Couple and dogs rescued after months at sea

[The Good Life]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

Yes, that growth looked like they had been drifting awhile.....
before anyone starts to criticise, we should at least hear their story

I agree with you! Most of these responses speculating that these people don’t know how to sail, over provisioned, etc, make the commenters sound pretty stupid. How about we wait until at least a tidbit of info surfaces of the actual details leading up to the rescue before all the keyboard professionals spew their idiotic baseless speculation.

[_andi_]

Yeah, I'm dying to hear the story behind that as well. Carrying a year worth of oatmeal/rice/noodles for a leasurley pacific crossing sounds totally ok for me, since stuff over there is pricey.

Hmm, this article has more detail:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/worl...-a3669156.html

They spotted other ships that did not or could not respond, and fired at least 10 flares. Twice the ship was attacked by Tiger sharks, they said.

Mrs Appel said her daughter departed on May 3 but her phone was lost overboard the first day she was at sea.
“Various things on her boat broke, the mast broke and the engine wouldn’t start when she needed power. So she had several problems that caused her to end up drifting in the ocean,” she said.


Seems they were adrift bc they didn't want to risk dismasting.


Meh. Let's say there's room for improvement in seamanship...

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Who goes to sea with a years supply of food for two people and two large dogs? How much room would that take?

Well thankfully they did, it might also suggest some long term planning before they set off. After all rice, pasta and bean plus loo rolls are bulky but not heavy and they do seem to have a decent sized yacht, so why not stock up so you don't have to pay much higher prices on some of the more remote islands.

The weed on the side is in the shape of a wave. If that shape reflects the wave form of travelling through the water they were travelling very slowly. At hull speed the wave form would have been much longer and only rising at the rear quarter.

Pete

[Jd1]

Originally Posted by The Good Life

IHow about we wait until at least a tidbit of info surfaces of the actual details leading up to the rescue before all the keyboard professionals spew their idiotic baseless speculation.

Why break with tradition ?

[The Good Life]

Originally Posted by Jd1

Why break with tradition ?

Haha

I don’t know why I even let it bother me anymore...

[danielamartindm]

I can't seem to get past the facts that they still had sails, and that hitting the red button on a sat phone, like a Garmin Inreach Explorer, or activating an EPIRB, would have saved them five months at sea. Glad they're okay, thank you, St. Elmo.

[_andi_]

Maybe Lisa Blair should start giving courses for ocean sailing, even if you loose your mast there are still options available...

[Hoosiersailor]

The whole things seems really odd. I mean you don't even have to know how to navigate. Just point the thing east or west and get enough sail up to get moving 2 knots. Making 50 miles a day they are bound to run into some land at some point within a couple of months...

[Tornadosailing]

They took a years worth of food for themselves and the dogs. It's as if they knew how bad they were at this sailing/navigating thing.

[Steadman Uhlich]

I think it is premature to criticize these sailors.

What we know is they survived and seemed well prepared with food and had adequate water and plenty of flares and they used their radio daily to call for help.

There are big strong currents, such as a gyre, that can keep an object moving in a very large area, going in a circle, without making it closer to land.

And there are very large areas where wind can be very low or calms or variable winds exist for days or longer.

I have been in a flat calm for a few days, in the "middle" of the Pacific, with an inoperable engine, and there was no wind at all. The surface of the ocean was as smooth as a mirror, like flat glass. Before experiencing that kind of flat calm on the open ocean, I thought sailors exaggerated about calms, because I had always seen some wind and waves on the ocean before, and had thought "one can always find wind and sail, or turn on the engine." Some circumstance, though rare today, may make that difficult or unlikely.

If they were in such an area, with an inoperable engine, with a damaged rig, with a heavily fouled bottom (which appears likely), and not able or wanting to use their sails (for fear of dismasting because of earlier damage to the rigging or mast, etc.), they could have drifted slowly on the currents for a very long time.

The Pacific is very big, and they could have been off the popular shipping routes. And, their statements did say they saw several ships that did not respond to their flares or radio calls.
__________

A few years ago a Trimaran capsized near New Zealand. The crew survived in the upside down hull, as the boat drifted for weeks, and then months, for a total of 119 days. The four man crew, included a very experienced sailor, thought they were drifting to South America. It turns out they drifted in a circle, and wound up beached back on New Zealand, not far from where they started! You can find their story on Netflix or YouTube, as a movie "Abandoned" was made about this survival story.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose-Noëlle
_______

It seems these two sailors were fortunate to have taken enough food and to have enough water.
________

I think this story is another example of why having an EPIRB aboard when sailing offshore, is a very good idea, even if you already have a radio and flares and feel you may never need to call for help.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

Yes, that growth looked like they had been drifting awhile.....
before anyone starts to criticise, we should at least hear their story

please write a review when you read the book that I'm sure will be forthcoming within the next year.

[SaucySailoress]

Originally Posted by Tornadosailing

They took a years worth of food for themselves and the dogs. It's as if they knew how bad they were at this sailing/navigating thing.

Not necessarily. Having spent years sailing in the horse latitudes (on the Arabian Gulf), I never even went on a day sail on my beach cat without a week's supply of booze; and we have enough dried and tinned food to last us for a good 6 months on board the yacht as standard when we head off for a month's passage!

[ka4wja]

Ann,
Wow!
You took the words out-of-my-mouth!

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

When you're really out at sea, you are really on your own. If you have ham radio or other communication with land, your land based acquaintances can offer ideas that may help you, but you are on your own with your choices of provisions and spare parts, and paper backups for repairs when you are without electricity.

Ann

Thank you!


On another note....on the topic of these two...
We are not getting the whole story here (there must be a LOT more to this "story")...so, I will defer direct comment until later...

But, on this subject in general, a boat that's floating, has working sails and steerage, and a compass, can make it to land somewhere!!! And, if you had some paper charts and watch, you'd be able to figure out where to sail....and if you had a sextant (yeah, I know I'm old fashioned!) as well, you'd make it to the port of your desire!! Oh, and if you had some water, or means of making fresh water and especially the electricity to run a watermaker (something that I prefer to use adequate solar to do), then you'd be fine...

I'm off my soapbox now, too..


fair winds to all...

John

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by ka4wja

Ann,
Wow!
You took the words out-of-my-mouth!

Thank you!


On another note....on the topic of these two...
We are not getting the whole story here (there must be a LOT more to this "story")...so, I will defer direct comment until later...

But, on this subject in general, a boat that's floating, has working sails and steerage, and a compass, can make it to land somewhere!!! And, if you had some paper charts and watch, you'd be able to figure out where to sail....and if you had a sextant (yeah, I know I'm old fashioned!) as well, you'd make it to the port of your desire!! Oh, and if you had some water, or means of making fresh water and especially the electricity to run a watermaker (something that I prefer to use adequate solar to do), then you'd be fine...

I'm off my soapbox now, too..


fair winds to all...

John

John you don't need power to run my watermaker it is convertible to manual in the unlikely event of total power loss.

[Skipper65]

I think they sailed around the world and just missed land by accident! 25,000 miles around the world. 23 weeks at sea. If they could make 150 miles a day they could have lapped it! Very very strange story.