Posted on 06/14/2010 9:50:22 AM PDT by Ron C.
“She” did not attempt this trip. The trip was organized by her parents and she is not an adult. The parents pushed the agenda, and she being a child of limited experience made an “uninformed” decision, one which her presumably mature parents should have made for her (and they did, they put her on a sailboat in the Indian Ocean in winter).Details matter.
The three hikers went to Ahmed Awa falls in Kurdistan near the Iranian border without a map/GPS to keep from going into Iran= just as dumb as planning to be in the Indian Ocean in winter. The two blogettes were reporters who contracted with someone in the employ of N. Korea to take them over the Chinese border to find and talk to refugees
from N. Korea=just as stupid as the Sunderland girl, or rather her parents. The point is she was directed and it was planned by her parents. This was not some “goal” oriented decision by a single person of 16. Anyone who has any knowledge of learning and maturity can understand that this girl was trying to please her parents, and her parents were trying to pay bills they cannot pay. It is NOT an adult choosing to risk their life, it is parents placing their child in danger. The statement from the American Sailing Association says it rather well.
Applying the same flawed logic those 16 million young girls have the same freedom (so called right) to CHO0SE to risk their lives to achieve a goal-—to no longer be pregnant. In both these instances the 16 year old is wrong and not mature enough to make that kind of decision, and in the case of abortions the parents should not be out of the loop, if in fact the killing of the unborn is choosing murder-which it is. A 16 year old does not have the maturity to make the choice either to sail around the world solo. It took parents, broke ones at that to push this idea.
See Ernest Shackleton. His sponsors had to be begged to support his rescue of his own men. And, uh, he was an adult purportedly.
A lot of people are concerned that one ill-prepared girl went on a badly planned publicty stunt in a unsuitable boat.
From Sailinganarchy.com (where rough rude sea dogs hang out)
From all the facts availble so far, this was really just a young girl setting a world record for distance travelled in a battery charger.
Where is this coming from?
Camp Sunderland hype. Earliest report from Abby was she was thrown about the cabin while working on the engine and the boat went askew.
Speculation is it was a gybe (yes she was carrying too much sail, full genoa in 30-40kt wind), the Achilles heel of her mast setup (weak backstay). And when carbon fibre goes, it goes.
Don't you believe it: "No, sir. This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend ..."
Jessica Watson has the media savvy to pwn the Prime Minster of Australia before a crowd of 50,000 people. Legend.
Besides its the members of the club who admit new members
to the editor of scuttlebutteurope.comA small and very exclusive club (275 now since Indian Navy Commander Dilip Donde returned home 3 weeks ago)
* From Sir Robin Knox-Johnston: This young lady may not have broken a recognised record, but she has indisputably circumnavigated the world south of the three great Capes. So no record maybe, but certainly a solo circumnavigation, and the 174th person to have achieved this.
Really, Abby is going to have a busy few years coming up
You mean like his boat overturning and he still got it to port in East London, South Africa?
1971: Sailor's record 'wrong way' voyage
At the end of the article: In 1968-69 after leaving the army he took part in the Golden Globe race around the world - but it ended in near disaster after his vessel overturned.
OMG!
"[Horatio Nelson was born on 29 September 1758. Nelson attended Paston Grammar School, North Walsham, until he was 12 years old, and also attended King Edward VIs Grammar School in Norwich. His naval career began on 1 January 1771 [age 12], when he reported to the third-rate HMS Raisonnable as an Ordinary Seaman and coxswain."
Tsuanmis in the open ocean are harmless and barely detectable waves. The difference is that unlike shallow surface waves, includiing the 50 footers that can happen in severe storms, a tsunami consists of bulk motion of the entire ocean, going down to the bottom. When the wave travels into shallow water, because of conservation of mass, it becomes an enormous wave that can reck havoc along the coast.
I won’t dispute any of that. But the more news that comes out of this case backs up my original point that this whole incident that the parents should have never allowed their sixteen year old daughter to go this extremely dangerous voyage all by herself. In fact the whole thing appears to be a big publicity stunt designed to make money, get on TV, and perhaps even a reality show. They are extremely lucky their daughter wasn’t killed as the boat was severely damaged. I think this is child endangerment and the case should be referred to the Dept of Children and Family services and the parents should be required to take parenting classes at the very least.
Where did I say he couldn’t? Just this girl had done far more than he had done on the sea, at this point in their lives.
The boat was completely paid for with Advertising which they sold (branding on the boat), the boat was also insured. The family has played this on twitter, facebook, their own website, appeared on TV shows, and in the Fathers Yacht business for a full year before she left. They had endorsements on clothing and yachting apparel, jewelry, and food items...so your simply uninformed.
Nothing about any of that says the daughter was “forced” to go because her parents were too lazy to work, so you’re simply wrong.
That had nothing to do with my reply...This was a money making enterprise for her entire family. It was paid for, and there was no loss monitarily, and thankfully she survived. Just because a minor wants to do something, is not necessarily a good reason to let them do it. JUST MY OPINION...
I don’t get your point exactly, but I ain’t messing with the “stuned Beeber man”:)
X-FID, the point al baby is making is that the world has been sucessfully circumnavigated, single-handed, many times.
Most of the cruising (ie not in a race) attempts were done in boats between 30 and 40'. And of the outliers, there are more below 30' than above 40'. Currrent smallest is 12' (twelve feet!) by Australian Serge Testa. In a few weeks Italian Alessandro di Benedetto's 21' Findomestic Banca will become the smallest boat to do it non-stop via the Great Capes.
At 40' Abby's boat was in the upper range, and really too large for her to handle. She would have had more chance smaller.
What boats do teens use?
I was so enthralled with Robin Lee Graham story as a youngin he had a kitty cat too, I think. No sat phone or gps or all the fun stuff of today lots of dead reckoning I think
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.