Environmentalists/Coffee Importers Rescued by USCG......

Happy New Years!

Here's the original article dated 12/27/07:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nb/bay/news/5405650.html

Here is the outcome of their*first delivery on 01/01/08:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5417936.html

Here's my favorite comment by a reader of The Houston Chronicle:

jjrg1802 wrote:
My hat is off to the Coast Guard as they remain impartial to the stupidity of those they rescue.

This story should be renamed: "Oil platform saves the lives of wacko environmentalists"

I'm ROTFLMFAO with the irony of this story.

A synopsis:

Eco-Hippies riddled with guilt over burning fossil fuels kludge together a half-baked plan to go into business selling "carbon neutral" coffee shipped via sailboat.

The result:

Tens of thousands of gallons of diesel and aviation fuel are spent in the process of rescuing these people from their ship and ultimately from themselves. The helicopter used so much fuel that had to refuel at an earth exploiting oil drilling platform. Blimey!

The outcome:
Additional fuel will be needed to tow their boat to shore. The coffee more than likely is ruined. If its salvageable its definitely not sellable as carbon neutral! Dog will require multiple sessions with a pet psychologist. The humans are beyond help. Evil Big Oil saves the day as it provided the life supporting evil petroleum products to the eco-weenies and their heroic rescuers.


-- Edited by dougd1 at 19:53, 2008-01-02

I am laughing my ass off! Did they ever wonder if their boat could even safely carry 10,000 pounds of ANYTHING???? For pete's sake, it's a pleasure boat! Dumbasses!

I was reading through all the comments on the story at the Chronicle web site. HILARIOUS! Here's one that's especially funny. This is the mindset of a lot of sailors...the second sentence says it all! Hahahahahaha! Right.... I love the story of how a* mysterious, unknown storm formed right atop them, to their surprise. Nobody told them about it. Geez.
______________________________
You just never know. I'm sure Captain Joe Butcher knew what he was doing or he would have never taken the trip. They were coming from Belize so you are talking about a 3-5 day sail. Me, my husband and our 17 year old son were coming home from South Padre Island last Memorial Day and experienced something very simular. We had 2 days of gorgeous, clear, cool weather and out of nowhere, and I mean nowhere, the worst storm hit us. I barely had enough time to get the Chess Board put up and everyone tethered in properly before we hit 20 foot waves and 50MPH winds. It was very scary. The weather channel had not mentioned the storm on the Radio nor had we heard it on the news that morning. Of course once it started, it was all over our radio. We made it back safely after battling for 12 hours (we were 175 miles offshore) and then had to battle it onland. We had a Beacon (the radio that calls the coastguard) but it is only to be used for Emergency's. We were scared to death but our Captain (my husband) had it all under control. Captain Butcher probably pulled his Beacon when his boat started taking on water. This is not a something you use just because you hit a storm. A true Sailor knows how to sail his boat and a true Sailor wouldn't have taken the trip unless he was experienced. Point is....the Sea can work with you or against you...you better know how to treat her before you take her for a ride!

Yep....I mean, who knew about this cold front....it was a total surprise!!!

we hit 20 foot waves and 50MPH winds

Always the problem on thin water, off soundings they would have been 1/2 that hight , unless it blew for days!


-- Edited by FF at 10:25, 2008-01-03

Good to know there are folks out there boating who rely solely on the Weather Channel or the morning news for their marine weather information.

FF wrote:

we hit 20 foot waves and 50MPH winds

Always the problem on thin water, off soundings they would have been 1/2 that hight , unless it blew for days!


-- Edited by FF at 10:25, 2008-01-03

Click to expand...

Or, as is usually the case, they were really in about 5-8ft waves but their lack of experience(along with fear and panic) *pegged the waves at well over 20ft......when the buoy 20 miles from their location was reading 7ft.

PS....the middle of the gulf is well over 10000ft....not terribly thin.


-- Edited by Baker at 22:01, 2008-01-03