Respectfully,
Gord