Wednesday, July 16, 2014

And Baby Makes 4 - To Be Rescued

Parents who brought two toddlers along on their dream of a world cruise aboard a 36 foot sailboat are getting blistered in the media today. Mother, Charlotte Kaufman, expressed misgivings about taking her two daughters, ages 1 and 3, on the family Odyssey from Los Angeles to New Zealand in a 36 foot boat in her blog. After battling multiple storms and with 1 year old Lyra ill, husband Eric decided to pull the plug, so to speak, and call for help.

Most captains know if you call for help and it comes, it means the end of the boat. With no one left aboard, the boat becomes a hazard to navigation and is usually scuttled. That is what was done with the 36 foot Hans Christian, the Rebel Heart, the well built, ocean going sloop that had become home to the Kaufman family.





From the Kaufman blog


"We believe that most people lead lives of quiet desperation, and we have vowed to not let our lives end up accordingly. We want to squeeze out every precious drop of our existence together, because tomorrow maybe I’ll die, or Eric will die, and where will we be then?" Charlotte said in a letter to her critics published in the San Diego Magazine.






Charlotte continues, "We don’t believe in waiting for far-off “afters,” like after Eric gets a promotion, after Cora finishes kindergarten, after the girls graduate, or after we retire. No. Life is too short and too valuable to gamble on pushing your dreams off until later. We believe in going now, and doing it with gusto.

Many don't agree with the Kaufman decision to take two tots sailing on a major crossing. A relative, Charlotte's brother, 
James Moriset, said "the whole thing is nuts."  He claimed he saw the potential for all of the problems the sailing couple encountered.


Critics argue the rescue cost over $600,000.  This is a bill the Kaufman's won't have to pay, as it is time budgeted in training drills or rescue, whichever comes in first. One thing made clear, the couple was as prepared for the trip as one could be.  They popped the EPIRB satellite rescue device and both the California Air National Guard 129th rescue wing and the U.S. Navy responded.

Eric Kaufman said in his blog, "Rebel Heart allowed us to see ourselves for who we were. We learned what we really could accomplish. We learned that chasing down dreams and doing the impossible is actually quite possible, and not just for other people. We learned that we could be so much more than we thought. "


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