Hi, All, (copied to family members; family, this is the liveaboard mailing
list) - oops. This bounced due to too many recipients. This goes to the
list without copies; the copies went directly to my family alread :{))
We just finished the Sound of Music on our system (digital on hard drive),
and finally got to review the thread on our supposed distress.
As Lydia says, "Who makes this stuff up???"
1: Now that I have an internet connection I was able to download messages
both from BASRA (the Bahamian equivalent) and the Coast Guard. You've seen
my request for a call to the marvelous folks in the Miami Sector (those
folks who provided a lift from the rock we sailed onto (not sleeping - just
storm tossed, with 10-12' seas and over 40 knots and a chartplotter we
thought was integrated to the autopilot; not so - it just kept a line to the
spot we wanted to go, and Lydia didn't know not to go there; our radar was
inop [see my log posting recently about the final resolution of that] and we
wound up on the rocks). BASRA doesn't answer my hail...
2: None of the assertions here or in the various press and airwaves about
our response is correct. We turn our radios off when we're asleep, and
heard nothing (though we easily hear Miami Sector when they broadcast). Had
we, we'd certainly responded - but neither I nor any crew did so, having
heard nothing.
3: We are eternally grateful to the Miami CG folks, and make it a point to
tell each Coastie we see. They light up each time - and the folks who gave
us a ride to Key West were literally thrilled, including requests for
photos, to be able to have done so. Each such excursion is what they live
for.
4: The above having been said, I desperately hope that the reports of
airborne searches are more of the same as #2; as someone pointed out, it's a
terrible waste of resources, if it's true.
5: As Ed pointed out, we have many resources to ask for help if we need it,
and as someone else (forgive me; the thread is so long I'm not going back
for proper credit, if it was on this list - it might have been on the Morgan
list) pointed out, SPOT is notoriously unreliable, both for the reasons I
pointed out in my prior, and in general. It's a lovely tool to let folks
who are interested follow our progress, nothing more. We have an epirb, ham
and SSB radios, and VHF aboard, and know how to raise an alarm if one's
warranted.
6: Ed, and most likely, those who have been here for a long time, know that
we are entirely candid about our adventures (and misadventures). Were we
churchmice, nobody'd see them, nor learn from them. The entirety of that is
in my log (click the link to the yahoo group below), should you care to see
it. The ride in the stainless steel basket aside, if there's someone here
who's put lots of miles under their keel who's not had to wait for a tide to
get off a sandbar, or polished their keel, or had something break underway,
I'd say they were a most fortunate and rare individual. Tania (the 17 year
old who went around the world in a *NIB* boat) can attest to the fact that
stuff breaks, sometime's you're in the wrong place at the right time, and
"stuff" (sanitized) happens. Some folks get off the boat when it does; we
don't/didn't.
7: As others have pointed out, presuming to put out the call for rescue is
pretty presumptuous if you are not one of the people with whom we are in
direct contact. This thread was very amusing until I read that resources
(assets, in Coastie parlance) were dispatched on our behalf, particularly
based on our apparent lack of movement from a SPOT transmitter. I am not
amused.
All that said, I'm very glad for the concern here and elsewhere. The
response - particularly in the Morgan list, but also from all quarters -
when it was learned that we did, in fact, get a ride in a red helicopter,
was unspeakably touching and heartwarming. It forms the aggressive (we
always did, but more so now) posture of paying it forward we display.
So, thanks, all, for your concern. We're fine, and I'll try to be better in
making the SPOT talk to you - but be informed that we'll turn it off when we
anchor :{))
I'm off to my moonlight dip in the clear Bahamian waters, my nightly salt
water shower at anchor, then I'm going to get a great night's sleep :{))
L8R, y'all
Skip and crew
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog
"You are never given a wish without also being given the power to
make it come true. You may have to work for it however."
(and)
"There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in
its hand
(Richard Bach)
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