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Old 28th October 2017, 09:11 AM   #81
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Originally Posted by Foolmewunz View Post
Hilited: That needs to be revised. Where they were heading? No major shipping lanes between Hawaii and Tahiti. But where they were found? Any point 1500 km off the Japanese coast is a major shipping lane.

Not that it effects the story since the fools would've been ten times worse off if they had the thing steered correctly, but it turns out that that part is a tad of hyperbole.
I dunno. The Naval Institute says they were "far from routine shipping lanes."
https://news.usni.org/2017/10/26/uss...months-pacific

It looks on this map like there's a lot of untraveled water south of Japan.
http://www.marine-knowledge.com/wp-c...ing-Lanes1.jpg
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Old 28th October 2017, 09:26 AM   #82
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The official Navy press released says the USS Ashland picked up the vessel "900 miles southeast of Japan."
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Old 28th October 2017, 09:34 AM   #83
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Originally Posted by JoeBentley View Post
The official Navy press released says the USS Ashland picked up the vessel "900 miles southeast of Japan."
Yes, it puts the scale of the Pacific in context. 900 miles Southeast of Japan is a long way from anywhere
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Old 28th October 2017, 09:47 AM   #84
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North Pacific currents...
Attached Images
File Type: jpg north-pacific-current.jpg (101.5 KB, 6 views)
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Old 28th October 2017, 09:50 AM   #85
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Originally Posted by casebro View Post
I wonder if the Coast Guard will investigate for possible Ineptitude on the Briney Deep?

Any notes of their experience? Did they sail a first leg, California to Hawaii?
The Coast Guard can prevent in advance a voyage they determine to be "manifestly unsafe" but they generally apply that injunction only to the very most extreme cases. There is a strong strain of libertarianism in the boating community and the Coast Guard doesn't want to get involved in evaluating and regulating the wide spectrum of experience and competence of recreational boaters. I am pretty certain that by Coast Guard criteria the OP's voyage would not be declared manifestly unsafe- just extremely il-advised. One instance in which the Coast Guard did declare a manifestly unsafe voyage was a guy in San Francisco Bay who had never sailed anywhere before and had built his own "boat" from scraps of wood and pieces of junk he harvested from dumpsters (the bow was a vegetable colander). If I recall correctly he had a high school world map for a chart and a compass- no other navigational equipment or experience. He was going to set off single handed to sail across the Pacific- the Coast Guard shut him down. Even then there was a lot of anger from the more extreme libertarians who felt that if the guy wanted to try it (and it would have been near certain death) the government should not have interfered. The dual in the OP were far, far better equipped than he was, and the skipper had sailed in the Hawaiian Islands before.

I don't know what the Coast Guard can do after a rescue. They can bill the guilty party the cost of the rescue and they can confiscate the boat or force it to be abandoned. Pretty expensive punishments, but it is not just the expense- rescues risk the lives of the rescuers. And given there is no licensing of recreational skippers it is not exactly as if they can yank her license. She could try it again anytime, even if the Coast Guard investigates and produces a scathing report.

Some have suggested that people setting off on stupid and dangerous voyages should be forced to sign a waver indicating that they are aware of the risks and that they do not wish to be rescued if they run into trouble. But it just wouldn't work- rescuers will feel the obligation to help whatever waver had been signed.
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Old 28th October 2017, 09:56 AM   #86
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Originally Posted by jimbob View Post
Yes, it puts the scale of the Pacific in context. 900 miles Southeast of Japan is a long way from anywhere
Everywhere in the Pacific is a long way from anywhere. Even the "anywheres" in the Pacific are a long way from anywhere.
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Old 28th October 2017, 09:56 AM   #87
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Originally Posted by Giordano View Post
The Coast Guard can prevent in advance a voyage they determine to be "manifestly unsafe" but they generally apply that injunction only to the very most extreme cases. There is a strong strain of libertarianism in the boating community and the Coast Guard doesn't want to get involved in evaluating and regulating the wide spectrum of experience and competence of recreational boaters. I am pretty certain that by Coast Guard criteria the OP's voyage would not be declared manifestly unsafe- just extremely il-advised. One instance in which the Coast Guard did declare a manifestly unsafe voyage was a guy in San Francisco Bay who had never sailed anywhere before and had built his own "boat" from scraps of wood and pieces of junk he harvested from dumpsters (the bow was a vegetable colander). If I recall correctly he had a high school world map for a chart and a compass- no other navigational equipment or experience. He was going to set off single handed to sail across the Pacific- the Coast Guard shut him down. Even then there was a lot of anger from the more extreme libertarians who felt that if the guy wanted to try it (and it would have been near certain death) the government should not have interfered. The dual in the OP were far, far better equipped than he was, and the skipper had sailed in the Hawaiian Islands before.

I don't know what the Coast Guard can do after a rescue. They can bill the guilty party the cost of the rescue and they can confiscate the boat or force it to be abandoned. Pretty expensive punishments, but it is not just the expense- rescues risk the lives of the rescuers. And given there is no licensing of recreational skippers it is not exactly as if they can yank her license. She could try it again anytime, even if the Coast Guard investigates and produces a scathing report.

Some have suggested that people setting off on stupid and dangerous voyages should be forced to sign a waver indicating that they are aware of the risks and that they do not wish to be rescued if they run into trouble. But it just wouldn't work- rescuers will feel the obligation to help whatever waver had been signed.
Literally?

Wow.
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Old 28th October 2017, 10:00 AM   #88
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Originally Posted by Giordano View Post
One instance in which the Coast Guard did declare a manifestly unsafe voyage was a guy in San Francisco Bay who had never sailed anywhere before and had built his own "boat" from scraps of wood and pieces of junk he harvested from dumpsters (the bow was a vegetable colander). If I recall correctly he had a high school world map for a chart and a compass- no other navigational equipment or experience. He was going to set off single handed to sail across the Pacific- the Coast Guard shut him down.
That sounds like an interesting story but I couldn't find it after 5 minutes with Google.
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Old 28th October 2017, 10:02 AM   #89
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The seas are full of incompetent sailors. In Denmark, and in the Baltic sea, plenty of people sail around with minimal knowledge of navigation, safety, and boat-handling. Here, it usually goes OK, because the sea is docile and there's always a coast and a port nearby. And lots of traffic if you need help.

Setting out over the pacific is quite another league, but some of noobs are going to try.

In this case, ... well, they put all their eggs in one basket and stowed a lot of supplies. This saved them even before they were forced to eat their dogs.

About the mobile phone. On the open sea, it is useless except as a possible back-up GPS. But I suspect it would just show a blue screen. If you don't really know navigation, it isn't much help.

The sea is free for all, which is a good thing, but it means that we can't keep unskilled people from setting out over the oceans, which is ... not such a good thing.

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Old 28th October 2017, 10:12 AM   #90
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I had a relative (Great Uncle Sandy) who built himself an open boat, and attempted to sail from Dar es Salaam back to the UK after a spell as a tea planter in Malawi, despite never having sailed previously. He had a boy scout compass and a Michelin road map of Africa, and balls of steel. He just kept the coast on his left....... He got as far as the Suez canal before his boat was confiscated by the authorities.
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Old 28th October 2017, 10:21 AM   #91
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I find this story particularly intriguing. From what I've read the skipper did have some local Hawaiian sailing experience and the boat was in reasonably good condition and reasonably well prepared. Probably not all that different from my own experience in sailing San Francisco. But she appears to have had no blue water experience, was not ready for emergencies, and had a complete sailing neophyte along as her crew. She wasn't totally incompetent; her experience and preparation were adequate for a short local sail, perhaps from Hawaiian island to island for example. Even her planned trip to Tahiti might have been successful if nothing went wrong, but the chances of nothing going wrong in this trans-oceanic voyage were near zero. A storm, a flooded engine, debris in the fuel, a damaged spreader, lose of battery power, torn sails, lost halyards, broken stays are all things that often occur and that one has to be prepared for. There is a lot of wear and tear on a boat during any voyage, and general maintenance and these acute problems have to be fixed by tired, often seasick and often very frightened skippers and crew. On their own, with no one else to help.

What absolutely amazes me is their willingness to make a voyage of that magnitude without ever having done it before first as crew on boat with an experienced captain. That is just insane! I would want to have had at minimum 2 or 3 blue water passages as crew before I ever would consider doing it as a skipper. In fact even though I've been off the California Coast as crew a few times (where I was within VHF radio contact with shore, relatively close to harbors, and relatively close to help), I would want to do re-do these coastal trips at least a few times more in someone else's boat before I would consider next doing it on my own. And doing a double-handed trip with an experienced crew is very challenging- doing it with someone who never sailed before is extra crazy. I've gone sailing in SF Bay with a crew who never sailed before, but I would never consider it outside of the Golden Gate Bridge, overnight, or in otherwise risky conditions.

So IMHO the skipper in the OP is not so much inept as she is crazy. Apparently she had some knowledge of sailing but she was insanely optimistic to think that she had enough experience to go from local sailing on nice days to a month long trek across an ocean. Very odd. However, my apologies to her if there proves to be more to the story.
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Old 28th October 2017, 10:23 AM   #92
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Originally Posted by jimbob View Post
Literally?

Wow.
Yes, literally.
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Old 28th October 2017, 10:25 AM   #93
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Originally Posted by William Parcher View Post
That sounds like an interesting story but I couldn't find it after 5 minutes with Google.
There is a local sailing magazine called "Latitude 38." They covered this story in several issues. Hard for me to remember the time or the guy's name- perhaps it occurred even as much as 20 years ago? Try Googling and including the magazine name.

[edit added] I can't seem to find this story by Googling even though it was covered in several issues of Latitude 38 as news, in an "editorial," and in letters to the editor. I suspect it is just too old a story- published before Latitude 38 went electronic. I avoided going into too many details (I think he was planning to first sail to Hawaii) because my memory of those details might prove faulty, but the parts of the story I did post (including the colander) I am absolutely confident of.

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Old 28th October 2017, 10:31 AM   #94
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Originally Posted by MRC_Hans View Post
The seas are full of incompetent sailors. In Denmark, and in the Baltic sea, plenty of people sail around with minimal knowledge of navigation, safety, and boat-handling. Here, it usually goes OK, because the sea is docile and there's always a coast and a port nearby. And lots of traffic if you need help.

Setting out over the pacific is quite another league, but some of noobs are going to try.

In this case, ... well, they put all their eggs in one basket and stowed a lot of supplies. This saved them even before they were forced to eat their dogs.

About the mobile phone. On the open sea, it is useless except as a possible back-up GPS. But I suspect it would just show a blue screen. If you don't really know navigation, it isn't much help.

The sea is free for all, which is a good thing, but it means that we can't keep unskilled people from setting out over the oceans, which is ... not such a good thing.

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I believe that only single-side band radios (for which you need a Ham license) and satellite links work in the middle of the ocean. Yet if you are willing to pay the money required they can provide amazingly excellent communication with the shore. This has dramatically changed events such as around the world sailboat races- the racers stay in near-constant touch with their support crew on land, receiving up-to-date weather and routing advice and (as much as is legal) the positions of their competitors. And of course they aren't completely alone- they can talk to their friends and family, including live video, every day. I think that this also has encouraged less well prepared recreational sailors to set off on long voyages thinking that they can call for rescue if bad things happen.
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Old 28th October 2017, 10:48 AM   #95
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Originally Posted by MikeG View Post
I had a relative (Great Uncle Sandy) who built himself an open boat, and attempted to sail from Dar es Salaam back to the UK after a spell as a tea planter in Malawi, despite never having sailed previously. He had a boy scout compass and a Michelin road map of Africa, and balls of steel. He just kept the coast on his left....... He got as far as the Suez canal before his boat was confiscated by the authorities.
The trip sounds like a really bad idea for a lot of reasons, but if he was always within sight of land he wouldn't need much in the way of navigation skills.
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Old 28th October 2017, 10:54 AM   #96
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Originally Posted by Giordano View Post
I believe that only single-side band radios (for which you need a Ham license) and satellite links work in the middle of the ocean. Yet if you are willing to pay the money required they can provide amazingly excellent communication with the shore. This has dramatically changed events such as around the world sailboat races- the racers stay in near-constant touch with their support crew on land, receiving up-to-date weather and routing advice and (as much as is legal) the positions of their competitors. And of course they aren't completely alone- they can talk to their friends and family, including live video, every day. I think that this also has encouraged less well prepared recreational sailors to set off on long voyages thinking that they can call for rescue if bad things happen.
SSB radios have been around for, oh, since before WW2. But they require some skill to use. Nothing you can't learn in a few easy lessons, still ...

Satellite phones are just like cell-phones, but with global range. And considerable extra cost.

I expect the people in question had a VHF radio (useless on the ocean, except for calling aircraft) and/or a standard shortwave voice radio. The latter can have considerable range with a good antenna, but I don't see any obvious antenna installation in the pictures.

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Old 28th October 2017, 11:06 AM   #97
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Originally Posted by Bob001 View Post
The trip sounds like a really bad idea for a lot of reasons, but if he was always within sight of land he wouldn't need much in the way of navigation skills.
Bit like Leif Erikson then!
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Old 28th October 2017, 11:06 AM   #98
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I still don't think (some) people are really grasping the scale of the Pacific.

I was a Radioman in the Navy for 20 years, retired only a few months back. At sea comms is a lot harder than you'd think.

Without satellite based communications (or weird atmospheric tricks too complicated and unreliable to get into here) you have the hard and fast brick wall of the line of sight with the horizon, which is not that far for a relatively short masted ship. Even on the cruisers and aircraft carriers I served on that put their LOS antennas on very, very high masts... you hit that limit a lot quicker than you'd think in even perfect conditions. Throw in weather of any kind and it becomes even more restrictive.

And this is with fully stocked radio shacks of 10-30 full-time dedicated trained people, literally hundreds of transceivers, receivers, and transmitters (and separate teams to maintain those), and giants masts full of antennas.

Generally speaking without reliable satellite communications you aren't talking to anything you can't physically see. Yeah a decent comms professional or high end Ham hobbyist can play around and bounce stuff off layers of the atmosphere in very specific conditions at very specific frequencies sometimes, but it's not reliable, consistent, or practical for the kind of equipment and skill this boat was likely to have.
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Old 28th October 2017, 11:19 AM   #99
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Originally Posted by JoeBentley View Post
I still don't think (some) people are really grasping the scale of the Pacific.

I was a Radioman in the Navy for 20 years, retired only a few months back. At sea comms is a lot harder than you'd think.

Without satellite based communications (or weird atmospheric tricks too complicated and unreliable to get into here) you have the hard and fast brick wall of the line of sight with the horizon, which is not that far for a relatively short masted ship. Even on the cruisers and aircraft carriers I served on that put their LOS antennas on very, very high masts... you hit that limit a lot quicker than you'd think in even perfect conditions. Throw in weather of any kind and it becomes even more restrictive.

And this is with fully stocked radio shacks of 10-30 full-time dedicated trained people, literally hundreds of transceivers, receivers, and transmitters (and separate teams to maintain those), and giants masts full of antennas.

Generally speaking without reliable satellite communications you aren't talking to anything you can't physically see. Yeah a decent comms professional or high end Ham hobbyist can play around and bounce stuff off layers of the atmosphere in very specific conditions at very specific frequencies sometimes, but it's not reliable, consistent, or practical for the kind of equipment and skill this boat was likely to have.

Yes. And nowdays SPOT satellite trackers are pretty cheap compared to the cost of everything else such an endevour would require.

https://www.findmespot.com/en/
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Old 28th October 2017, 11:29 AM   #100
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Also shipping lanes are a science. The whole reason that international shipping has made it so you can build a product on side of the planet and ship it to the literal other side of the planet and still be able to sell it cheaper than building it a home is they count the pennies on shipping cost, the bulk of that is fuel. These ships are taking the exact to the meter shortest path. And the South Pacific is the worst case scenario. Unbelievably vast without being the short point between any two places is gonna want to go.

Long story short if you find yourself in a random spot on the open ocean, not near land or a major shipping lane with only LOS comms and no means of propulsion or navigation to get you near land or a shipping lane... getting found is a miracle.
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Old 28th October 2017, 11:38 AM   #101
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Originally Posted by jimbob View Post
Yes. And nowdays SPOT satellite trackers are pretty cheap compared to the cost of everything else such an endevour would require.

https://www.findmespot.com/en/
Even now on ships like the Ticonderoga Class Cruiser, which has 4 separate engines, an operational range of 6,000 nautical miles, and has comms equipment out the wazoo and comms on the wazoo just for redundancy... we still carried multiple EPIRPS and an Iridium Satellite phone.
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Old 28th October 2017, 11:40 AM   #102
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Originally Posted by New York Daily News
She said the sharks seemed to come together in a bid to overturn their ship.

“I’m telling you I’ve neer seen any Stanley Cup winner come even close to the precision these five sharks had,” Appel continued. “Three would get on one side and two would get on the other side, and they would make waves and try to knock down the boat.”
That's bullcrap. Sharks don't do that. She has seen the videos of killer whales doing that to knock seals off of floating ice.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...icle-1.3595214

Whales hunting seal video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyfOp_keW0A
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Old 28th October 2017, 12:38 PM   #103
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Originally Posted by William Parcher View Post
That's bullcrap. Sharks don't do that. She has seen the videos of killer whales doing that to knock seals off of floating ice.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...icle-1.3595214

Whales hunting seal video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyfOp_keW0A
Right. And even Orcas could not knock down a 35 ft sailboat.

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Old 28th October 2017, 12:47 PM   #104
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I'm going to give them a fear, dehydration, and hunger based benefit of the doubt on some of the more dramatic aspects of their story.
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Old 28th October 2017, 01:33 PM   #105
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Originally Posted by JoeBentley View Post
I'm going to give them a fear, dehydration, and hunger based benefit of the doubt on some of the more dramatic aspects of their story.
I'm not. The shark story is bogus. Hunger? I thought they had lots of food. The photos show two healthy-looking women.

Their credibility is shot to hell, and they may not try to correct each other for more accuracy. I'm not saying that this is a grand hoax and they weren't really stranded at sea. But the shark yarn tells me that any story from life on that boat shouldn't be believed at face value. Some stories might be completely fabricated and aren't simply dramatizations of actual events.

More on the sharks: Other articles quote her saying that the attacking group of sharks were tiger sharks. That species is unlikely to be found in open ocean pelagic situations far from land. It would be rare to encounter a single one let alone a group. Tiger sharks are almost exclusively associated with continental coastlines and larger island groups with reefs. If she is from Hawaii then she might know what they look like as they are common there. But I highly doubt that she saw any tiger shark way out in the open ocean.

Pelagic species of sharks approaching a boat to check it out? Sure. A group of sharks cooperating to create waves to knock a boat over? Absolutely not.
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Old 28th October 2017, 01:43 PM   #106
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Originally Posted by William Parcher View Post
I'm not. The shark story is bogus. Hunger? I thought they had lots of food. The photos show two healthy-looking women.

Their credibility is shot to hell, and they may not try to correct each other for more accuracy. I'm not saying that this is a grand hoax and they weren't really stranded at sea. But the shark yarn tells me that any story from life on that boat shouldn't be believed at face value. Some stories might be completely fabricated and aren't simply dramatizations of actual events.

More on the sharks: Other articles quote her saying that the attacking group of sharks were tiger sharks. That species is unlikely to be found in open ocean pelagic situations far from land. It would be rare to encounter a single one let alone a group. Tiger sharks are almost exclusively associated with continental coastlines and larger island groups with reefs. If she is from Hawaii then she might know what they look like as they are common there. But I highly doubt that she saw any tiger shark way out in the open ocean.

Pelagic species of sharks approaching a boat to check it out? Sure. A group of sharks cooperating to create waves to knock a boat over? Absolutely not.
I'm not sure how that would work. They *were* found 900-miles South East of Japan. I don't think they would go there intentionally. I'm not sure *how* they would go there intentionally, and even if they did intend to go there, I don't see how they would arrange to be *found*.

Given that, I'd grant them confusion for the shark attack stories.
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Old 28th October 2017, 01:49 PM   #107
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I'm happy to accept that 2 incompetent and under prepared people set off on a voyage which went wrong, and that a combination of fear and vivid imaginations has led to some of the stuff they've said being silly. I could also see them getting together and saying "let's spice this up a bit when we get rescued. There could be money in it". No way am I going to buy the idea that the whole story is a hoax from beginning to end.
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Old 28th October 2017, 01:54 PM   #108
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I haven't seen it mentioned but does anyone know if they are a couple - as in a romantic relationship?
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Old 28th October 2017, 01:55 PM   #109
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Originally Posted by William Parcher View Post
I'm not. The shark story is bogus. Hunger? I thought they had lots of food. The photos show two healthy-looking women.

Their credibility is shot to hell, and they may not try to correct each other for more accuracy. I'm not saying that this is a grand hoax and they weren't really stranded at sea. But the shark yarn tells me that any story from life on that boat shouldn't be believed at face value. Some stories might be completely fabricated and aren't simply dramatizations of actual events.

More on the sharks: Other articles quote her saying that the attacking group of sharks were tiger sharks. That species is unlikely to be found in open ocean pelagic situations far from land. It would be rare to encounter a single one let alone a group. Tiger sharks are almost exclusively associated with continental coastlines and larger island groups with reefs. If she is from Hawaii then she might know what they look like as they are common there. But I highly doubt that she saw any tiger shark way out in the open ocean.

Pelagic species of sharks approaching a boat to check it out? Sure. A group of sharks cooperating to create waves to knock a boat over? Absolutely not.

Hold on a minute. Have you ever read "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption"by Laura Hillenbrand? Well, neither have I, because I listened to it on audio book. Anyway, there's a lot of very fanciful shark attack descriptions in that story too. And it would be in the same general area of the pacific that the two women also drifted through. Does it mean I believe everything? No. Perhaps it is just mis-remembering and mis-identification?
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Old 28th October 2017, 02:12 PM   #110
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Originally Posted by MikeG View Post
I'm happy to accept that 2 incompetent and under prepared people set off on a voyage which went wrong, and that a combination of fear and vivid imaginations has led to some of the stuff they've said being silly. I could also see them getting together and saying "let's spice this up a bit when we get rescued. There could be money in it". No way am I going to buy the idea that the whole story is a hoax from beginning to end.
Indeed, such a hoax would have cost quite a lot to get their boat where the Taiwanese fishing boat would find them - unless they bribed the crew to "find" them :
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Old 28th October 2017, 02:18 PM   #111
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Originally Posted by Elagabalus View Post
Hold on a minute. Have you ever read "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption"by Laura Hillenbrand? Well, neither have I, because I listened to it on audio book. Anyway, there's a lot of very fanciful shark attack descriptions in that story too. And it would be in the same general area of the pacific that the two women also drifted through. Does it mean I believe everything? No. Perhaps it is just mis-remembering and mis-identification?
Louie Zamperini was in a WWII inflatable life raft, not a 30-40 foot solid hull sailing ship.
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Old 28th October 2017, 02:23 PM   #112
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Originally Posted by Bob001 View Post
The trip sounds like a really bad idea for a lot of reasons, but if he was always within sight of land he wouldn't need much in the way of navigation skills.
As long as he knew that, when he reached Gibraltar, that he had to switch to keeping the land to his right
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Old 28th October 2017, 03:22 PM   #113
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Originally Posted by GlennB View Post
As long as he knew that, when he reached Gibraltar, that he had to switch to keeping the land to his right
Well, to be fair, he could have done this in the Med, too, Albeit the journey would have taken a while.
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Old 28th October 2017, 06:48 PM   #114
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Originally Posted by commandlinegamer View Post
People can be out of contact for a long time, before anybody reports it.

In recent non-nautical news, two people over here have just been charged with the murder of a woman (they were apparently her carers) who had not been seen by anyone else since 1999. The alarm was only raised a year ago. It's a weird case: she did have family.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-41781297

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...-west-41679631

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-scot...-disappearance

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...-west-38156376

I realize that is possible.

So, we don't yet know that anyone reported them missing. That is weird.

Nobody had heard from them or could reach them for five months. Not a beacon, not a word. I find it almost impossible to believe that nobody in all that time wondered where they were.

Maybe they did and we don't yet know, but it was not reported in anything I've read, which is admittedly very little.

You know there's going to be book and movie deals. I'm still going to stick with it being a hoax just for fun. It may not have started that way.
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Old 28th October 2017, 07:08 PM   #115
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Originally Posted by jimbob View Post
Yes, it puts the scale of the Pacific in context. 900 miles Southeast of Japan is a long way from anywhere
There are relatively well-frequented shipping lanes heading south from the Japanese ports. They are not as thick as, say, the English Channel or Moluccan Straits, but there are fifteen/twenty ships a day through the area.

I was not saying that it was a freeway but that it's not quite deserted. The lanes from Hawaii to Tahiti are fairly deserted, though. There is not a large enough population in the islands to merit any major ship transportation.

Check out the waters south and southeast and even east of Japan. Based on the currents, it's likely they were riding the equatorial current. There are a number of ships through the area. (Wait 'til the chit-chat demonstration stops. Each of those dots is a ship.) 3 seconds equals one day on the chart.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...cean-2012.html
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Old 28th October 2017, 07:17 PM   #116
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Maybe people knew of their voyage but didn't understand that they were stranded rather than just taking a damn long time to get to Tahiti. Or thought that they did reach their destination and just hadn't phoned home yet.

There have been people stranded at sea for long periods that didn't result in books or movies.

The shark incident can't be written or depicted without it being ridiculed as being baloney.

The true story of two stranded chicks who couldn't get their stories straight. NYT Bestseller now in paperback LOL.
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Old 28th October 2017, 07:19 PM   #117
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Originally Posted by Bob001 View Post
As I recall, the movie raised some questions not much different from the ones here. The Redford character was portrayed as an experienced sailor, even capable of making his own hull repairs at sea. His boat was modern, relatively large and obviously expensive. Yet when his radio was damaged, he didn't have a backup. He didn't have a satphone or emergency beacons. When he needed to break out his flares and raft, he had to read the instructions. And he was rescued after he had been adrift in his raft for only a few days. Real sailors found a lot to sneer at.
Actually he did have a satphone (Those who know about those things were able to use the model to date the film setting to post 2008) - no excuse for not having EPRIB, handheld GPS or other modern equipment

What he didn't have was a handle for his bilge pump - got much praise for being resourceful enough to trim a broom handle to fit (That was about the limit to his skills)
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Old 29th October 2017, 06:09 AM   #118
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Looks like just a pair of clueless numptys who set out unprepared and were win-the-lottery lucky to have been found. I wont be surprised to see their story sold to the highest bidder sometime in the near future and I bet it'll be as factually accurate as "Bravo Two Zero".

The advice they got in Hawaii couldn't have been all that great, otherwise it would have included the words "don't do it!"
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Old 29th October 2017, 07:42 AM   #119
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Originally Posted by TX50 View Post
Looks like just a pair of clueless numptys who set out unprepared and were win-the-lottery lucky to have been found. I wont be surprised to see their story sold to the highest bidder sometime in the near future and I bet it'll be as factually accurate as "Bravo Two Zero".

The advice they got in Hawaii couldn't have been all that great, otherwise it would have included the words "don't do it!"
There is a debate on Cruisers Forum on when to say "don't do it." Some cruisers think that the way to learn is to jump in when you think you're ready.

I haven't read the thread in a while, so I may be exaggerating their positions. If so, this is an unintentional straw man.

The thread is in Scuttlebutt/The Sailor's Confessional.
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Old 29th October 2017, 08:04 AM   #120
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Originally Posted by mgidm86 View Post
You know there's going to be book and movie deals.
Director's Cut: The phone didn't fall into the ocean. It was thrown. "Let's see you play Candy Crush now!"
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