It is good reminder that open water sailing/rowing has real hazards. They were lucky to come out this alive.

These guys do a different type of adventure once a year. There are small boaters who spend years training and planning for these type of advnetures and suceesfully achieve them but there are also those who fail. These poeple also have scheduled communications checks and now carry rescue signal devices. It is hard to tell how well prepared and trained these people were.

I think their not wearing a PFD on the open ocean sums up their skills. Also not have their equipment lashed down and they did not carry a rescue signal device of some kind says alot about their planning or lack of it.

There's a saying - God looks out for fools and drunks. These boys took full advantage of that.

I started having a really bad feeling about this when on departure day they figured out that with the mast up they couldn't both row the boat at the same time. On departure day. I guess that means that they never practiced in protected waters until they got to really know their boat (including capsize, re-entry and man overboard drills).

Then looking back at their build blog, there's no mention of using extra heavy duty fittings for open ocean cruising. Nor is there mention anywhere of SPOT, EPIRB or even a weather radio in any of the things they packed. There were no spare spars or sails and no plan to ditch the sail rig and continue under oars in case of high winds.

Then, the only rehearsal they did in the actual waters they'd be sailing in was the trip from Mission Bay to San Diego Harbor. Even then, they completely ignored what having trouble getting out of Mission Bay meant. They blamed it on the tide (guess the tide tables were packed with the weather radio), not their lack of experience rowing or sailing or otherwise navigating the open ocean. The one clever thing they did was turn back when it wasn't working, but even then they didn't realize that it was the sea telling them to go away, get some practice and come back next year. They resumed the trip the next day.

Ignorance of the tide, of the existence of kelp beds and the difficulty navigating through them, the water temperature off Southern California (comes straight down from the Arctic, 60's is considered warm offshore) and the need to carry warm clothes for a night on the water means that whatever research they did was totally inadequate.

They also never seem to have checked the weather forecasts. Santa Ana winds do not come on without a couple of days warning. If they had checked the weather on the morning they left San Diego, they would have know that that night they'd be hit by the winds.

All in all, the loss of the boat was pretty much inevitable considering how they had set up the trip. They seem to have been under a lot of self-inflicted pressure to go no matter what - friends waiting in Cabo, fans waiting for their blog, etc. That's why they ignored that sense of danger that they wrote about.

They also seem to have been thinking of this as another river trip or a wierd kind of car trip. They certainly didn't plan it as an open sea cruise. George's point about the PFDs and lashing their equipment is just the gilding on the lily.

Tom Head came in first in his division in the Everglades Challenge in an NE Dory, working through a rudder popping off, a storm with 50 mph winds and navigating offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Same boat, but with an experienced and prepared skipper. Our Baja heros should get together with the Watertribe before they try this again. They're damned lucky to be alive, hope they've sent a big thank-you present to that lifeguard.

In the news today:  57-year old man in what looks like a plastic kayak is rescued 60 miles off shore on his way to Hawaii, after 11 days out.  The full trip would have been 2400 miles. 

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-coast-guard-rescue-kayak-hawaii-20140611-story.html

Best part of the story: he is 57 years old and trying to kayak to Hawaii.  He should have used a CLC model!

Cheers

  Kayak appears to be a long fiberglass double. Immediate cause of failure due to reliance on GPS which failed when solar power supply failed.   The trip was done successfuly some years ago.  I see another kayaker is about  ready to try this.

Sounds like he should have had a Bris sextant (no, not a device used by mohels).

Laszlo

   Or just a compass. Tune your course every few days based on the jet contrails overhead. You might not hit the island you chose, but you won't miss HI.

Follow the moonset at night- it sets at a reliable 235 degrees in June/July. Following the silver shimmering path to HI is one of life's great joys.

of course, I'd rather do it with a spinnaker up and surfing the long swells and with an off watch waiting to relieve me in a couple hours...

Why rely only on electronics? Even hikers on land are encouraged to carry and know how to use a map and compass. GPS units can fail for all sorts or reasons including bad programing. It is always better to carry a some basic back up tools for very critical task. Sort of like carrying a fish line and hooks to fish if the food goes bad or runs out.

Why rely only on electronics? Even hikers on land are encouraged to carry and know how to use a map and compass. GPS units can fail for all sorts or reasons including bad programing. It is always better to carry a some basic back up tools for very critical task. Sort of like carrying a fish line and hooks to fish if the food goes bad or runs out.

   best qoute pre trip ' I was frothing with nerves, thoughts of things that we should have done (forgot to buy film), '  freaking film! NOT actually learn to row or sail their boat or practice capsize drills or study weather and tide patterns  or obtain rescue gear  . or give  5 minutes thought on how to secure gear. maybe next year they'll show up to climb mount everest in flip flops and shorts

"maybe next year they'll show up to climb mount everest in flip flops and shorts"

Says it all.

   Hey guys, let's give them a little credit. They'd probably show up with at least two pairs of flip flops! Well, maybe not.........

George K