How much $$$ to charter a A330!?

[Bjammin]

What a bunch of clowns.....The parents should be brought up on Child Endangerment charges.

I don't buy the whole "the kid is a dreamer" idea.....Oh Yeah? I wanted to go Bear hunting in Wyoming when I was 15 by myself during summer break, did my Dad say "Sure son, have at it!! Good Luck!"????

Hell no, He told me to wait a few years to do it.

Look at them at their press conference, the parents LOVE the camera. The son does it, now the daughter does it....and fails. But yet, they got the camera time they needed. I am no judge, but the fact you have a MEDIA agent and set up press conferences so you can brag about your kids makes you a sick bastard ready to sacrifice your own blood to get into the papers.....

What if she got jumped and raped by pirates? If she had died, then what?? "Oh that's too bad, the kid couldn't be stopped. We encourage our children to grow like a flower...."

Just like BP, they owe every dime for this rescue from a misguided stunt.

This story makes me sick,

OK, so some adult dumbass with half the experience goes out there in a POS boat, breaks down, in the middle of the pacific, and needs 200 grand worth of rescuing. Would you be as critical?
Her young age did not cause a 30' wave to break her mast. She was well prepared and did everything properly. She would have passed any sailing test any expert would have given her.
I think what she did is way more productive then some junky teen needing 100K of rehab at taxpayer expense or an unexperienced teen on a motorbike injuring someone and our insurance premiums have to pick up the bill. How offen does that happen daily?

 

[BILL LUMBERG]

OK, so some adult dumbass with half the experience goes out there in a POS boat, breaks down, in the middle of the pacific, and needs 200 grand worth of rescuing. Would you be as critical?
Her young age did not cause a 30' wave to break her mast. She was well prepared and did everything properly. She would have passed any sailing test any expert would have given her.
I think what she did is way more productive then some junky teen needing 100K of rehab at taxpayer expense or an unexperienced teen on a motorbike injuring someone and our insurance premiums have to pick up the bill. How offen does that happen daily?

Not sure how "offen" that happens genius.....it makes no difference to me how old you are when you pull a dumbass stunt and get pinched.

There comes a point when you draw a line....If the kid was 9, would it be ok then? I mean "she's a MATURE 9!"......

Way more productive? Yeah, productive for the funeral companies....Ask Jessia Dubroff....nuff said!!

 

[Bjammin]

If it makes no difference to you how old she was, why do you want to crucify her parents? Yes, I agree there should be a line, but she had the maturity and experience to do this. I have been sailing all my life and I believe she had the skills to pull this off. Again, it was a freak wave and not lack of knowlege that caused her boat to flounder.
16 year olds are driving cars on the highway next to you and your family daily. You have no problem with that, right? A mistake by them would be much more costly to you then a girl on a boat 1500NM's away from anywhere, and again, she did not make a mistake!

 

[BILL LUMBERG]

Bjammin,

You talk like you lived in the slip next to her. How do you know she had the required maturity and experience? Because she got a skipper's license?? Puh-leeze, again, Jessica Dubroff took the Private pilots test and look what happened.

As far as her not making a mistake, her "Blog" (because she didn't want any publicity right?) was speaking of the weather and what was looking to be like a tough leg in front of her. Rather than change course or divert, she plunged right into the weather. Freak wave? My ass! You make it sound like it was glass and this thing just jumped her.....

"On January 23 of this year, Sunderland first set out on her journey back from Marina Del Rey in Los Angeles, California. On her journey, she had found a lot of different opposition from other sailors because her voyage was going to be taking her into the Indian Ocean at the onset of the winter storm session. During the storm, when she lost contact with her family was considered as the most difficult part of her entire voyage.
A blog throughout her journey had been being kept by Abby. On her website her last entry said that she had hit rough weather and winds that had reached as high as 45 knots."


And from her blog directly:


Wednesday, June 9, 2010

A Rough Few Days



The last few days have pretty busy out here. I've been in some rough weather for awhile with winds steady at 40-45 knots with higher gusts. With that front passing, the conditions were lighter today. It was a nice day today with some lighter winds which gave me a chance to patch everything up. Wild Eyes was great through everything but after a day with over 50 knots at times, I had quite a bit of work to do.

For most of the day today I had about 20 knots. I had been hoping to get some lighter winds so I could patch up one of my sails. It was still a bit windy out but with more rough weather tomorrow I wasn't sure when my next chance to fix it would be. I managed to take it down, take care of the tear and get it back up in a couple of hours. It wasn't the most fun job I have done out here. With the seas still huge, Wild Eyes was rolling around like crazy. Of course not even half and hour after I got the sail back up the wind dropped from 20 to 10 knots!

My Thrane & Thrane (Internet) system is down again so I am not able to send in my blog. The problem seems a bit more serious than the last few times I have had trouble with it. There is something wrong with the terminal at the back. It is possible that water got inside of it because it has a rough ride back there the past few days with waves crashing right over it. Unfortunately, if that is the problem I probably won't be able to fix it. At least I still have my Iridium phones so I can still call in to my mom and read her my bog for her to post.

The wind is beginning to pick up. It is back up to 20 knots and I am expecting that by midnight tonight I could have 35-50 knots with gusts to 60 so I am off to sleep before it really picks up.



She knew what was coming and yet pressed on and got bit. You can cheer this kid all you want but I'm not buying into letting your kids run like an adult just because you want to use them for notoriety.

 

[StopNTSing]

Bill is spot-on with his take on this family. We're raising a generation of kids over-dosed on self-esteem and thinking they can do anything. This was more of an ego-trip, than a sailing trip for those involved, IMHO.

P.S. Glad she made it through okay. She just got a whole lot more 'experienced.'

 

[Mamma]

I'm with Bill on this one too. A minor's job is not to be out risking their life to set records. A parent's job is not spending a few hundred thousand dollars to train and pressure their kids into doing these stunts either. So many out there want to the fame and fortune and do not care to see the consequences. When one becomes an adult then they alone are responsible for their choices. I think the parents should be taken out and flogged.

Bjamm, I also think ability has nothing to do with it. When I was 15 I had the ability to do many things but I am not sure I had the mental maturity because I was young. I just find it so wrong that parents would pressure their child into such a position as being alone in the Indian Ocean during winter storms to set some stupid record that nobody really cares about. Pirates, storms, malfunctions and the such... What responsible parents would put their child into that situation?

 

[Bjammin]

My God you guys!? With all the kids playing video games, doing drugs, and getting fat on junk I'm stooked that a 16 year old had the determination to take something like this on. She was well prepared, had the experience, and after following her for quite a while, I'm convinced that this was her idea. Waiting 2 years would not have made a bit of difference.
Jessica was 7! I don't think a 7 year old should fly an airplane, drive a car, or sail around the world alone, but 16 is differerent. We let 16 year olds solo an airplane with MINIMAL experience. That means a 16 year old is flying an airplane over people's houses, over highways, etc... and is trusted to make split second decisions if something goes wrong. It would cost WAY more then 100K if they made a bad decision. Again, 16 year olds ar driving SOLO, or maybe with your kids in their car, on highways next to us at all times.
In her blogs she comes accross as intelligent and she is obviously skilled. Weather is going to be a factor. We take risks in the air all the time, catching the jet stream, dodging thunderheads, landing on wet runways, etc... We are professionals, weigh the risks, and put the appropiate controls in place. She was as prepared as any of us are in our jobs. A PR stunt, everyone that sets to break a record is looking for some sort of fame, but what's wrong with that?
The ONLY issue here is her age and if you trust 16 year olds with the risky activites above, why bash her?

 

[Little Bubba]

She was well prepared and did everything properly

That's a pretty stupid statement since you weren't there, and you don't know if that's true or not.

BTW, are you goin The Brewhouse for lunch...

 

[Bjammin]

No, i'm taking my boat out today.

 

[Bjammin]

That's a pretty stupid statement since you weren't there, and you don't know if that's true or not.

Let me rephrase: It all my research of her experience she appeared to be very well prepared with all the nessesary equipment, repair expertise, sailing knowlege, etc... and she appeared to have no fault in her mast breaking and was ready to spend weeks at sea awaiting rescue if required.