Albatross Disaster

[Boasun]

The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner... is where the poor albatross met its demise.

Now Ancient Mariner would be a good boat's name... as long as there are no albatrosses around it.

[LookingForCruiser]

"Ancient Mariner" was the name of the sailboat in the Chased By Sea Monsters series.

My daughter likes that series quite a lot. It's pretty entertaining if you're into prehistoric beasts.

[Boasun]

Haven't seen that series.... Darn it!

[Omatako]

There was a similar incident here in NZ a short while ago where a skipper with some "friends" was sailing from one port to another and the weather kicked up a bit (very definitely not hurricane stuff) and the crew got frightened, the skipper couldn't hold them together and they mutinied.

Against the skipper's commands they triggered the EPIRB and initiated an SAR. the Coast Guard arrived with a chopper, took the crew off and the skipper who by now was buggered from having to do everything himself for the past however many hours decided that discretion was the better part of valour and abandoned his vessel.

I don't recall hearing anything about the destiny of the vessel, whether it was found or not (or even if anyone bothered looking for it) but this again outlines the need to have compatible crew or the ability to carry on without them.

I understand from press and news reports that the weather was not even storm level, just about 30 knots of wind and moderate seas.

Andre

[hphoen]

I've put in 11 hours at the helm in Force 8-9 conditions offshore, and was getting close to my limit. Two of the crew were inexperienced at offshore sailing, and the other (very experienced) guy was seasick and not exercising good judgment nor quick reactions at the wheel.

After that trip, I always like to have just one crew member that's new to offshore sailing, 'cause that's how people get the experience. But the other two need to be seasoned veterans that I can count on no matter what.