Sailboat trip to Caribbean ends the day it began...

[nat55]

These stories always leave more questions unanswered than answered...

https://www.boston25news.com/news/s...n-ends-in-rockport-the-day-it-began/857906459

 

[JimInPB]

Ouch

 

[dlochner]

Sad. At least there is not talk of a Gofundme page and a woe is me story. They were honest, we screwed up and life goes on, by train.

 

[Davidasailor26]

These stories always leave more questions unanswered than answered...

Particularly when they start with "their sailboat capsized", followed by an article that doesn't in any way actually suggest capsize.

In any case, yes it's a sad story. Good that they're safe and able to continue their adventure a different way. I suspect they may have been short on experience, but that's pure speculation at this point.

 

[Brian D]

I don't get it. How? How in the world does one hit a jetty? There is a reason and I wait to find out. She lost her mast so was there a storm or did this happen after going aground? Yeah, too many questions.

Google Earth view of Rockport Harbor, Rockport Ma.

 

[garymalmgren]

That is the most confused report of a boating accident that I have ever read.

gary

 

[Will Gilmore]

"They would have been out there all night if they had not gotten off the boat," said Scott Story, a Rockport Harbormaster.
So,
No radio on a trip that was supposed to take a year and cross into the pacific.

How in the world does one hit a jetty?

"I could see all of a sudden, 'Oh my gosh there’s the jetty and we are going to crash,' and we did," said Davis.
Fog?
They may not have had a helm either.

I suspect they may have been short on experience, but that's pure speculation at this point.

I'm going to join you in your speculation on this one.

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[Brian D]

So during the pre-trip process, they never left or returned to the harbor? They didn't have a chart of the port? I am so confused that it appears the very basics of sailing was thrown out with the bath water.

 

[Bob J.]

I fished this area for the better part of 15 years. In a sailboat, if you find yourself between the mainland & the jetty with wind/ tide in the wrong direction, ya you could be in trouble. We put my brothers 20' center console up on the jetty due to engine failure.
I feel sorry for them. Glad they walked away with their lives.

 

[JimInPB]

I'm reading this to say that they left from somewhere in Maine & ended up seeking refuge in Rockport when they hit bad weather while heading south. I'm thinking that they were probably far enough from home waters that they were likely trying to enter an inlet that they didn't know well & perhaps had never been to before. There is no mention of them even having proper charts of the inlet. Add to this that they were in a boat that they probably had limited coastal experience with, at night, while seasick. That's a pretty tough combination.

 

[rgranger]

View attachment 157757
Google Earth view of Rockport Harbor, Rockport Ma.

Well! Now I know why it is called rock-port

 

[Kings Gambit]

Folks with grandiose plans for travel on the water often seem to forget to consider seasickness as a disabling condition. This is also true for fatigue. I wonder if it was their first boat, and that they had been boat owners for only those two years. Just as well to get it over with earlier than later. Certainly glad to hear that they were not physically hurt.

 

[Will Gilmore]

Wait, is that an Alden?

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[Gene Neill]

If I read the article correctly, they were sailing to the Caribbean from Maine, via the Panama canal and South Pacific. But plans have changed, and they will take a train now?

 

[DayDreamer41]

If I read the article correctly, they were sailing to the Caribbean from Maine, via the Panama canal and South Pacific. But plans have changed, and they will take a train now?

Its a bit mysterious isn't it, oh well boat gone, we will just take a train? Had they not been seasick before? How much experience did they have? Was the boat insured? hmmmmmmmm will we ever know the whole story, well at least they are physically unharmed.

 

[Jackdaw]

Particularly when they start with "their sailboat capsized", followed by an article that doesn't in any way actually suggest capsize.

In any case, yes it's a sad story. Good that they're safe and able to continue their adventure a different way. I suspect they may have been short on experience, but that's pure speculation at this point.

99% of the time, the reporter that writes these stories will have zero boating or sailing experience. And just like the eskimos seemingly have 30+ words for snow, we have a dozen plus ways to describe a sailboat coming to grief. They just unknowingly picked a poor one. I would have chosen ‘Floundered’.

 

[Brian D]

More like controlled flight into terrain rather than floundered.

 

[JimInPB]

crashed into the rocks & sank

 

[JRacer]

99% of the time, the reporter that writes these stories will have zero boating or sailing experience. And just like the eskimos seemingly have 30+ words for snow, we have a dozen plus ways to describe a sailboat coming to grief. They just unknowingly picked a poor one. I would have chosen ‘Floundered’.

 

[jssailem]

Animal House. Kent “Flounder “ Dorfman.
@JRacer did I win the big prize? Weren’t you just in South Carolina?