It’s part of being a sailor, at any age. I’m telling you that with 50 foot seas, having the parents on board wouldn’t have mattered.
You can’t outrun weather in a sailboat. She was in contact an hour before the EPIRB was detected. That’s a killer datum point. Any SAR effort would be lucky to have such a good datum. To me, that’s all the proof I need that she was as prepared as she could be.
She was doing a bang up job before the 50 foot seas hit.
Spend a month at the Cape Disappointment small boat station and get a flavor for some of the ‘experienced mariners’ the CG ends up having to pluck off the bar. Guys with 20 years experience going out when the entrance is closed.
I simply love the geniuses that short cut the buoys and rip the keel off their yacht. “So THAT’s what ‘Red right returning’ means!!”
Nope. You can’t convince me that age makes you any better at evaluating, AND THEN ACTING ON, the risks at sea.
Respect for the sea trumps experience in most cases. Sometimes respect isn’t enough. You can be doing everything right and still die at sea.
Then what you are saying is, experience and maturity is meaningless. I find this hard to believe. A 16 year old is still a 16 year old. The parents said before this sail, their daughter never even wanted to take the dog for a walk by herself. Sure, I know there is always someone who comes along with that special ability, the knack, the talent. But these are the rare ones. There are now a whole host of kids wanting to sail around the world. A 13 year old is now going to attempt this. I am sorry, but where do you draw the line on this kind of foolishness? At 12? !0? If sailing is so easy that a child can do it, then why should we consider any of them heroes? Why is the ocean considered dangerous at all?
One thing he used to say was this..."I don't fear the ocean, but I respect it greatly"
I spent a lot of time in the ocean in my younger years....I never forgot what my dad told me.