Posted on 08/20/2014 10:00:11 AM PDT by Lord Flash
A man has been rescued five miles off the Dorset coast while attempting to sail to America in a £300 dinghy.
The 30-year-old Bulgarian national bought the 14ft vessel from Christchurch harbour on Saturday and then set off on his 3,500-mile voyage across the Atlantic.
...
The man, who was alone on the sailing dinghy, refused help when an RNLI lifeboat arrived and kept saying: "I am going west."
After refusing assistance for 45 minutes, the crew dragged him on to their boat and took him to shore.
...
The man was not wearing a life jacket, his boat had no lights and his only navigational aid was a street map of Southampton.
Aside from that, he had a passport containing a US visa, hot dogs, beans and a bag of biscuits...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...
The street map of Southampton would have come in jolly handy on that Atlantic crossing.
Rather surprised that you chaps gave him a US visa!
a US visa, hot dogs, beans and a bag of biscuits...? All you need!
All he had to do was go to the embassy and say,”No habla englais!”..............
I’ll give him points for determination, but not smarts...
He just needs to fly to Mexico and walk across the border.
Crazy is not illegal. 14’ is fine, but he’s gonna need a BIT more rations and water than that...
"...He didn't have a life jacket, just a buoyancy aid and the vessel didn't have any lights... He would have died, he was severely sea sick, he had the first signs of hypothermia and his boat was filling up with water."
Well, there's no sense in being hypercritical. Next time he'll do better. He'll have beer.
I admire his pluck.
He’s lucky they pulled him off the water, by Sunday he would be rowing into a storm with 50-60 mph winds and large waves. He would have died in that for sure.
Inasmuch as this fellow may have what we call a big brass pair, they are worthless as floatation devices. /snark
Anyone with a 14-foot dinghy has my respect.
Darwin foiled again by nosey nanny-state do-gooders.
ping!
About 1970 a US airman at Mildenhall stole a C-130 and decided to fly back to the States. The plane did not have enough fuel but that was ultimately of no importance since rumor control had him being shot down by a British fighter over water.
Long ago I heard a lecture by a British Army paratrooper captain who with a sergeant crossed the Atlantic in a rowboat. They were a bit better prepared.
Personally, I think they were effing crazy.
Obviously... a prospective U.S. democrat..
The captain was brilliant; a fresh emergency food supply that could help him row.
Anyway, there was no problem and I could have made it. BTW, that map was downtown Southampton, New York. I was working off a back bearing when I noticed a magnetic screwdriver next to my compass.
What’s the problem? He actually had a legal permission to enter.
Bravery is, of course, a noble trait, but this fellow behaved with an impulsive recklessness which were it not for the RNLI would almost certainly have got him killed. I do hope he does not make another attempt.
Indeed, it was only by good fortune that the RNLI lifeboat was not needed by someone else at the same time who had no choice about being in a spot of bother.
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