(no subject)

[conuly]

"You can't just say, 'Well, you're a stupid idiot,' and let them drown. It would be pretty hard to justify that."

Well-said.

I've been lightly following this case over at Yahoo... mostly just following the comments. A surprising number of commenters apparently wanted this girl to die to teach her parents a moral lesson of some sort, or to save money. Others would've been content if she'd just been raided by pirates and raped. Let me say that if I get stranded on a lifeboat with these people, I'm eating them first.

People make a fuss that she's 16 years old, that this situation happened because of her age and the poor judgment of her parents. This may be true, I don't know. Maybe she's not competent enough for this sort of trip.

But it occurs to me that many seasoned sailors have drowned in the past, some with more years of experience than she has even had on this earth. This isn't always because they're careless or stupid or even drunk, it's because the sea is dangerous. It was dangerous a thousand years ago, and it will be dangerous in another thousand years as well. I'm not so sure it would've been any LESS dangerous if she'd had her mommy, daddy, and teddy bear with her.

And even if it was the stupidest, most asinine thing for any child to ever do - get a grip. If you think she's not old enough to make this choice, then she's REALLY not old enough to die as a punishment for her bad decisions.

Comments

[redbird]

One thing I ran across is that apparently her brother did more or less the same thing at about the same age; boys are allowed, even encouraged, to take risks that girls aren't, even when the physical factors are the same. (Yes, some girls might have trouble handling a sailboat; so might some boys. Nor is this a case of a 12-year-old girl and a 19-year-old boy.)

Had her brother had a mast break in a storm, I wonder how many of those commenters would have thought kidnapping and rape was the appropriate punishment for him.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

"Her rescue was relatively simple because her emergency signal was still working."

There ya go. A simple rescue without even a search, because she was properly prepared for an emergency. The only reason it cost so much is because the ocean in that part of the world is so vast.

So she's 16, so what? Hello, Robin Lee Graham (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Lee_Graham) was 16 when he set out to sail around the world alone. But yes, the sea is dangerous; the weather is not always predictable even for the shrewdest weather eye and the best tracking technology. Maybe a more experienced sailor wouldn't have set out on that day in that boat. Then again, maybe a more experienced sailor would have figured she was experienced enough to handle the weather she saw coming.

Easy to second-guess, especially by people who've never sailed any kind of boat, least of all that kind of boat in those particular waters, and therefore have zero qualifications to judge her seamanship. It sounds as if those who actually rescued her are saying yes, it was reckless of her to be out in those waters, but she handled herself correctly when she got into trouble.

If she'd been a boy, they would be rebuking the recklessness, but at the same time excusing and admiring it, because boys are supposed to be foolishly bold. Girls get faint praise for boldness, and at that, only as long as they don't get into trouble. Once they do, it's all "shame on you, stupid girl, for daring to be bold", and the foolishness aspect is held up as 'proof' that girls are fools

I say Good on you, brave girl, for daring to be bold. Boldness is a good thing, even though boldness alone is a ticket for more trouble than you need. Add prudence and strategy next time - which may involve getting a better boat, better nav tech, and perhaps a few weapons - and success is more likely.

Still, pretty damn good for a first try.

Robin Lee Graham

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

... apparently had the same kind of trouble:


"After a shakedown cruise from San Pedro, California, to Hawaii, Dove left Ala Wai Yacht Harbor in Honolulu on Sept. 14th, 1965. Graham's first landfall was 14 days later at Fanning Island, a British-controlled atoll. His next planned stop was Pago Pago on the Island of Tutuila in American Samoa. A fierce squall demasted Dove and left her unable to reach Pago Pago. Under jury-rig, Dove set course for Apia on Upolu, Western Samoa. Five months later the repaired Dove sailed to Pago Pago to wait out the hurricane season."

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

I second the "because she's a girl" part. Very young men -- fifteen or sixteen -- do this kind of thing and the news reports just talk about how great it is, and nobody calls it stupid. Shitheads were talking about how the whole thing must have been a stunt to get a reality show because obviously a young woman wouldn't possibly do a thing like this on her own. What the hell is it anyway -- it's like the days when women couldn't (were incapable of) give speeches, so if they did it was rationalized as well, they were in a trance and had a male spirit guide and he was doing the talking.

[conuly]

Some of them do seem to think that the fact her brother did this is proof that their parents are abusive "stage parents" (or whatever you'd call it for sailing) and should be punished, preferably by having her die and their remaining children taken away.

[conuly]

Some people were bitching about the fact that her brother did the same thing, and her parents should never have allowed that either.