Posted on 06/17/2010 5:27:33 AM PDT by DJ MacWoW
UNJUST? How many times must it be explained to you? The the parents: 1) Sped up the schedule (original leave date was summer 2010) to beat another teen girl to the record
2) Took unnecessary risks (Indian Ocean in winter)
3) Cut corners, potentially damaging the mast doing quick and cheap "repairs"
4) Had no emergency backups for loss of power or auto-pilot.
5) Didn't thouroughly check out the boat prior to the attempt.
Which of these facts are not getting to your thought process? If anyone is due to receive criticism, it is the adults in this family who jeopardized their daughter, regardless of age, in order for her to beat another girl to the record. If that doesn't tell you what you need to know about them, then you aren't listening.
Oh, I wasn’t disagreeing with you. And, I thank you for the background.
But she DIDN’T deal with her problem (dismasting, then cutting away and jury rigging.)
She just pushed her EPIRB button as her first and only emergency option.
Anybody who would send their 16 year old kid up Everest SOLO in WINTER because it had to be now, before spring when they “aged out” of the youngest-ever $$record$$ while actively seeking TV deal$, is a certified MEDIA WHORE.
Anybody who would send their 16 year old kid from Captetown to Australia in WINTER (on a sailboat without a windvane to complement the autopilots that predictably burned out) because it had to be now, before spring when they “aged out” of the youngest-ever $$record$$ while actively seeking $TV$ deal$, is a certified MEDIA WHORE.
THey are worse than whores. They threw their daughter’s life onto the craps table out of GREED.
If it was about the sailing, she could have waited a few months and gone during the southern summer.
But oh no, “Abbey16.com” was worthless once she “aged out.”
So they gambled her life for a cash payout.
Even a whore wouldn’t do that.
That is all exactly correct except for this: “This is akin to holding onto a metal pole in a lightning storm.”
It’s more akin to telling your CHILD to hold onto a metal pole in a lightning storm, while rolling tape for a reality TV audition you hope to sell.
Not only should Abby's family be forced to pay for the rescue, that irresponsible American man from Colorado who just got caught in Afghanistan trying to find and kill Osama Bin Laden (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2535300/posts) should be forced to pay for his own rescue too. .
Not only is he way too old to take on such a strenuous challenge, he wasn't properly funded, he had NO insurance, he went equipped with only a pistol and a dagger, and he knowingly went into extremely dangerous territory, IN A WAR ZONE.
How stupid and irresponsible. The family shouldn’t have allowed him to go.
He was doing it for the fame, and either his family should be forced to promise to pay for his rescue, or we should abandon him where he’s at.
I’ve spent enough time around marinas when I was much younger to have a pretty good idea of what the small boat sailing class thinks and says. I like sailing, too. I would have like to sailed much more than I have, which is unfortunately very little. I married a woman who doesn’t like sailing, so it was a choice I made. Still, I am happy, net out.
Actually I am in awe of Travis McGee, because he built his own and it looks like a REALLY good boat, and he keeps it and sails it and doesn’t get divorced or bankrupt in so doing.
Doing all that is at least as hard as an Everest hike to the top in these days.
Great link at 150. Too bad all of the “experts” who don’t know a sheet from a halyard or a pillowcase won’t bother to check it out. They already know everything, without ever sailing out of sight of land.
Thanks. And I strongly recommend getting the sense of the ocean sailing community by reading the forum posts linked at 150 for a few pages. I learned about 20 new things there about the situation.
I used to rebuild small planes, help others build their own, and was a member of the EAA, also when I was young. I did meet men who flew their own dreams, and also who died flying them. I was 16 through 18 in those years.
There were those who second guessed everyone who died — it’s like the second guessing that goes on here. All you all think you know everything, but the pride in your own abilities deludes you. It was her choice, her family’s to some extent. And they succeeded!
Any landing you walk away from is a good landing.
She is walking!
This has NOTHING to do with them being Christian or home schoolers in my book but it has EVERYTHING to do with an incredible lack of preparation and training in the quest for a nonexistent record so that the family could benefit from a book (probably not that lucrative unless she had perished and Jon Krakauer could write a book titled “Into the Sea” or something) and a reality show (potentially far more lucrative).
The false dichotomy between doing drugs, getting impregnated and playing video games all day vs. underaged solo unassisted circumnavigation is tiresome and trite and needs to be abandoned. There are plenty of wonderful 16 year olds who are not doing either. Probably all the 16 y/olds you personally know!!! Don’t insult them.
There is no official record. Jesse Martin holds it. Period. So there was no reason to undertake this if not for the potential fame and fortune. Otherwise she would have been able to live her “life long dream” (held for a mere 3 years since she was all of 13) at the age of 18 or 25 or whatever.
All the facts point indeed to the conclusion that her parents are as Travis describes. Sunderland is not held in any esteem by the sailing community, by all accounts he is a professional failure and with ten mouths to feed the family is probably feeling quite desperate and kicking themselves that they didn’t cash in more at son Zac’s achievement, after all he held the record for about 3 months before a Brit bested him.
Oh the tangled web the Sunderlands weave!!
They don’t want to see a Large, Christian, Homeschooling Family criticized.
Being Christian and/or Homeschooling is not a virtue in and of itself.
These people are blinded to the facts and will refuse to listen to reason because it is absolutely incomprehensible that a Large, Christian, Homeschooling Family can do anything wrong.
Not only that, but I finally saw some close ups of the rescue and her boat was a mess after 2 days.
What sailor worth his/her salt doesn’t have the lines coiled and the deck ship shape after an incident, even if she was too weak to cut away the rigging or too scared or incompetent to try to motor to the closest land mass?
That poor girl. I don’t think she really knew what she was getting into!
Bullseye.
"The time of year had nothing to do with what happened to my boat. I've had incredibly good weather my whole entire trip. I've had better weather than most people," she insisted.
I'm speechless.
I think the Sunderland's newly appointed PR person will change this because if the weather isn't to blame what is? Incompetence? Lack of preparation? Lack of sailing skills? I've seen the concept "rogue wave" thrown around here by those who also proclaim her "sailing royalty". All waves in the Southern Ocean are "rogue".
On a more cheerful note:
What is diBenedetto up to recently?
Saturday June 12 th 2010
"This night there was a beautiful show for Alessandro given by the dolphins evolving among the plankton around the boat. Real acrobats! This morning a bench of tunas approached a little too near the boat , ar least for one of them. A beautiful specimen of 3 kg fished by Alessandro, cut into fillets, fried in a frying pan, with tomato sauce, parsley, a pinch of salt, (a line of "Sicilian" olive oil with pasta “al dente” obviously, without forgetting the coffee!"
He is currently off the coast of Mauritania and soon to be home! If we were all so "envious", why would we be cheering this guy or Jessica? It has nothing to do with envy, it has everything to do with sorrow that this girl didn't make it but it was doomed from the get-go.
it has everything to do with sorrow that this girl didn't make it but it was doomed from the get-go.
And absolute fright that anyone thought that it was a good idea. The sailing forum said she never even cleared her lifeboat, it was full of junk and the deck was littered. The term "everything is ship shape" came from the sailing community. Guess this little girl wasn't taught that.
Interesting, I thought I’d get to see a few pretzels, but NO! everyone is afraid to try and reconcile the stories.
Not only should Abby's family be forced to pay for the rescue, that irresponsible American man from Colorado who just got caught in Afghanistan trying to find and kill Osama Bin Laden (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2535300/posts) should be forced to pay for his own rescue too. .
Not only is he way too old to take on such a strenuous challenge, he wasn't properly funded, he had NO insurance, he went equipped with only a pistol and a dagger, and he knowingly went into extremely dangerous territory, IN A WAR ZONE.
How stupid and irresponsible. The family shouldn’t have allowed him to go.
He was doing it for the fame, and either his family should be forced to promise to pay for his rescue, or we should abandon him where he’s at.
Yup. On a side note - I am really enjoying your Enemies series. Read the first two, and am in the middle of the third.
They are compelling reads. I've not read this much this fast in years.
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