Countries paying teen's rescue cost defend sea law

Associated Press ^ | Jun 17, 2010 6:40 AM | TANALEE SMITH

[DJ MacWoW]

The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea was first adopted in 1914 in response to the Titanic disaster. Along with mandating the number of lifeboats and the notification of a ship's routes, it also dictates that any ship in the area of a distress call will divert to assist that ship.

[Travis McGee]

Thanks. I think the last is the best.

[Travis McGee]

I don’t think she knew what she was getting into either. Not the Southern Ocean in winter. And it’s true, she’s no sailor in the sense that after two days her decks were still cluttered with foot traps and her rig was still trailing astern. No attempt at self help, cutting away or jury rigging, which is Big League Sailing 101. (If you go into the Southern Ocean at any time of year, you are in Big League Sailing by default.)

[Travis McGee]

Reading the linked forum at reply 150, it appears that she was getting all of her sailing directions from dad via long range comms. He was doing the weather work and giving her the next waypoint to put into the GPS/autopilot.

When the mast went down and comms were gone she was lost and didn’t have a plan. Her only “if anything goes wrong” plan was “turn on the EPIRB.”

That is why the ocean sailing community universally scorns this misbegotten effort.

If you try to be the youngest ever to scale Everest, and you do in in January because May will be too late, don’t expect praise when you activate your EPIRB at 24,000 feet in a blizzard, expecting a rescue effort to be mounted.

That’s what this family did, they sent Abbey up Everest in winter, because spring was too late for the “youngest ever” record.

[DJ MacWoW]

Since I don’t sail, I didn’t understand everything the sailing forum was saying but I did get that once communication with home was gone, she was done. She didn’t know how to do anything without all the tech equipment. And she dangerously left the deck littered.