Jessica B wrote:
On Thu, 27 Jan 2011 19:32:07 +0700, Bruce
wrote:

On Wed, 26 Jan 2011 12:45:51 -0800, Jessica B
wrote:

On Wed, 26 Jan 2011 20:07:49 +0700, Bruce
wrote:

On Tue, 25 Jan 2011 18:33:15 -0800, Jessica B
wrote:

On Wed, 26 Jan 2011 07:02:08 +0700, Bruce
wrote:

much snipped
Sorry, but I didn't understand even 1/2 of this. Maybe one should not
go sailing if you can't deal with the issues that come up, short of
being run over by a tanker or something?
Sounds pretty simple. Can you deal with a tsunami arrives with no
warning and kills some 5,000 people in your immediate area? A 60 MPH
squall that hits you at night?

Of course not. A couple of things occur to me. First, I thought a
tsunami was only dangerous near land.

The wave front may only be a few inches (or feet) high depending on the
depth of the water where you are.
But they can move at amazingly high speeds. I've even heard near supersonic.
So the amount of energy involved can be equally amazing.
Enough to roll your boat. Or bust off the keel.



If that's the case, then how
could it do damage to a boat that's sailing offshore? Second, it seems
like you should be able to handle high winds. Wouldn't you be prepared
for that? Why are you sleeping when there's a storm going on?


Believe it or not, sailing can be very tiring.
After a while the body is depleted and you just shut down.

Most of the boats abonded while racing are later found floating - intact.
They were abandoned because the crew was exhausted to the point of having
no other choice.

The crew is almost ALWAYS the limiting factor.

--

Richard Lamb
email me:
web site: http://www.home.earthlink.net/~cavelamb