These two morons tried to sail from New Jersey to Florida in a 30 foot sailboat that had no radio, no GPS, no EPRB, and without checking the marine weather forecasts. The sea can be unforgiving. These morons got lucky.
That’s right up there with the family that tried navigating from Florida to the Bahamas using a placemat from a seafood restaurant as a navigational chart.
6 Comments
Bigus Macus · December 20, 2022 at 8:25 am
Almost a Darwin award winner.
Toastrider · December 20, 2022 at 9:31 am
Proof that God loves fools, I guess. They are very, very lucky fellows.
SiG · December 20, 2022 at 10:23 am
It’s one thing to pray every morning you’re lost at sea, it’s another to depend on the Coast Guard to save your asses. I’d say depending on kindness of strangers but everyone knows they don’t pay their taxes out of kindness; we pay taxes to avoid prison.
I can’t say I’ve ever been a big advocate of billing people for their rescue, but this seems extreme. If they were out in their boat and a lightning strike fried their GPS, EPIRB, marine radio and so on, that’s one thing; to attempt to sail that far without starting out with reasonable preparation is another.
mike · December 20, 2022 at 7:06 pm
There was a home built floating barn that was styled as a “Galleon” by the builder over a decade ago. He was a bit of a religious nut and refused all professional/skilled advise about building/operating a 90 odd foot wooden ship, and insisted that God would guide him. For about 8 years “Raw Faith” was a hazard on the New England coast and had to be rescued by the Coast Guard at least 3 times. The owner was a bit of a con man and deadbeat as well, and got into fisticuffs with the Salem Mass harbormaster when he overstayed his welcome on someone else’s pier after trying to squat and get free dockage for the winter. He announced that he was being forced out into the Atlantic in the teeth of winter and set sail for Bermuda of all places in the month of December. He took that powerless, barely sailable barn, ( it had a flat bottomed bass skip with an outboard as a push boat) out to sea with only himself and his son onboard. No auxillary power for a pump, one survival suit, and I don’t recall if he had an epirb. Needless to say, the barn started to come apart 100 miles south of Nantucket and the Coast Guard was dispatched to haul them off before watching her sink. Despite the fact that he had basically announced in the press that he was unprepared for a passage at sea and was going anyway on what amounted to a suicide trip, the CG was unwilling to press any charges or seek restitution from the penniless skipper. If that is the standard, no one should be charged for a rescue.
Steve S6 · December 20, 2022 at 10:35 am
Spay and neuter the whole clan. Only way to be sure.
Mothballtech · December 21, 2022 at 5:19 am
I know a fair number of people who have done it by tracking the inter-coastal. However, the Polynesians have a tradition that if you sink during storm season, you don’t go to heaven.
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