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Lost at sea

10K views 63 replies 25 participants last post by  casey1999 
#1 · (Edited)
So, the story is like this:

A 72 year old Dutch decided to Join is wife that is in Uruguay sailing on his big and heavy motorsailor (13m).

Near the Brazilian shores (175nm) he decided he is lost, probably a non function GPS, its boat is in perfect conditions but he decided to call is wife to say he is lost. The wife in panic calls the Dutch embassy that calls the Brasilian Navy.







A search and rescue is deployed and they found the guy. The rest is not clear but it seems that they had said to the guy where he was and he followed his route.

http://arabnews.com/world/article538557.ece?service=print

FAB - BUSCA E RESGATE- Nova aeronave da FAB encontra veleiro holandês

Do You find this normal? Who is going to pay the big costs of a search and rescue mission? Probably the Brazilian people.

About a month before I was almost tempted to post about a rescue of all the crew of a sailboat that the only problem seamed to be a non function engine and a scared crew. By the photos the sea did not seem particularly bad and the boat was not in risk of sinking.





Incidents like these are each year more frequent as more and more people decide to go offshore, many times in boats that are in bad condition or without enough knowledge and experience. If something goes wrong they call for help, even if their live is not at risk.

https://www.piersystem.com/go/doc/830/1046187/

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2011/jan/24/americans-sailboat-rescued/

This is going to turn bad for all of us that are responsible and we are going all to pay for this situation, in insurance prices and who knows if not in rescue costs, if needed. Sooner or later they are going to put the insurance companies paying rescues and then we would have forbidden insurance prices and mandatory insurance.

Do you think I am wrong?
 
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#58 ·
Faith in the skipper? Once upon a time I crewed on a Mapleleaf 42. Master's sextant put us 150 miles out off the Cal /Oregon line.Really rough,ripped mainsail, while furling, rode the boom back and forth when the sheet block shackle fell off .Motoring east in fog at 3am I thought 'that feels like a ground swell ' Went on deck to see a white line ahead. Sounder said 30 ft so I grabbed the helm and came about. My transistor radio indicated position near Wash/Oregon. But I'm not the navigator.---- Later I look out a port to see a large rock go by. Blunt's reef in fog at daybreak .--Later I spent some time at the masthead replacing the swiveling jib halyard block so we could untangle the halfway jib. Fairly choppy off San Fran and bruises to prove it. After several full on broaches, the wind dropped past the Cape but left a big sea from all directions. The engine was full of water and batteries dead. Only a crescent wrench and a B.Stratton portable. After things get going, I find the alternator output went direct to the ammeter by the compass and then to both battery banks. Duh? Pretty beat by this time. Motor sailing, 7 knots , fog, 3 am some where off Channel Isl. Skipper shakes me and says "We're lost" I go aft to see the taftrail log while he locks himself in the aft cabin. Our only chart covered Cape Flattery to Mexico but I'd been to San Diego by bus two years before and knew where it was so I motored for a long time and anchored in fog at Shelter Island at 3 am. Although there were 4 of us on board. I was tired of opening cans of peas and beans together and was pretty glad to get ashore and hitch hike north.All in all, I learned a bunch about ships and the men what sails them
 
#60 ·
That story remembers me of another one, with airplanes, not boats.

I was a 18 year's old kid, but already a pilot with some experience (I was training younger kids) when an Air force Major, that was that day the field instructor, asked me to go with his friend, a 10 000 hour civilian middle age pilot (from a big Air company), for an airplane ride.

The plane was an Auster. I took off and the guy asked me to assume control of the plane and we start to make some tight turns that scared the hell out of me. No I was not afraid of tight maneuvers I was afraid because I understood that the guy did not know what he was doing. He was losing altitude in the turns without noticing, increasing the airplane speed to near the limits it could break. I was forced to call his attention to it and when he pulled the airplane up without taking out some engine (putting a lot of Gs on the wings) I had to do that myself excusing to be interfering with his flight.

When we come down I was quite relieved and asked him if he wanted me to land the airplane (hoping he said yes) but he said no.... Well, what could go wrong? Even in a messy landing the plane should take it.

With some Zig-Zags he managed to align the plane (it was an airforce landing strip, quite wide) he put it parallel to the stripe and then without waiting for the airplane to lose enough speed, pulled the stick sharply back, without giving me any chance to correct that. Maybe that's how he used to do on a 747, but that does not work on a light plane. We went up before falling down from 3 meters high:eek:

We lost the landing gear, the propeller and had lots of luck in not having capsized the thing, that was gliding over the engine making a huge noise and a lot of sparks. I jumped the plane before it stopped, furious with myself for letting him land the plane!

Well, that was my lesson, the one that match your own. From that day on I learned that things are not always what they seem and started to have a lot more care in who I was putting my trust with:rolleyes:

Regards

Paulo
 
#63 ·
Reward enough is keeping the admiral happy so she will cross oceans with me - although she may be not going across the Indian Ocean - she is literate and heard about the horror stories.
 
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