My initial subject line for this entry was ‘some fools deserve to die.’ Perhaps I’m mellowing in my old age. I changed because I realize they don’t deserve to die—if they can save themselves. What they don’t deserve is to be saved by anyone else.
You may have read reports as I did of a father and son rescued last weekend from a sailboat 150 miles off Nantucket Island in a blizzard. If you did you surely thought as I did: What the hell were they doing out there?
I googled and learned. A pretty good report can be found here, even though the journalist uses the hackneyed ‘once in a lifetime adventure’. Another of the infinite misuses of the word. In this instance ‘adventure’ should have been replaced by inanity. And I suspect this was not a ‘once in a lifetime’ occurrence with these people. I deliberately don’t call them ‘sailors’.
I don’t like those ashore who second guess and criticize those at sea. They have often done so with me. Wrongly as I have proven. But the blunders here beggar belief; and on first thought I disagreed with the younger man’s assertion that “If anyone sat down and worked things out they’d understand why we left.” Actually I do understand: they were too stupid and inexperienced to know what they were getting themselves into. This was a failure, multiple failures, of intelligence and imagination.
I don’t care that they left Newport in February on an ill-prepared and perhaps structurally defective boat with a blizzard forecast. I do care that they called for help and were rescued at considerable risk to the rescuers.
If you do something so foolish, I believe the Coast Guard should have the authority to require you to sign a waiver before departure that any distress calls will be ignored. Even better, you shouldn’t be allowed to have a radio transmitter or EPIRB on board.
If these people had not known that if they got in trouble they could call for help, I doubt they would have sailed.
On the other hand, they might have.
In which case they would have already gotten what they deserved.
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Chicago set a record low temperature for the date this morning: -8°/-22°C.
Yesterday was a physical therapy day for me. It was not quite as cold when I left for my appointment, about 9°F/-13°C, but it was windy.
I mentioned to several people I emailed that I might wimp out and take the train rather than walk. But I didn’t. With many layers and a good winter parka, I was fine except for the slight amount of exposed skin around my nose and eyes. I don’t cover my nose with a scarf because that causes my eyeglasses to fog up.
However I did walk the distance five minutes faster than usual.
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As regular readers will know, as opposed to the rescued Australians, I never do things at the last minute and always leave ample time. However I may have just out done myself.
The duffle bag arrived yesterday from CampMor and I wanted to be certain that all the stuff I’m taking back to GANNET fits inside, so this morning I tested. It does.
I’m packed three weeks and five days early.
