It was with a heavy heart that I learned in Atuona of the fate of Rebel Heart, one of our fellow kid boats who was also making the Pacific Crossing from Banderas Bay to The Marquesas. One of the girls was sick and they had some issues with the boat, so they were rescued at sea and Rebel Heart was scuttled. Thankfully, everyone was OK. But imagine my surprise when I do an internet search and the first article in the list is one whose focus is describing how they are being criticized for putting their family in “danger” and how they should have to pay for the rescue. Seriously?
I’ll address both of these points separately, starting with what careless parents they must be for taking their children to sea. There’s a general aspect to this and a specific one, and I can really only comment on the general one, and that is, I think it is absolutely appalling that people who know nothing about sailing or cruising rush to judgement about what a risk it is. What they are really saying is that it is unfamiliar to them, and it is potentially dangerous, therefore the risk must be unacceptable. Meanwhile, other dangerous activities have acceptable risk, simply because they are more familiar, like driving on the freeway. Many, many, people cruise on sailing and motor vessels all over the world. Many with families. Educate yourself before you judge. The specific aspect of this I cannot really comment on. Whether or not someone is taking undue risk crossing an ocean with their family has everything to do with the readiness of the crew and the seaworthiness of the vessel, and I didn’t know Rebel Heart well enough to make any sort of judgement here. I read online some people have read their blogs and have made specific criticism and it is based on those that they make judgements about the risk they took. That, I can understand. My point above is that people who know nothing about it make snap judgments that sailing across an ocean with your family is unacceptable because they hear about rescues.
The other point I’d like to address is that people have been saying that they should pay for the rescue. This is absolutely ridiculous, in my opinion. That’s just not how we’ve developed our rescue agencies in our society. People don’t pay the fire department directly, even when it is their fault their house catches on fire. Perhaps it would be a noble thing to do across the board to issue judgements when people are rescued and if it can be proven their negligence was the cause they should have to foot the bill. But is this really practical? If the purpose of this is to save taxpayer money, it probably defeats the purpose, because now you’ve introduced a whole layer of bureaucracy with its price tag along with it. And then just like our judicial system you run the risk of bad judgements being made, and people unfairly judged negligent and having to pay. Who should get to be judge? When people are rescued, it is a tremendously traumatic event, is this something we need to put people through afterward?
Like I said, I can’t comment on the specific readiness of Rebel Heart, and neither can a lot of people, but that doesn’t stop them from commenting. But no matter what, my heart truly goes out to them because I would not wish what they have had to go through on anyone.
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Gresham Family Exodus 