Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/10/27/two-sailors-and-two-dogs-rescu.html
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Boy are they going to feel silly when someone points out that the boat also had a sail.
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I love a story with a happy ending. What they lacked in engine preparation they made up for with food and water purification preparation.
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The story doesn’t mention dog food. How many sailors did they start with?
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My favorite part of this story is that they had enough food on board for another seven months. They were super ready for the worst case scenario.
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I read elsewhere they had mast problems as well. Their only phone was dropped overboard the first day, and sounds like they had no long-range radio onboard.
Sorta…
Yup, that part. Discussed extensively on gizmodo, they only had VHF radio instead of a satellite beacon, or long-range radio. They had all their eggs in one basket with the sat-phone.
Also mentioned in comment threads on the Gizmodo article is that a more experienced sailor might have rigged a sail on a damaged mast, and used the little steering they had to get to land. But, as these stories go, internet experts all the way down. Seems like they made a few mistakes, which coincided with bad fortune, but otherwise were reasonably well prepared.
What I’d like to know more about is their life stories. How do you get to a place in life where you have a big sailboat, and you can just fuck off for a few months to sail the tropics with your buddy/partner?
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We would never make a journey like that without an EPIRB, and I’m pretty sure they’re mandatory on a boat of the size that can be lived on. Wtf were they thinking?
I guess they had enough food and water so they were okay, but they would’ve been screwed if the desalinator broke (and those do break). My husband claims he would’ve kept sailing until he hit land, but in their situation I would’ve thrown the EPIRB in the water after the first month.
You buy one and live on it for 5 years until you’ve paid off the loan, then take a sabbatical from work. 
That’s our current plan. Liveaboard life is pretty nice, actually!
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In this Guardian story it says:
Do sharks really attack boats in a way that people would seriously fear a hull breach? I would think it would hurt the sharks to bang into a boat hard enough to really scare a person.
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A shark’s primary problem solving tool is biting things.
“What is that? Gonna bite it and find out. Nope, not food.”
Most shark attacks are what are referred to as, “Exploratory bites”. i.e. They take a nip (which might take a limb), but they don’t come back for seconds typically.
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An EPIRB is not mandatory, except on commercial vessels. Then again, lots of people who take ocean voyages do install one…
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Glad they’re safe; sorry they’re so stupid/over-eager/under-experienced. Open ocean cruising without at least one EPIRB on board is unbelievably dumb (only $400 or so; compared to that hull, the cost is nothing). Their “mast problem” looks like it should have been surmountable…the rigging appears intact, so shinny your ass up that mast and get a storm jib working, if nothing else. If you lose your (presumably) sat phone on the first day, turn back to port! Arggh!
While their concern about sharks breaching the hull is pbly unfounded, they were right to be worried – the ocean is full of shit that wants to sink you. (Middle of the fucking ocean, reaching to gain some latitude, and the waves push a partially submerged telephone pole past the bow at several knots…set pucker factor to +7.)
::end salty dog rant::
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Y’all are too kind. There’s a hot thread over on Sailing Anarchy where a bunch of actual sailors go through the various reasons that the whole story appears to be bullshit.
In short:
- Women appear too healthy
- Pattern of slime growth along port side suggests long term listing - could be grounding or a long sail on one tack
- One typically doesn’t set sail to cross the pacific with a full year of dried food
- No EPIRB for a transoceanic journey (!)
- Mainsail cover not on, main and jib still bent on, no signs of distress to the rigging in the rescue video
- Bizarre story about thinking that they only had 24 hours before the boat was going to sink
Sounds like a poorly thought through grift from where I stand (sit).
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Sharks: toddlers of the sea.
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“Actual Sailors” who are super angry that someone who isn’t straight or male would try to sail a boat. Yecch, very toxic forum over there 
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Doesn’t change the fact that some good points were raised. Sometimes toxic, angry straight males do know things.
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Not much about themselves, tho
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I mean, sure, I would personally have no idea how to jury rig a sail. But if I had a couple months with literally nothing else to do except wait for starvation? If nothing else, might as well get to use “jury rig” in its original sense once before I died!
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I found the discussion on that site interesting and informative. Yes, some comments were stupid and offensive, but I can choose to ignore those. As someone with more than a passing interest in sailing, I had questions, and they had (some) answers. Like how can a mast be broken when it is clearly rising 20 ft above the ship? And isn’t that a sail I see wrapped around the boom?
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The Navy should hire them. They won’t run into anything, including a harbor.
LOL
So far I haven’t found anything particularly nasty in that thread.
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