Stupidity rewarded...

How to get famous in only 5 months..

From Sailing Anarchy

Ok so can someone please tell me how this happens. How do two wackjob, halfwit women who claim that they have been marooned at sea for five months completely dominate the news while an American entry, well half American, that just won the first leg of the Volvo Ocean Race get absolutely no play time?  Their story is everywhere, all over Facebook, all over print media and all over television. The other evening my (soon-to-be) in-laws were asking if I had read about their amazing rescue. Sadly I had and it’s an absurd story. For those who have missed it here are some high points:

Two women, one who supposedly could sail, and the other who had never set foot on a boat, left Hawaii bound for Tahiti on a 50-foot sailboat by the name of Sea Nymph. They also had two dogs on board. They claim that the first night out they endured Force 11 winds and giant seas but the Hawaii Met Office checked and there were no bad or even mild storms in the area on the day that they departed. Then somehow something happened to their mast and they were unable to raise the sails so instead of attempting to fix whatever was wrong with the mast, or shoring up the mast with halyards they just drifted, aimlessly, for five months, supposedly. The last time I checked Tahiti was almost due south of Hawaii but they were rescued 900 miles off the coast of Japan which, last time I checked, is to the north and west of Hawaii.

The two women claimed that they tried every day to get help but no one answered. They didn’t think to turn on their EPIRB because they thought that it was only for emergencies and that their plight did not amount to an actual emergency. What rubbish logic and what’s the story about how they survived an attack by 50-foot whale sharks. They don’t deserve any more ink so I am going to stop here. Suffice to say is that their story is so full of holes and so full of bad journalism that it should not be on anyone’s media.

Back to my original point. What have we become as a society where it seems that the stupidity of these women and their bogus story can so dominate the media and a story about the American’s on Vestas winning the first leg of the Volvo Ocean Race barely gets a mention. It’s no wonder the general public has a dim view of sailing as a sport. Even my (soon-to-be) in laws at 87 years old mentioned that they thought that the news story didn’t quite add up.

And furthermore, does anyone even know that one of the most iconic offshore ocean races is due to start this weekend from France? Thirty eight boats will be competing in the Transat Jacques Vabre race from Le Havre, France to Salvador in Brazil. Hundreds of thousands of spectators will visit the race village before the fleet sets sail on Saturday.

A little to their south – and an hour earlier – the second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race will depart from Lisbon bound for Cape Town, South Africa. Two major sailing stories and barely any coverage while these two dimwits dominate with their rubbish story. Ok I know I said that I wasn’t going to give them any more ink but they claimed that they were “24 hours from possible death” when they were rescued and that being rescued was the “most exciting” day of their lives. They certainly did not look like they had suffered any hardship and the boat looked perfectly fine. I hope that someone digs deeper into this and gets the real story out before the bloody book deal is done and movie rights sold. And someone please rescue the two dogs before they are subjected to another ordeal at the hands of these idiots.

– Brian Hancock