Profiles in stupidity

[Vegas Halo Fan]

Every time that I believe that I have seen the dumbest thing I can possibly see, I run across something like this. A man and woman from Colorado sold everything that they owned to buy and repair a sailboat, with the intention of spending the rest of their lives sailing around the world. Neither had any sailing experience. The man (26) and the woman (24) were "tired of the rat race".  After their obvious decades of dealing with it, one can understand why they did what they did.

Two days into their epic voyage, the boat capsized, leaving them with a grand total of $90. The boat was not insured, and they now face costs of around $10K for its recovery. They are now homeless, without jobs, and have no way to pay for anything. Unfortunately they aren't foreigners, so Trump can't deport them.

Couple who sold everything to sail around the world lost it all when their boat sank after just two days at sea

[cez]

"I’m not going to give up now," Broadwell said. "I’m going to get another boat down the road."

"We can’t just give up on our dreams," Walsh said.

[red321]

Wonder if those are the assholes who stole my gas cans and gloves from our campsite. Dicks. 

 

[ten ocho recon scout]

6 hours ago, Vegas Halo Fan said:

Every time that I believe that I have seen the dumbest thing I can possibly see, I run across something like this. A man and woman from Colorado sold everything that they owned to buy and repair a sailboat, with the intention of spending the rest of their lives sailing around the world. Neither had any sailing experience. The man (26) and the woman (24) were "tired of the rat race".  After their obvious decades of dealing with it, one can understand why they did what they did.

Two days into their epic voyage, the boat capsized, leaving them with a grand total of $90. The boat was not insured, and they now face costs of around $10K for its recovery. They are now homeless, without jobs, and have no way to pay for anything. Unfortunately they aren't foreigners, so Trump can't deport them.

Couple who sold everything to sail around the world lost it all when their boat sank after just two days at sea

Lol.... 26 and 24....

I hate to say it, but with the current climate, sounds about right.

The good news is rheyre too young to have sold much. And still by far young enough to be fine in a few months.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

12 minutes ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

The good news is rheyre too young to have sold much. And still by far young enough to be fine in a few months.

I wonder if their GoFundMe page is up yet.

[gotbeer]

3 hours ago, red321 said:

Wonder if those are the assholes who stole my gas cans and gloves from our campsite. Dicks. 

 

We call them meth heads where I go camping/prospecting on the East Fork of the San Gabriel River.  It's sad, because the prospecting guys really look out for each other, and other hikers out there.  

As for the OP.  You should be used to this type of story, of someone that will go to vegas after selling everything and put it on a red or black.  

[Blarg]

At one of the cancer support meetings I went to there was an older couple that just got back from a trip around the world on a 45' yacht.

They sold the house and bought this ocean ready yacht and after making a few southern runs to Mexico to shake everything out they hit the high seas. That was 10 years ago. 

Along the way after they had made Hawaii, Midway and were running the coast of Vietnam he was having painful urination. They docked and had it checked out at the local hospital but they had no idea what it was.

So they dry dock and pay to have the hull scapped and painted then fly back to the US to see a urologist that tells him he has bladder cancer in the early stages. So he goes through a strange procedure where they inject the bladder with dead tuberculosis cells and that clears it up.

They return, pick up the boat and continue on to Australia, New Zealand, up to India and just as they enter the canal he gets hit with it again. So it's back to the States for more treatment then back aboard and a trip to the Mediterranean, the islands of Greece, the mainland and over to Italy and it hits again.

So back to the States and this time it's stage 2, like mine was and he has to have the surgery. He opted not for the conduit (that's the collection bag) because it is a standard across the globe. Only about 5% of patients go with a neo bladder and to avoid any problems if they are in a foriegn land and no one has any experience with that most choose the conduit. He decided to chance it, they were living dangerous anyway.

After four months they are back on the seas and complete the tour of the Mediterranean and visit Spain, Portugal and the head south to Africa, cross to Argentina and did the crazy route and ran the cape instead if going north to the Pansna Canal.

Up the West side, through Mexico and the Baja Coast to a party in Newport Harbor with friends and three days later telling us about their travels. He was 58 when they left, 68 when they docked, sold the boat and bought a house. Their travel photos are better than anyone elses, visiting islands and docking off coastlines no cruise ships travel, meeting people and seeing stuff you never dreamed of.

It can be done. Just not by two dumbshits with no experience or brains.

Edited February 11, 2018 by Blarg

[Vegas Halo Fan]

13 hours ago, gotbeer said:

As for the OP.  You should be used to this type of story, of someone that will go to vegas after selling everything and put it on a red or black.  

There was one story about as homeless man who hit the top jackpot on Megabucks. I was thinking to myself, you have no money, you get a few bucks, and you drop it in a slot machine? Granted, the guy hit a one in a million-plus chance, but still.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

3 hours ago, calscuf said:

Out of curiosity, how much would the proper vessel cost for such a trip and what kind of experience would a person need?

I did a quick check and found this. This article also includes RVing across the US, so just ignore those costs. They are estimating around $100K to buy a boat and prepare the boat for the trip. That isn't supplies, food or any other incidentals, just boat prep costs. The boat that they bought had already made three round-the-world trips, so they knew that the basics were already there.

Sundowner Sails Again

We paid an initial cost of $30,000 for Sundowner in May-2010 and estimated another $30,000 in refit cost for a total cost of $60,000.  The estimated refit cost soon grew to $70,000 as costs typically do for a total cost of $100,000-ready to go offshore.  We have been doing everything we can ourselves only needing to hire outside help for things like the bottom job and crane use for the engine removal.  This has and will save us TONS!

From everything we’ve read and people we’ve talked to we decided that $3,000 a month was a conservative estimate and should cover all our cruising expenses including boat maintenance, insurance, medical visits, food, alcohol, pleasure, diesel and so on, We are also setting aside $7,000 for the passage through the Panama Canal.  So $115,000 for the sailing trip.

We initially estimated 3 years to complete the trip, although we are having thoughts of extending it to 5 years if we can be frugal sailors and live on about $1,500/month with some months costing more.

This is for a two-person trip, just like the one that our intrepid sailors struck out on with no money. They were fortunate that their boat capsized, otherwise they would have been found dead at sea, if they were found at all.

[ten ocho recon scout]

3 hours ago, calscuf said:

Out of curiosity, how much would the proper vessel cost for such a trip and what kind of experience would a person need?

 

Vegas pretty much answered the cost part. As for experience, i talked to an uber driver once who sails like 10 months out of the year. Some of the stories he told me were insane, near death things. And he had been doing it all his life.

Im betting these two kids assumed they would hug the coast and be fine. Simple, right?...

I have no idea what kind of money they had. But if they sold everything to buy the boat, leaving nothing for food/supplies, i dont get it. I assume they figured they could fish? But what were they planning to do when they got to these foreign places? Not like these other countries will have open arms to broke people, just because they made it there.

[ten ocho recon scout]

By the way, aside from thr C word part, @Blargs story was amazing.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

14 minutes ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

I have no idea what kind of money they had. But if they sold everything to buy the boat, leaving nothing for food/supplies, i dont get it. I assume they figured they could fish? But what were they planning to do when they got to these foreign places? Not like these other countries will have open arms to broke people, just because they made it there.

The article said that the boat wreck left them with $90. I am assuming that this is the sum total of what they were carrying.

Even if they were planning on fishing for food, what happens when the bait runs out? AFAIK, they hadn't prepared any sources of fresh water, either.

[Blarg]

3 hours ago, calscuf said:

The whole idea sounds awesome, but yeah, how scary is it crossing an ocean when there isn’t land for thousands of miles?  If something happens, you’re seriously fucked.  

The couple I talked to related some real hair raising stuff and they spent way more than $100k for the boat. When my father was into sailing 35 years ago his 33' Cheoy Lee cost $2k per foot delivered. Although it could be used for open ocean having a 3/4 keel, to outfit it then and now would cost some serious bucks. 

You need a global navigation system that is satellite direct, a self steering system so you can sleep, multiple sets of sails dependent upon weather, life raft, water purifier, the list goes on and on and you haven't scratched personal belongings. 

As for experience, day sailing off the California coast is not teaching you anything. Just about any doofus (not the two in the story) can run up and down the coast or to Catalina and back. 

Every year there is someone that finds a way to die out there or at the very least sink their boat but if you read up enough and keep safety first you probably won't fall over the rail and watch the sails dissappear over the horizon. 

Even in our calm seas (it's called the pacific for a reason) looping back to pick someone out of the ocean is tricky and you may just run them over or always be too far away. We used to practice in Dana Harbor before they put slips in getting in and out of a dingy and then in and out of a 23' Islander still then later moving. No place to practice that now. 

[ten ocho recon scout]

7 hours ago, calscuf said:

The whole idea sounds awesome, but yeah, how scary is it crossing an ocean when there isn’t land for thousands of miles?  If something happens, you’re seriously fucked.  

Exactly. Id love to sail (actually no, a powered boat) around the world. I love being out to sea. (If anyone on here has never done it, do it before you die.)

But the ocean is an unforgiving bitch. About the deadliest enviornment on earth if you dont know what youre doing, and still very dangerous if you do.

Heading out in a dinky 25 foot sailboat...with no experience...best thing in the world that could have happened to them was sinking so soon in, and so close to shore.

If they were too stupid to even navigate a channel, they just cheated darwin himself.

$90 dollars in spending money.... and they intended to spend their life out there...hardy har har....

[ten ocho recon scout]

7 hours ago, Vegas Halo Fan said:

The article said that the boat wreck left them with $90. I am assuming that this is the sum total of what they were carrying.

Even if they were planning on fishing for food, what happens when the bait runs out? AFAIK, they hadn't prepared any sources of fresh water, either.

Beat me to it. 90 bucks for two people...if you spent it all on bottled water, for two people, youd make it a few weeks at most...

I assume they had a water purifier. Ok..what if it breaks? 

How do they cook fish? Electric? Solar? Ok, what if that breaks?

Break it down to its its most simple. 90 bucks living out of an rv on land wouldnt cut it. You could camp, hunt and drink from streams maybe. But sooner or later something would come up.

But the ocean is a far different beast. Experienced people die at sea all the time...and these two had no experience?

[ten ocho recon scout]

Awhile back, i went diving out of mexico. On the day we were supposed to come home, a research boat from the discovery channel began taking on water, and we had to turn around to pick up their crew.

Not sure how bad it was. Maybe they could have waited for the coast guard to come get them. But if they were far enough out that no coast guard was around (as in 3-4 days out to sea), then what?

[Blarg]

They man the lifeboats and hope the distress signal was heard and their emergency beacon is working. Regardless after about five to eight days without water and they are probably dead. If they drink the seawater they die sooner. 

[Tank]

the thought of sailing the ocean on my own scares me considerably. i have zero interest in sailing around the world in this way.

book me on a cruise ship for a month at a time, and now we're talking.

[Jobu]

These two are gonna breed.

[AngelsLakersFan]

On 2/11/2018 at 12:05 PM, Vegas Halo Fan said:

There was one story about as homeless man who hit the top jackpot on Megabucks. I was thinking to myself, you have no money, you get a few bucks, and you drop it in a slot machine? Granted, the guy hit a one in a million-plus chance, but still.

What is it you think homeless people do? Invest in the stock market?

[Vegas Halo Fan]

34 minutes ago, AngelsLakersFan said:

What is it you think homeless people do? Invest in the stock market?

Buy food, maybe?

[AngelsLakersFan]

2 minutes ago, Vegas Halo Fan said:

Buy food, maybe?

lol

[Vegas Halo Fan]

I wasn't thinking of that angle. He probably got free comp drinks while he was playing Megabucks.

[ten ocho recon scout]

Ive been thinking of this story since yesterday. 

Ive been to sea a few times. Even in pretty controlled conditions ive almost died. And im pretty comfortable in the water, with a lot of experience. 

What these two idiots did is crazy. Lets say they didnt sink. They still had no money in their pocket...which is one thing if youre simply trying to survive..not start a new life. Eventually something essential would have broke. Anywhere they went for supplies (which again, no money) would have docking fees. What happens when the caught fish run out? And you break your fishing rod/reel? 

The main part is the no experience. Like i said before, they hit the lotto when they sank 10 minutes in.

 

 

[Jobu]

Well here we go:

 

Quote

The couple have since set up a fundraising page to cover the repairs.

The page was set up four days ago with a target of $10,000 (£7,000), but it has already raised more than $14,000.

"We lost every single one of our belongings with no insurance, but we all made it to land alive & we are not giving up on our dreams!" Ms Walsh wrote.