The attached link is from today's Seattle Times. These kids were VERY lucky. Gary Wyngarden S/V Wanderlust H37.5
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this makes no since
i dont understand this dosent a sail fish have a small sail what happend to it why didnt they sail it back. surly they did not go out there paddling the boat out there.
i dont understand this dosent a sail fish have a small sail what happend to it why didnt they sail it back. surly they did not go out there paddling the boat out there.
i guess they didnt know how to sail?
it sounds insane, to take a sunfish out on open water without knowing how, but its possible.. We have plenty of lakes and ponds & intercostals for them to learn on too..!
it sounds insane, to take a sunfish out on open water without knowing how, but its possible.. We have plenty of lakes and ponds & intercostals for them to learn on too..!
drinking salt water
correct me if I'm wrong (please), but doesn't drinking salt water make you even more dehydrated then you already are?
correct me if I'm wrong (please), but doesn't drinking salt water make you even more dehydrated then you already are?
It was a derelict Sunfish...no sails, no rudder
Only paddles. And they didn't actually drink salt water, only gargled with it to keep their mouths and throats from drying out. They'd lost their fishing gear and survived on raw jellyfish. At night they took turns wearing a single wet suit to keep warm. CNN has a pretty good account: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/01/teens.found.ap/index.html
Only paddles. And they didn't actually drink salt water, only gargled with it to keep their mouths and throats from drying out. They'd lost their fishing gear and survived on raw jellyfish. At night they took turns wearing a single wet suit to keep warm. CNN has a pretty good account: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/01/teens.found.ap/index.html
Fair and Balanced
As on some news shows, the reporter fails to mention several things, and seems to have made some mistakes as well. According to contributors to the Cruising World website, the two boys set out in a JY15 - (which IS like a Sunfish, as far as having a small cockpit and a centerboard is concerned.) - named "Under Construction." They did not have a rudder, spars, or sails with them. The word centerboard was not mentioned, which is ominous in its omission. They planned to paddle out just beyond the surf line and try to catch some sharks. The wind and tide carried them rapidly away from their launch point, and they got too tired to keep paddling. Teenagers. At least conditions were better, and they were luckier than the ones last winter (?) who took a leaky rowboat out from City Island with no oars and drowned.
As on some news shows, the reporter fails to mention several things, and seems to have made some mistakes as well. According to contributors to the Cruising World website, the two boys set out in a JY15 - (which IS like a Sunfish, as far as having a small cockpit and a centerboard is concerned.) - named "Under Construction." They did not have a rudder, spars, or sails with them. The word centerboard was not mentioned, which is ominous in its omission. They planned to paddle out just beyond the surf line and try to catch some sharks. The wind and tide carried them rapidly away from their launch point, and they got too tired to keep paddling. Teenagers. At least conditions were better, and they were luckier than the ones last winter (?) who took a leaky rowboat out from City Island with no oars and drowned.
Bret
You mean "Uneducated with the sea", right? I sure many of us didn't know as a teen that just because the waves are coming in doesn't mean the current is coming in just a few hundred yards out. Not to mention not knowing that you couldn't paddle or swim against it. Does that mean we are all stupid, no, just that we weren't educated about the sea in grammer school.
You mean "Uneducated with the sea", right? I sure many of us didn't know as a teen that just because the waves are coming in doesn't mean the current is coming in just a few hundred yards out. Not to mention not knowing that you couldn't paddle or swim against it. Does that mean we are all stupid, no, just that we weren't educated about the sea in grammer school.
Youth and Danger
When you are young danger doesn't seem so important. If it did there wouldn't be bull riders and motorcycle racers. I remember swiming out with bait to fish for sharks. My first sail was a testimony to stupidity or arrogance. We purchased a sunfish and it had a little booklet on how to sail. We drove home and I couldn't wait to try it so we went straight to the ocean and after rigging the boat I jumped in and started sailing. My very first time on a sailboat. the wind was due east. Well this sailing stuff was easy!!!! Then I turned around and saw that only the tops of the hotels were still visable and now there were waves. My wife has horrified when I sailed over the horizon and went to call the rescue squad. Just before going into the motel office to call she looked back to sea and saw the very top of my sail going back and forth and getting larger so she didn't call for help. That was about thirty years ago and I am still sailing. Everyone does stupid things while learning a new activity and usually it turns out OK. At the time I had been breaking horses and riding motorcycles both on and off the road. Sailing a little sunfish seemed like a safe and easy no brainer!!! The sense of discovery and adventure is one or of the strong motivators to try new things. Doesn't everyone cherish the sense of reckless danger that you felt the first time you rode your bike around a parking lot or down the street or let your horse run flat out across a field. Even better is sailing in the open ocean with 15 kts of wind on the beam with your laser up on a plane. Without a little danger and sense of adventure life would be awfully dull. Safe can be boring. Tom
When you are young danger doesn't seem so important. If it did there wouldn't be bull riders and motorcycle racers. I remember swiming out with bait to fish for sharks. My first sail was a testimony to stupidity or arrogance. We purchased a sunfish and it had a little booklet on how to sail. We drove home and I couldn't wait to try it so we went straight to the ocean and after rigging the boat I jumped in and started sailing. My very first time on a sailboat. the wind was due east. Well this sailing stuff was easy!!!! Then I turned around and saw that only the tops of the hotels were still visable and now there were waves. My wife has horrified when I sailed over the horizon and went to call the rescue squad. Just before going into the motel office to call she looked back to sea and saw the very top of my sail going back and forth and getting larger so she didn't call for help. That was about thirty years ago and I am still sailing. Everyone does stupid things while learning a new activity and usually it turns out OK. At the time I had been breaking horses and riding motorcycles both on and off the road. Sailing a little sunfish seemed like a safe and easy no brainer!!! The sense of discovery and adventure is one or of the strong motivators to try new things. Doesn't everyone cherish the sense of reckless danger that you felt the first time you rode your bike around a parking lot or down the street or let your horse run flat out across a field. Even better is sailing in the open ocean with 15 kts of wind on the beam with your laser up on a plane. Without a little danger and sense of adventure life would be awfully dull. Safe can be boring. Tom
Isn't youth great
Getting in and out of these spots is what makes us who we are. I wouldn't swap my memories of my mistakes for the world, then again, i race superbikes too. better to die living than live dying.
Getting in and out of these spots is what makes us who we are. I wouldn't swap my memories of my mistakes for the world, then again, i race superbikes too. better to die living than live dying.
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