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Thread: Am I alone?

  1. #76
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    Quote Originally Posted by Charlie Reals View Post
    Pat,
    I believe you would lose lol.
    Well, that's the required formula for any bet, isn't it?

    The average sailor wouldn't know how fast a carrier can go.

    I will share one experience (minus a critical detail). I was riding the Cruiser San Jacinto years ago. We were on Plane Guard for George Washington. I was in Combat and I could hear all the voice comms on the ship. One exchange went something like this:

    "San Jacinto this is George Washington. Going to XX knots. Request you stay in company, over."

    "George Washington, this is San Jacinto. Get real, over."

  2. #77
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pat Germain View Post
    Well, that's the required formula for any bet, isn't it?

    The average sailor wouldn't know how fast a carrier can go.
    I will share one experience (minus a critical detail). I was riding the Cruiser San Jacinto years ago. We were on Plane Guard for George Washington. I was in Combat and I could hear all the voice comms on the ship. One exchange went something like this:

    "San Jacinto this is George Washington. Going to XX knots. Request you stay in company, over."

    "George Washington, this is San Jacinto. Get real, over."
    Ya know Pat you are correct.I will say though, You were in a far different Navy than I was in. I stood my last QD watch in 1969. Back then any sailor could tell you most if not all of the data on the ship they lived on. Not today! Sad. At the same time, back then there were only two ships in The Navy that were nuke.
    I did hear back from my source on the Big E. He say's she's fast but not that fast. He is in what we referred to as the "black gang" or ships propulsion . I think that takes him outa the realm of "average sailor" on this one. I was a BT from the bunker fuel days.
    Oh well, after fifty years the bet still goes uncollected by either side.
    Charlie

  3. I try not to judge other people, especially when I don't know the facts and circumstances.
    Out of circumstantial necessity, I was doing things from age ten that most folks never do in their entire lives.

  4. #79
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    Check out the Abernathy boys from Frederick

  5. #80
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pat Germain View Post
    .The average sailor wouldn't know how fast a carrier can go.......
    I'm not as knowledgable as the average sailor, but I have had anecdotal conversations with a few former members of USN. The information I gleaned from those is pretty basic - whatever they publish as "top speed" ain't nearly at the true number. So when they publish "30kt" I say "BS". Don't want them Rooskies to have the real numbers (right - like they don't know already).
    When I started woodworking, I didn't know squat. I have progressed in 30 years - now I do know squat.

  6. #81
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    When I was 16 all I did was drink and take drugs and screw up. A little time on a boat might have done me some good...or gotten me killed. Yeah, probably the latter.

  7. #82
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    I'm late in this so I may be completely out of tune with what's being said...

    I met a fellow once who was doing the drywall on one of the houses I built (he was in his early 20s when I met him) that at the age of 12 sailed a boat from eastern canada to england and! then on to australia. He did it on his own. He said he'd been sailing since he could walk. The short story is, is his dad and he were to set out from canada and sail to england. But his dad had other ideas and said to him at the dock that it was his to sail - on his own. Apparently he kept saying to his dad that he was ready to do it... so his dad said ok. He told his son that he'd be waiting for him in england. He did that voyage back in the 80's so he truly did it on his own - not like the aussie girl or american girl who had all but the ability to let someone log in and sail the boat for them... The second leg was to australia. The father was there but he did nothing to help (the son said he literally did nothing but eat). I suspect that there are hundreds that have done it but like this fellow no one knows of them... because they felt there was no need to make a media spectacle out of it.

    A side note to this is he and his dad have spent their lives sailing the ocean. They only return to canada to make enough money to go back to where ever the boat is in storage to get back on the sea - what a life!

    I have no problem with the young wanting to climb every mountain... It's part of what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom; along with sheer ignorance! Sometimes they succeed and sometimes they fail... What's for curtain you can't stop the young from dreaming and the few that act on those dreams. I say let them have it.
    Sent from the bathtub on my Samsung Galaxy(C)S5 with waterproof Lifeproof Case(C), and spell check turned off!

  8. #83
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    Well this has been an interesting thread, I have never done around the world sailing but I have been offshore quite a bit and while one plans when one can, you never know what mother nature will send at you. But,there are times when you don't want to be in a particular place if you can and trip planning is important. However, we really don't know the motivation behind that decision so much of what has been said here is speculation

    Here's another perspective

    http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/06/1...nts/index.html

    Jay

  9. #84
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    Quote Originally Posted by John Shuk View Post
    The news that a 16 year old girl was missing in the Indian Ocean while attempting to sail solo around the world made me a little angry. (She has been found to be safe)
    Recently a 13 year old climbed Everest.
    I'm sorry. What is wrong with these parents? These kids just aren't old enough to make these kinds of decisions for themselves.
    I resect their abilities and applaud the dedication they show in rising to the levels that they have.
    That said, these are dangerous treks with often fatal outcomes for many who undertake them. A child who isn't even old enough to consent to a legal contract, for good reason, is not capable of making a decision to engage in life threatening activities.
    Again I respect and admire the spirit of these kids but I condemn the parents for allowing the kids to seek out these world record feats and face the most extreme adversity that this planet has to offer. Mother Nature will not spare them just because they are kids.
    What do you think?
    I am a diehard libertarian. People should do whatever it is they want to do as long as it isn't harming anyone else. If these things are what these parents and children are choosing to do, more power to them. If bad things happen, they will be responsible for it. Whats to get mad about? Its not like they are kidnapping other peoples' children and putting them in danger they are not prepared for. Kids can get killed riding their bikes down the street, yet I see many children on bicycles... Can't live life bubble wrapped and stuck in a closet for safe keeping. Would I send my kids off in a sailboat around the world? If they trained hard and I was confident in their abilities, why not? As I get older, I'm actually realizing that age doesn't necessarily mean wisdom or higher skill levels or abilities.

  10. #85
    Quote Originally Posted by Jay Knoll View Post
    However, we really don't know the motivation behind that decision so much of what has been said here is speculation

    Here's another perspective

    http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/06/1...nts/index.html

    Jay
    I read the article... life is more complicated now than it was in Melville's time, or Lindberg's days or in the 1800's.

    We've got better ways to teach kids than to send them off to a farm or factory at 12. We've got protective services that will come and arrest parents for letting their kids climb cliffs in national parks, or roam the streets at night, or drink a single beer in public. We remove playground equipment that's to hazardous to climb on but was perfectly fine 20 years ago. Families have about 1.9 kids these days, not 5 or 6 or 7 and we don't loose a few to disease or farm accidents or in car accidents like we used to.

    The uproar over this stunt (and until it's shown that she had to sail to Australia for a loaf of bread, it was a stunt) is understandable when the people squawking about it know full well that they can't let their own kids ride in a tank of an SUV without a seat belt for fear of being fined or jailed.

    I think we do know the motivation. She wanted to do what she knows how to do and the parents calculated the risk that they might loose a child and then let her do it simply for the value of having attempted it at best, and the loss of her life at worst.

    The upside.... 15 minutes of fame and a few thousand dollars from the book deal. That's enough, apparently.
    .
    "I love the smell of sawdust in the morning".
    Robert Duval in "Apileachips Now". - almost.


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  11. #86
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    Just a word of caution here.......

    Leave politics out of this discussion. Please and Thank You.
    Thanks & Happy Wood Chips,
    Dennis -
    Get the Benefits of Being an SMC Contributor..!
    ....DEBT is nothing more than yesterday's spending taken from tomorrow's income.

  12. #87
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    We don't criticize or judge parents that allow their attention deficit children to get a drivers license on their 16th birthday.

    This was a family decision. We may not have to like it, but for our own good we should respect it.
    Measure twice, cut three times, start over. Repeat as necessary.

  13. #88
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    Quote Originally Posted by paul cottingham View Post
    Fair enough. I still believe we have turned teens into china dolls who need to be protected from themselves instead of trying to make them into independent autonomous people.
    Good point. It wasn't that long ago that 12 was considered prime marrying age in this country and in Europe. Age is an attitude, not a disability or handicap. I know plenty of 30 somethings that don't have the smarts to find their own backsides with both hands and a roadmap. Life comes with risks. The 16y.o. who went sailing could have been attacked by predatory individuals sure. That could also have happened in her own home right here in America. She could have run into a worse storm that capsized her boat and drowned her. She could have been hit head-on by a drunk driver right on the very street she lives on, here in America.

    So, to all you doom and gloom naysayers, what's your point? Who pays for the fire dept. to come put out your house when you screw up? Who pays for the paramedics to cut you out of your crushed car when you screw up?
    Way to easy to sit home behind your computer and point accusatory fingers at others when you have no clue as to "the rest of the story" now do you?

    Life is risky. People learn and discover new and fascinating things by stepping outside the box and trying something that the nay sayers said couldn't be done. If mankind had listened to the nay sayers for the last tens of thousands of years. we'd still be living in caves and trying to figure out what that loud noise and bright light was that made fire.

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