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Because I always do regret shooting my mouth off when I suspect, or in this case, have been told that there are more facts coming. But I can’t help it…my mouth is like Old Faithful: predictable, noisy, and messy. And one day the supervolcano under it is gonna blow and tear the western half of the US up like kleenex.
I came late to this story: Eric and Charlotte Kaufman and their two very young daughters had to be plucked from the ocean last week when one of the girls developed vomiting and a fever. It took “skydiving National Guardsmen, three federal agencies, a plane, a frigate and scores of personnel” to rescue the family. I’m sure someone has tabulated the cost of this undertaking and I’m sure it’s massive.
The Kaufmans have now asked on their own blog that we withhold judgement on the wisdom of hitting the high seas with very young kids. They tell us that seafaring families go back decades, and justify the venture by saying “We have been happy with the maritime life we have been able to share with our daughters. Even as we write this, several other boats are crossing the same stretch of water that Rebel Heart was on, with families who seek to show their children the world”
After some consideration, I have these thoughts on the situation:
– I can’t imagine details that would mitigate this. The Titanic proved that no boat is unsinkable; no seas are eternally calm; and even if your children are in perfect health, any one who has ever parented a young child will assure you that preschoolers are always either feverish and puking, about to be feverish and puking, or just getting over being feverish and puking. Even when I was a stay at home mom, when we walked into an urgent care the staff yelled “Norm!” What kind of crazy person thinks they can get around the world in a sailboat with a one year old without this stuff happening?
Please do not try to tell me that if you feed a kid enough kale, or if you breastfeed ’em until they’re twelve they’ll never get sick. Because apparently they do.
– I am really glad that the Kaufmans have been happy on board their boat with their girls. It sounds fun. I would have dearly loved to travel the world with my kids. I would have, too, if I had not had an aversion to risking spending all my fellow taxpayers’ money on elaborate sea rescues.
In Arizona, we have a Stupid Motorists Law, which means that if you do something nutso like drive into a flooded wash and your car starts floating away and you need to be helicoptered out of the situation you have to pay the cost back.
I can appreciate wanting to get away from it all. I think if you do choose to remove yourself to the far reaches of society, but then elect to engage the might of the Pacific Fleet to save you from that choice, then you have lost the right to be smug about your ‘self-sufficiency.’
Note: I’m not commenting about whether it’s right to start a trip like this with small children. Hey, if you want to stick yourself on a boat with two little kids and no way to send them out back into the yard to play, that’s your issue, not mine. Just don’t make me pay for fixing it, okay?
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SAN DIEGO (AP) — A family lifted from a disabled sailboat hundreds of miles off the Mexican coast with their sick 1-year-old thanked rescuers and defended their “maritime life” in their first public comments since returning to land.
Eric and Charlotte Kaufman said in a blog posting that their children have been sailing on boats for a long time and that the “modern cruising family” dates back several decades.
The Kaufmans were on a round-the-world cruise with their 3- and 1-year-old daughters when the vomiting, feverish younger girl forced them to call for help.
The couple asked critics to reserve judgment and wait for more details. Without elaborating, they said there were many inaccuracies reported in the news media about their daughter’s health, their vessel’s condition and the “overall maritime situation.”
The Rebel Heart, the 36-foot sailboat that had been their home for seven years, is at the bottom of the ocean 900 miles off Mexico, sunk by rescuers because it was taking on water after losing its steering and most of its communications.
“We have been happy with the maritime life we have been able to share with our daughters. Even as we write this, several other boats are crossing the same stretch of water that Rebel Heart was on, with families who seek to show their children the world,” the couple wrote in a posting dated Thursday and titled, “twenty four hours back in San Diego.”
The couple thanked the 129th Rescue Wing of the California Air National Guard and the crew aboard the USS Vandergrift, saying, “We will remember them forever.” In response to unsolicited offers of support, they asked that donations be sent instead to That Others May Live Foundation, a nonprofit group that assists families of Air Force rescuers who die on duty.
A satellite phone ping from the sailboat on April 3 set off a huge rescue effort that involved skydiving National Guardsmen, three federal agencies, a plane, a frigate and scores of personnel. It also sparked a debate over parenting and the propriety of hitting the high seas with two young children.
When the family and their rescuers returned to California on Wednesday, sailors said poor visibility, winds of 10 knots and rough seas kept them from sending a rescue boat to the Kaufmans for hours. When they reached the family’s sailboat, 5- to 8-foot waves forced them to offload one person at a time. The effort took two hours.
© E. Stocking Evans 2014
Mom, Interrupted 
Alright; so when you plunk your kids in the back of the family truckster and head out on summer vacation, then get yourself into the kind of stupid trouble that requires full blown emergency service (or escaping over state lines before Child Protective Services catches up to you), are we supposed to bill you for whatever stupidity that caused you to require the help of dedicated resources YOU ALREADY PAY TAXES FOR?!?!
Hell, if that’s the case, I want all my damned property and sales taxes back; and I’ll just take care of myself, thank you very much. I’m sure an umbrella ‘stupid human tricks’ insurance policy would be a lot less expensive than paying to establish and maintain police, fire, coast guard, civil air patrol, and other search & rescue services that help make us a First World civilization.
While a sea voyage wouldn’t be my choice (I’m the guy leaning over the rail and feeding the fish my late lunch on just a slight 3′ chop, let alone giant ocean swells), people have been placing everything precious to them in the world in little better than open boats and taking to the open sea for tens of thousands of years. It’s what human beings do and that is why we are everywhere; and why nothing short of a global catastrophe can wipe us out (knock on wood).
For as far back as recorded history goes folks have tried to make it a little safer for mariners; and with the exception of the Spanish Armada that wrecked on the northern shores of Scotland; mercy is generally rendered with no questions asked nor just compensation sought of those desperate souls in need of aid.
If the compassionate consideration shown travelers as handed down to us from antiquity isn’t enough for your modern sensibilities then consider these folks went to sea with the very toddlers who might someday be paying your Social Security pension and Medicare costs. You have a vested interest here too and maybe you should be reimbursing these parents for the costs of formula, diapers, and Dramamine!
Ahem. These aren’t Cuban refugees, fleeing a Communist regime and running for their lives. These are people on a pleasure outing, essentially.
I stand by the Stupid Motorist analogy. The sheriff’s department is here to protect us and ensure our safety, and they do, even when we stupidly put ourselves in danger. And then they bill us for the stupid stuff.
I have no problem with the coast guard swooping in and saving these guys. I have a problem with paying for it while they blog about how nice it is to take to sea with their children. Those toddlers will never put into social security and medicare enough to pay that back.
So is it anyone who can afford a pleasure outing should be paying for their own rescue; or is it anyone stupid enough to take toddlers to sea should pay for their own rescue?
Are you suggesting the same criteria (whichever you decide) should be applied to other modes of travel?
By all first hand accounts these folks were experienced mariners who knew what they were doing and knew when to call for help when they needed it. Have you heard of anyone involved in the rescue asking for reimbursement?
Look I’d like to be able to do something that outrageous: but I’m not a trust fund baby, I don’t have a billion dollar idea to exploit, and I’m not likely to win the lottery; but I’m certainly not going to resent that someone else has. That young family was in American waters and for many reasons this country works hard to keep those waters safe; not just for pleasure craft; but for commerce, immigration, and national security. For these reasons and more the Coast Guard is out there looking for another opportunity to do their jobs. We already pay the bill for this service; and I’m willing to bet if these folks are able to buy a yacht and sail it around the world; they’ve already paid a lot more for that same Coast Guard than we ever will.
Obviously my attitude is at odds with the Arizona Stupid Motorist Law; and I admit, I’m surprised. I mean how stupid does it look when you watch someone drive right into a raging river; shouldn’t that person pay for their stupidity?
I’ve forded a few streams in my time driving back roads; and I’ve had to get out, take a look and wonder if I can make it in whatever vehicle I was driving. So far I’ve made every one; but in the back of my mind is the Stupid Motorist Law and I have to put that up against whether or not I can afford to stay on this side of the creek another week or two till the water goes down, find another way around, or go for it.
So then you might ask what was I doing on the wrong side of the creek in the first place; and with that question we’re on an even more slippery slope of who gets to decide what side of the creek I get to take my liberty on. Isn’t that when as young adults we rolled our eyes and told our parents not to worry about us. Conversely that’s where we as parents must sit back, wring our hands, and wonder whether the kids are ready to make these kinds of life and death decisions.
There are risks in life; and if you hazard getting out of bed in the morning then you assume them. Against these risks we collectively pay for emergency services. We shouldn’t have to pay for them again when they actually prove their worth. The Arizona Stupid Motorist Law is wrong and, if not repealed, I hope you’ll agree should henceforth be referred to as the Arizona Judgmental Nanny Law.