2 women and 2 dogs lost at sea for 5 months rescued today

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MarkD
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Re: 2 women and 2 dogs lost at sea for 5 months rescued today

Post by MarkD »

Weetabix wrote:
MarkD wrote:Problem being, as NPR pointed out, that sailing vessels don't necessarily sail in a straight line, so going to the latitude you want then sailing due East or West might not work, the wind gets a vote.
Maybe you don't check your latitude just the once? ;)
Indeed. And tacking into the wind requires a certain level of seamanship (seapersonship?) That they seemed to lack. Otherwise they'd not have spent five months in the open ocean, on a boat deemed not seaworthy, eating rice and pasta.
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Vonz90
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Re: 2 women and 2 dogs lost at sea for 5 months rescued today

Post by Vonz90 »

Weetabix wrote:
MarkD wrote:Problem being, as NPR pointed out, that sailing vessels don't necessarily sail in a straight line, so going to the latitude you want then sailing due East or West might not work, the wind gets a vote.
Maybe you don't check your latitude just the once? ;)
If the wind does not allow you to sail in the direction you want to go - you have to tack back and forth as about 33 degrees off the wind one the closest most boats can sail to the wind. This is generally the first thing one learns when sailing.

As for tracking ones progress made good- that is what dead reckoning does. Plot the direction and speed and then mark the turns with the new direction and speed and you can calculate your net distance and direction made good.

If you are just following a line of bearing it is actually even easier- just make sure you are spending about the same amount of time on each tack and they will average out.

It is big ocean - 50 or 100 NM one way or the other is no big deal.
MarkD
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Re: 2 women and 2 dogs lost at sea for 5 months rescued today

Post by MarkD »

Vonz90 wrote:
Weetabix wrote:
MarkD wrote:Problem being, as NPR pointed out, that sailing vessels don't necessarily sail in a straight line, so going to the latitude you want then sailing due East or West might not work, the wind gets a vote.
Maybe you don't check your latitude just the once? ;)
If the wind does not allow you to sail in the direction you want to go - you have to tack back and forth as about 33 degrees off the wind one the closest most boats can sail to the wind. This is generally the first thing one learns when sailing.

As for tracking ones progress made good- that is what dead reckoning does. Plot the direction and speed and then mark the turns with the new direction and speed and you can calculate your net distance and direction made good.

If you are just following a line of bearing it is actually even easier- just make sure you are spending about the same amount of time on each tack and they will average out.

It is big ocean - 50 or 100 NM one way or the other is no big deal.
It's plenty enough to miss most islands in the Pacific, if you're just looking for land from the deck.

My point being, had they been even moderately capable of sailing a boat across the Pacific, they'd not have spent five months at sea. Good on them they had enough rice and a way to desalinize water, so they didn't have to eat the dogs or each other.

They obviously didn't have even the minimum capability to be out there. Which makes their rescue dumb luck or Darwin denied. They played a stupid game and didn't win the stupiedist prize they might have, which would have been their boat being found four years from now with their mummified corpses surrounded by dog bones.
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Windy Wilson
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Re: 2 women and 2 dogs lost at sea for 5 months rescued today

Post by Windy Wilson »

As my grandfather often said, 'more luck than brains.'
The use of the word "but" usually indicates that everything preceding it in a sentence is a lie.
E.g.:
"I believe in Freedom of Speech, but". . .
"I support the Second Amendment, but". . .
--Randy
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Vonz90
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Re: 2 women and 2 dogs lost at sea for 5 months rescued today

Post by Vonz90 »

MarkD wrote:
It's plenty enough to miss most islands in the Pacific, if you're just looking for land from the deck.

They obviously didn't have even the minimum capability to be out there. Which makes their rescue dumb luck or Darwin denied. They played a stupid game and didn't win the stupiedist prize they might have, which would have been their boat being found four years from now with their mummified corpses surrounded by dog bones.
True enough if you are sailing towards a small island. So if you are lost in the middle of the Pacific, don't try to navigate towards a small island.

Tahiti is close to due south from Hawaii, random guess is they tried to continue sailing there. Maybe not a bad plan if they knew how to navigate well with celestial, but a very crappy plan if you don't because it is not large, there are not too many other islands around it and if you miss it the next big land mass down the same line of bearing is Antarctica.

Sail south west from there and you will hit either the Solomon Islands (lots of them), New Guinea or after that Australia. Better yet, it would take you towards common shipping lanes so there is more likely a chance of assistance, and the prevailing winds would be with you. That is what Capt. Bligh did in a ship's long boat and he made it.

Apparently they knew none of this, and not knowing any of this they should not have considered attempting the sail trip they attempted. I know how to sail reasonably well and and very good at navigation yet I would not try it without a lot of work up and sure as heck not in the boat they were using. Fools rush in and all that.
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HTRN
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Re: 2 women and 2 dogs lost at sea for 5 months rescued today

Post by HTRN »

I find it amusing that you guys think this actually happened, and isn't a publicity stunt in order to secure a book deal. :ugeek:
HTRN, I would tell you that you are an evil fucker, but you probably get that a lot ~ Netpackrat

Describing what HTRN does as "antics" is like describing the wreck of the Titanic as "a minor boating incident" ~ First Shirt
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randy
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Re: 2 women and 2 dogs lost at sea for 5 months rescued today

Post by randy »

Once again, HTRN may be a prophet (scary thought that!)

From CNN
The mariners, Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava, had one EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) on board, which was properly registered," Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Tara Molle told CNN....Molle told CNN that "as far as we know, the EPIRB on their sailboat was working properly. I can't speculate as to why they wouldn't have activated it.
Appel as saying that "on the first night" they encountered a "force 11 storm," which they battled for the following two nights and three days.
However, Norman Hui, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Honolulu told CNN there were "no organized storm systems near the Hawaiian Islands on the dates of May 3, 2017 or the few days afterward."
...even before I read MHI, my response to seeing a poster for the stars of the latest Twilight movies was "I see 2 targets and a collaborator".
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Netpackrat
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Re: 2 women and 2 dogs lost at sea for 5 months rescued today

Post by Netpackrat »

randy wrote:Once again, HTRN may be a prophet (scary thought that!)
He also said the fix was in for Cruz, and IIRC Giuliani too at various times. :lol:
Cognosce teipsum et disce pati

"People come and go in our lives, especially the online ones. Some leave a fond memory, and some a bad taste." -Aesop
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Vonz90
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Re: 2 women and 2 dogs lost at sea for 5 months rescued today

Post by Vonz90 »

randy wrote:Once again, HTRN may be a prophet (scary thought that!)

From CNN
The mariners, Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava, had one EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) on board, which was properly registered," Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Tara Molle told CNN....Molle told CNN that "as far as we know, the EPIRB on their sailboat was working properly. I can't speculate as to why they wouldn't have activated it.
Appel as saying that "on the first night" they encountered a "force 11 storm," which they battled for the following two nights and three days.
However, Norman Hui, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Honolulu told CNN there were "no organized storm systems near the Hawaiian Islands on the dates of May 3, 2017 or the few days afterward."
It is not unusual for inexperienced sailors to think a given storm is much bigger than it actually is.
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Steamforger
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Re: 2 women and 2 dogs lost at sea for 5 months rescued today

Post by Steamforger »

Their story is completely unraveling. Battering attacks by 30' Tiger Sharks, only wanting to use the EPIRB for "life threatening" situations, not making landfall two times because their hull was too deep to make the harbor, storms that didn't exist, and a lot of other bull.

In addition to HTRN's expectation of a book deal, I'll add the talk show circuit and a shot in the arm to the boat owner's semi-professional career as an extra.
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