Rescue at sea witnessed (long)

[sailaway21]

So we're supposed to take the word of some kid who's never been on a boat in his life as to the quality of maintenance on the boat?

The next obvious question is, how does this discussion take us anywhere productive other than making passing reference to it's a nice idea to maintain your boat? What is the average sailnet member going to take away from it? For those conclusions to be positive and helpful they've got to be specific, on the order of lessons learned and things I'd do different.

Absent anything like that, we're just beating the empty pinata with sticks, ie...wasting our time.

[Freesail99]

I have to agree with sailaway, I was thinking the same thing about the kid. Why are we taking his word, and what does he really know.

[PBzeer]

Because it's on YouTube. After all, everyone knows that YouTube and Wikipedia are now the definitive arbiters of truth, because anybody can do it

[T34C]

About the only thing I could say difinitively is that I wouldn't have let the kid on my boat for a trip like that, much less listen to his opinions about the boat.

[Omatako]

At the end of the day we all make some bad decisions and some good ones and the survivors are those that have a positive balance sheet.

There is an awfully long list of boats that have gone down/missing with the consequent loss of life of the people on board. The only logical conclusion must be that the conditions overcame the abilities of those aboard and the decision makers had a negative balance sheet.

So do we further conclude that they were were all ill-prepared/uninformed/unskilled?

Or do we conclude that Gene did enough to keep everybody alive despite the odds?

I conclude that Gene got it right, had a positive balance sheet and I would rather have been on his boat than any of those referred to above.

Andre

[Omatako]

As an extenion the my earlier thread, this is pretty much what I meant (quote from John Vigor):

In the Freelance corollary to the theory, every boat possesses an imaginary black box, a sort of bank account in which points are kept. In times of emergency, when there is nothing more to be done in the way of sensible seamanship, the points from your black box can buy your way out of trouble. You have no control over how the points are spent, of course; they withdraw themselves when the time is appropriate. You do have control over how the points get into the box: you earn them.

For every seamanlike act you perform, you get a point in the black box. Points come in so many ways it would be impossible to list them all. But I can send you in the right direction. Let's say you're planning a weekend cruise down the coast, and time is precious. You have been wondering for some weeks if you ought to haul out the bosun's chair and inspect the masthead fittings. It has been a couple of years since you checked everything up there, but it would mean delaying your departure by an hour, maybe more, should you have to change a shackle or something.

If you finally give in to the nagging voice inside you and go aloft, you earn a point in the box. If you don't take that trouble, your black box will stay empty. If you sniff the bilges for fumes before pushing the starter button, you'll score a point, just as you will for taking a precautionary reef at nightfall or checking the expiration date on your rocket flares. Thinking and worrying about what could happen is also a good way to earn points - what if the wind started blowing into your quiet anchorage at 40 miles an hour and the engine wouldn't start, or whether you should put a couple of reefs in the mainsail before you climb into your bunk, just in case.

No matter how good your seamanship, there are times when there is nothing left to do but batten down the hatches and pray. If you have a credit balance of points in the box, you'll be all right.

As said in my earlier post, Gene must have had a "credit balance" .

Andre

[russgm]

I was on the cruise ship, I spoke with "Nate"(dreadlocks), I carefully watched the video and have tried to keep up on the goings on here...I think there is more to this than meets the eye, I must credit the captain "Gene" with getting his crew safely onto our vessel but...we picked them up in the Gulf stream(current of 1kt or so) and heard them claim they were out in this area for 11 days...with no propulsion to move them in or out of the current i assume they would have moved 25 NM per day (300 miles??? perhaps I am wrong), wouldn't they have been a few hundred miles south of the recovery spot when "things went bad"...but they never discussed this, the owner lied about many things, such as living with the guys on the boat for a week or so before the voyage, "Nate" said he was a last day replacement of a "homeless guy" that got arrested...he also added that the silent guy was also a homeless guy that the owner found in Baltimore(he was confined to quarters by the crew of the Explorer of the Seas for drunken behavior), quality crew...the owner discussed how the wrecking ball had pulled the VHF antenna off the boat, but nate added to me that the VHF never was functional (only the handheld) further I think he told me the iron genny was DOA, when they left Baltimore, nate said the boat was taking on a few inches every few hours, alot less than what has been discussed here...When I spoke with Nate I kept getting interrupted by cruisers who thought he was a celebrity and wanted to have pix taken with him, so i was never able to fully explore things...but thats another story...bottom line I just have a false feeling about the entire thing, I dont really know what they were doing, or where they were going, why they were there...

[tsenator]

You guys are missing everything. Does it have to be spelt out to you.

Connect the dots. Its not just the kid (who by the way owns a 28 ' boat) and its not YouTube or Wikipedia. ITS THE SKIPPERS OWN WORDS !

What don't you all get? The skipper was just very lucky that he was finally found by a passing Cruise ship. - I think there was little to no skill involved. I think this is one of those times where Gene the skipper took out a Sub-Prime loan from Vigors Black Box and I don't know if he will ever be able to repay

[Stillraining]

Originally Posted by tsenator

The skipper was just very lucky that he was finally found by a passing Cruise ship. - I think there was little to no skill involved. I think this is one of those times where Gene the skipper took out a Sub-Prime loan from Vigors Black Box and I don't know if he will ever be able to repay

And I can agree with that part of it..


Let see Sway...So far I have leaned Baltimore is not a good place to shanghai...

[Sapperwhite]

Originally Posted by Stillraining

And I can agree with that part of it..


Let see Sway...So far I have leaned Baltimore is not a good place to shanghai...

Ah Baltimore..... It may not seem like much at first, or even when you look at it a second or third time. Baltimore is actually a vibrant and beautiful city if you squint hard enough. With a surprise around every 15 corners, and a good surprise around every 30 or so, Baltimore is an exciting place to visit so long as one comes with zero expectations,has never eaten in a restaurant before, and can ignore the overpowering smell. America's well hidden gem, "Charm City", remains an undiscovered treasure, as few are willing to venture past the crime scene tape. Make sure to take in the splendor of Baltimore's "Little Afghanistan" district on your next visit.