In spite of what happened, the Kaufmans say they plan to travel the world with their kids again, as soon as they get a new sailboat.
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“I’ll take Doubling Down on Stupid for a Thousand, Alex.”
Was the service cancelled because they didn’t pay their bill???
Those poor kids — having morons for parents.
and no backup communications?
Seriously, blaming the satellite company for a situation out of their control?
The phone was working and then stopped. I don't get how this is the satellite company's fault.
Why couldn't the wife go with the girl and he could sail the boat back?
To those who may find this deliberate sinking odd, if a vessel has to be abandoned, it cannot be allowed to drift as that makes it a "Hazard to Navigation!" Either sufficient capable people would have to stay on board to safely navigate the vessel OR it must be sunk!
All the cell phone providers I know of allow you to call 911 and the phone company itself even on a disconnected phone. They want you to pay your bill and will let you do it pretty easily. I don't know whether sat phones have the same feature.
What was the connection issue? Did they not pay their bill?
Why in the world would you bring kids too young to handle it if they fall overboard, even with a life jacket?
Why did they have to scuttle the boat rather than putting the kids and maybe one parent on the helicopter and try to return to port with the boat or at least stay on board for and pay for a recovery crew to come out to sail or tow it to a nearby port?
All sorts of questions which the idiot press won't cover in a three minute human interest story.
An “experienced” sailor without a VHF, 1000 miles out to sea, relying on a sat cell phone? That would be like an experienced sailor without a sail, I’m assuming he took one of those with him, of course.
Maybe I’m missing the obvious, but why didn’t they return to port when the child became ill? Or at least sail back once she was airlifted off, rather than sink the boat? I think the best they’ll be able to establish is some degree of shared liability against the phone company.
There’s no explanation of why their service was shut off.
Traveling like that with very young kids is beyond irresponsible.I don’t care *how* many antibiotics or satellite phones they have on board.
Thank God they’re all safe. I don’t really understand what he is accusing the satellite phone company of, but if they are at fault here, that’s going to be the end of their business. Most people using them are doing so because there is no cell phone coverage where they are, and are not using them except in real emergencies. I’m no great sailor, but I did see this case discussed on a sailor’s forum where this man is personally known, and posters who claimed to know him were siding with him on this.