Who Allowed This !!!???

[RANGER513]

Am I the only one who can see MAJOR freaking fraking red flags slapping people in the face here !!!?????

Allowing a 16 year old girl to attempt to sail around the world, in a pretty damn small boat, ALONE !!!????

I don't care how good a sailor she is, what kind of high-speed low-drag equipment she has, this is just plain STUPID !

Oh, sure, no problem. Here ya go, 16 year old daughter. Take the keys to my car and be sure to have 5 or 6 drinks before driving tonight, honey. Have fun !

Now, only God knows which and how many tax payers will get stuck with the MILLIONS of dollars spent on a rescue search. Hmmm, how about the parents footing the bill !!!!!!!!






(June 10) -- Abby Sunderland, the 16-year-old American attempting to sail solo around the world, is feared lost after all contact with her boat ended while she was 400 miles off the coast of Madagascar.

Two emergency beacons from her boat have been activated, her father, Laurence Sunderland, told AOL News. The activation of one of those beacons normally means the sailor is in the water or in a lifeboat.

"We're in the middle of orchestrating a full-on search and rescue for Abigail," he said.

Abby set sail from California on Jan. 23, according to ABC News. On her blog, she said she has dreamed of sailing around the world by herself since she was 13.

"I'm happy to do it alone," she told ABC News after setting out.

In a Wednesday entry in her blog titled "A Rough Few Days," she describes high winds buffeting the boat and damaging her Internet connection.

"By midnight tonight I could have 35-50 knots with gusts to 60," she wrote. "I am off to sleep before it really picks up."

Laurence Sunderland spoke to his daughter during the night, though contact was intermittent, he told AOL News. At first the family thought she had broken contact because she was charging the phone, but "there wasn't a call back."

Australian officials are sending a plane to look for Abby, Sunderland said.

When she began her round-the-world attempt, her parents acknowledged the risk but said that did not justify stopping their daughter.

"Could there be a tragedy ?" MaryAnne Sunderland told ABC News. "Yeah, there could be. But there could be a tragedy on the way home tonight, you know, or driving with her friends in a car at 16."

Not everyone took such a relaxed approach, however. T.J. Simers, a sports columnist for the Los Angeles Times, has said that allowing Abby to make the attempt was child abuse.

Filed under: Nation, World

[IEDmagnet]

Brother, I need not add anything to your statement other than when her body is never found, charge both parents with voluntary manslaughter and willful neglect.

My nine year old has to be supervised in my backyard. What were they thinking?

[hobbit]

That's too bad. I did some blue water sailing out of Ventura. Under those conditions all you can really do in a small craft is put up a storm sail, throw out a sea anchor (a piece of sailcloth that looks like a small parachute on a couple of hundred feet of highly flexible nylon rope that causes serious drag on the boat and keeps it stable as it rides peaks and troughs of big waves), then go buckle yourself in your bunk and ride it out for as long as it takes. I wonder if the kid had the presence of mind to take these precautions or if she was trying to take advantage of the wind to make some distance. I'll have to check out her blog. You guys are right though. Her parents need their asses kicked.

[rgrokelley]

I'm going to side with the parents. Over the decades we have all become sissies. If you look at the history of the United States you will see that most of those who did great things, started out incredibly young. However in recent years we have become more and more paranoid about what will happen if our kids leave their bedroom. So due to that, they don't leave the bedroom.

In my father's time, as a young boy, he would have roamed for many, many miles, most likely hunting and fishing, with no adult supervision at all. He would swim creeks, walk down the dirt roads and engage dangerous animals. All this was considered normal and OK for parents to do this.

In my time, as a child, I would have roamed within a couple of miles from his home, leaving the house after he ate breakfast and staying out until the streetlights came on. I would have played in the rain, taunted snakes, played mumbly-peg with a knife and carry pocketknives to school. This was considered normal.

In my child's time, now, they roam within a few hundred yards of the house. They have to make sure they have a cell phone and watch out for stranger children that they don't know. They can only be gone for a few hours, and must report back to let us know where they are. If they stay in the house and play video games we are content.

We have slowly gone from a roaming space of dozens of miles to just a few feet, and now want to prosecute parents for letting a teenage girl attempt to do what Columbus did when he was 14.

This world will need people who are not sheep. Shit happens. If she is alive (and there is a very good chance she is), she will be one of the 10% who have left the bedroom and forged herself.

[merlyn]

Some people shouldn't have pets or kids.
Oh darn, I just made a judgement call.
This situation seems to be pretty much of a
toss up with lots of pros and cons. Could we
possibly summize that its California? Darn,
I just did it again.

[BruteForce]

I am split on this one. On one hand, a 16 year old alone at sea is pretty frightening, but I also agree with rgrokelley.

I think I was more pissed about the new story about the dog grooming that's out of control.

[RRDTm3]

I am going to agree w rgrokelley, WTF did I just say? I think i just puked some in my mouth, but tis true. I agree w him

[Rangerguru]

She has made contact with her parents with her Iridium phone and rescue crews are enroute. Her shit got broke in some 30' waves.

[Flesh Thorn]

I have to agree with rgrokelley. If she had been living during my grandparents generation she probably would have already been married and raising a family.

[IEDmagnet]

Thank God she's ok...that is the number one. I agree that we shouldn't shelter out kids as much as most parents do. I also agree that in years past, no one would have thought twice about this. Is there really a need for me to point out the differences in the world from the time of our parents and grandparents? Do I think she should have been allowed to sail around the world at 16...absolutely! Our children need that sense of adventure and accomplishment. It'll only make them stronger. Do I think at 16 she should have done it on her own? Hell no. I'm all for the "stop babying the kids", "stop raising little whiners", etc etc... but there is a line. The goal is to raise responsible adults, but they have to make it to adulthood.

As for the voluntary manslaughter.... I was being nice.... I didn't say charge them with murder.

[IEDmagnet]

Maritime Law indicates that since she is in international waters we can comment if she is hot…………..

So....uh....what was the verdict.