Aussie amateur sailor missing

[skuthorp]

Reported missing by his daughter, don't know why it took so long though.
64 YO amateur sailor of limited experience left Honolulu on June 5 in a wooden 12m yacht, Pasado Manana. No contact since, has not used any of his accounts. Gone I'd guess.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=342640

[seanz]

The Box Hill South man is said to have minimal sailing experience and told his daughter on June 5 he planned to arrive in Tahiti, Fiji or Samoa in two weeks.

from http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/01/07/1199554525038.html

That's a worry. Those islands aren't exactly exactly next door to each other.
Question for the experienced cruising types; When you clear customs as you leave port, don't you tell them where you are going to?

[Tom Hunter]

Even if you do tell them where you are going, they don't keep track of you, they just keep a form with a record on it.

Plus he could have said Fiji, Samoa or Tahiti, there is no law saying you have to pick one place.

Unless he is bouncing around small isolated islands he is gone, lack of food alone would do it. Too bad

[seanz]

The story just got sadder and weirder.......

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/yachtsmans-daughter-slams-search-efforts/2008/01/12/1199988647986.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

The missing man left port on June 5 and his daughter tried to report him missing on July 10. She got passed around various beaurocracies and it sounds like she has gone to the media out of frustration.
Australian Maritime Safety Authority says it did everything they could and it sounds as if they did but the search is not up to them because he's not missing anywhere near Australia.

[Tylerdurden]

I always figured when I went infirm or close to I would just sail out and slide over the rail at some point. Maybe that was the case here.

[Wild Wassa]

Much of the sea is a wilderness ... like about 2 miles off shore. In many places if one takes on travelling through a wilderness, self reliance becomes paramount. The rescue from a wilderness when the traveller is in difficulties is predominantly the responsibility of the wanderer. Not all wilderness areas have the same high level of first responders like in our territorial waters or on land. Failing to remain in contact with today's communication equipment is negligent. The daughter doesn't appreciate that.

There will always be casualties in the wilderness. I like how everyone else is being blamed for not doing enough when it appears that this chap did little, not even leaving adequate travel and route plans with possible options or contacting other boats on route. I read the newspaper 'Coastal Passage' it is a newspaper published for sailors. It is always stressing keeping in contact when cruising around the Islands. This missing sailor is only one of many who go missing each month and it is only in Coastal Passage that these people are even mentioned.

I was surprised to hear that Interpol were not interested in knowing that he was missing though. That does surprise me. Not that they could have done anything to facilitate a search around the Islands.

Knowing a chap, Peter Smith who has worked extensively in the Pacific islands as a surveyor, Peter has been trying to have local fishermen become self reliant, by teaching sailing, a lost traditional skill. Peter told me that there are no authorities who can help nor people on Islands with facilities to help anyone in difficulties.

These areas around the Pacific Islands and there are many small islands, remain very primitive by first world standards and even primitive by third world standards. Peter also told me about recent instances of canibalism on some Pacific Islands, that had come to the Australian authorities attention. With the steep increase in the cost of fuel, local fishermen who have put all into powerboats can't afford fuel and this has been causing major problems in communities. We complain about rising fuel prices but we don't hear Islanders complaining about starvation.

Canabalism, is probably the last thing the daughter wanted to hear. I draw the line at long pig and he would have had much expensive fuel on board that could allow an island's runabout to go fishing.

Coastal Passage has a website. It is the best leftist rag in sailing, it is always getting up the authorities about their heavy handed lack of responsibility and inept treatment of sailors. The unexpected stories for sailors are very interesting at times. http://thecoastalpassage.com/

Warren.

[Wild Wassa]

While we wait for the missing sailor to not turn up ... here is another story about a shipwreck.

http://thecoastalpassage.com/manzaris.html

Warren.

[Wild Wassa]

If you thought that last article was grossly unfair and left you all speachless ... and you might be questioning your authority's mentality after some of the recent US Coast Guard posts?

How do you handle Queensland? ... beautiful one day a marine police state the next.

http://thecoastalpassage.com/dangerous.html

Warren.