What Were Her Parents Thinking?

What Were Her Parents Thinking? was Originally Posted on June 11, 2010 by lavarock

Ok, so this 16 year old girl tries to sail around the world, alone. her mast breaks and she is adrift on the open seas. The A.P. news item says that people are asking “What her parent were thinking” to allow her to sail alone.

Her parents say she was prepared, a great sailor and that her brother did a similar trip when he was her age.

There is a 13 year old boy who just scaled Mt Everest.

But what about this sailing? Is it unique or dangerous? Yes, but does the following sound familiar?

In 1965, 16 year old Robin Lee Graham sets out from Southern California, travels to Hawaii then Fanning Island and soon, his mast breaks. He limps to Western Samoa, repairs the boat and heads on, exploring as he goes. He eventually changes boats and arrives in California in early 1970. I told you he was not in a hurry! In all it was 1738 days.

The story was carried in National Geographic and in the book “Dove”. I thought the book was better than the movie (starring Joseph Bottoms).

If you go to Wikipedia and look up Robin Lee Graham, you will also see a list of other recordholders who at young age, sailed around the world. I looked up another sailor (Brian Caldwell from Hawaii) who was quoted as saying “I was rolled by a big wave in the Indian Ocean, I was almost run down by a supertanker. I encountered a lot of storms, especially around South Africa. But nothing that unexpected. It’s a given on a circumnavigation.”

Sometimes I wonder if we coddle our kids too much. I know we have to use common sense, but I have to question things. At age 13 or 14 I would get on planes and trains going back and forth to private school. Yet I know of kids who are considerably older than that who have never done any traveling, don’t make decisions on their own and so on.

Yes, times are different today that they were when I was a teen. Back then we did not have instant communication (unless you had access to a payphone and lots of quarters). Kids today have phones with GPS built in. Parents can track their kids on a map (just like they do on C.S.I.). While people can get lost almost in their own backyard, we also can track people worldwide.

On Thursday I was browsing the Internet and happened upon a chart showing that the International Space Station would pass over my house in 2 hours. I grabbed my Ham Radio which has been unused since moving to Hawaii, set up an emergency power supply and made a quick antenna. I still had time to eat lunch and dashed out to see if I could hear the Space Station as it passed. There was no signal radiating down to me; however, had I set up another antenna and been more accurate in my preparations, I would have been able to transit a signal from my house, to the Space Station and back to my house. This process to talk to space would cost a couple hundred dollars for a radio and antennas (unless you make your own) and finally a license from the FCC (which I think is $7).

Back in October 2003 I wrote a blog about having a commercial satellite all to myself for a few hours. While most people won’t be able to do that, it IS possible!

That is all for now. Aloha!