Posted on 04/09/2014 3:32:32 PM PDT by SilvieWaldorfMD
(Reuters) - A family of four rescued from their sailboat after their infant daughter became seriously ill at sea returned safely to San Diego on Wednesday aboard a U.S. warship that picked them up in the Pacific over the weekend, a Navy spokeswoman said.
The parents, Eric and Charlotte Kaufman, and their two daughters, 3-year-old Cora and 1-year-old Lyra, left the Navy frigate Vandegrift after the ship arrived in port around 10 a.m. local time and proceeded to their family doctor, according to Lieutenant Lenaya Rotklein of the Third Fleet.
Rotklein declined to give any further information about the arrival of the Kaufmans at Naval Air Station North Island on San Diego Bay except to say all four family members were "stable when they departed" and were met at the port by relatives.
The family was two weeks into a planned around-the-world cruise on their 36-foot (11-metre) sloop when Lyra developed a fever and rash, prompting her parents to send a distress call to the Coast Guard by satellite phone last Thursday.
In addition to the child falling ill, the family reported that their boat was taking on water whenever they tried to start the vessel's engine, the Coast Guard said.
A four-man team from the California Air National Guard's 129th Rescue Wing was dispatched by military plane to the scene, about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) out in the Pacific off Mexico, to render medical assistance.
(Excerpt) Read more at in.reuters.com ...
Is it? Really? Not nearly enough punishment in my book.
When your tax bill comes in take a good long look and figure it would have been just a bit cheaper if these useless fools had been left to their well earned reward.
What is the point of skipping all the “fun” in life because it’s risky and things could go wrong and then you’d have big consequences to deal with, when some halfwit who doesn’t think above an animal level has all the fun they feel like with no FEAR of consequences, knowing all the prudent suckers will foot the bill? What would happen if everyone did whatever they liked brainlessly without ever stopping to think “I could be in a real mess if this goes bad.”?
Can you tell me why they shouldn’t have to repay every dime wasted on their behalf? You know perfectly well it wasn’t cheap. Expecting the state to send them a bill for every last penny spent is the only fair punishment possible.
They do it with hikers and mountain climbers, this should be no different. If it’s a couple million bucks..well, maybe being beggared will teach them to *think* and serve as a strong warning to anyone else to know the risks and make good decisions.
No,no, no. They'd be safer if they learned some repair skills.
If they don't know how to repair their leaky boat, the difference between a 36' and a 50' boat is no difference.
I just had to yell this statement- "where do they get their money from?" Alas, I and possibly many other Freepers never found the secret. Ah well, another old country saying, which is pretty dubious.
Virtue is it's own reward.
Wow. Are you alright? I think you’re holding back. Tell us, if you can, what you really think.
I’m quite fine. Just disgusted that I spend my life doing nothing chancy at all because it could go expensively wrong, and I still get bled so others can.
You are not alone!
Increasingly we are experiencing the same frustration, the same bleeding.
Give em a break. Most people posting have never been on a sailboat. We own a 40 ft Yorktown that we spend a ton of time on. I know of many babies, cats, and dogs that have been raised on boats. The kids seem to be part dolphin and are surfing by age 3 or 4 it seems.
I don’t know anything about this couple but know many cruising families that have done quite well.
I found take on the uproar posted by an RV traveling family, I think they used to cruise also.
A Bit of Nastiness
“Many of you will know what Im talking about here, many wont. Enough people are trying to cash their own blogs in on this story by writing up stories about it. Heres my quick thoughts without the keywords.
The response by the mediaand by many other nasty Americansto the rescue of a family of four in the Pacific (people we are happy to call our friends), plays a large part in why we choose to live our lives the way that we do. Their sensationalism and vitriol is why we take pains to dissociate our children from media, and to lead them on a different path than that which the vast majority feels is the right way to lead a life or to raise a child.
We hope that someday, probably many years from now, our friends are able to sit back and laugh about the sheer craziness/stupidity/absurdness of what is happening to them and being said about them right at this moment by unknowing/uneducated/uncaring nitwits.”
http://www.bumfuzzle.com/blog/2014/04/06/a-bit-of-nastiness/
It sounds like they were total amateurs at boat handling and would no doubt have run into weather that they couldn’t handle sooner rather than later. They’re lucky their daughter took ill, all things considered.
Amen! We weren’t so smart though when we had two or even three toddlers. But once six and seven came along, we knew better. :)
LOL.
Just read that the family lived in Mexico in the past year.
So, if the family moved from San Diego to Mexico, and lived in there for the past year and Baby Lyra was born in Mexico (and presumably checked by a Mexican doctor for salmonella), why didn’t the Mexican Navy rescue them?
Until you have older children, you have little option but to take the little ones to the store, unfortunately. I learned to do my grocery shopping really fast!
I suspect they knew calling the Mexican navy (or Coast Guard, if they have one) would be a waste of electrons.
Mexican Navy Seal:
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