Girl who braved 30-foot mid-Atlantic waves for hours dies

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Girl who braved 30-foot mid-Atlantic waves for hours dies
| May 7, 2015 | Updated: May 7, 2015 10:49am

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — A 6-year-old French girl who braved hours in the ocean with her father amid 10-meter (33-foot) waves after a yacht sank in the mid-Atlantic later died of hypothermia, Portuguese authorities said Thursday.

A French sailboat carrying a French couple and their two children sank after midnight, Portuguese navy spokesman Paulo Vicente said. It was one of four yachts that, separately, ran into trouble during a fierce storm about 900 kilometers (560 miles) south of Portugal's Azores Islands, the Portuguese navy said in a statement.

The mother and 9-year-old son climbed into the yacht's lifeboat and were picked up by a merchant ship.

The navy said a plane threw the father and daughter an inflatable lifeboat and they were rescued after dawn, but the girl later died.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Girl-age-6-dies-after-yacht-sinks-in-Atlantic-6248362.php

[lark]

1. Rest in peace, little one.

[Xipe Totec]

2. For Then

I want to die young at the end of the day
On the High Sea, with face to the sky,
When agony is but a dream far away
And the flight of my soul is a bird soaring by.

Let there be no sad tears as I draw my last breath,
at one and alone with the sky and the sea,
No sobbing, nor prayer, nor laments of death;
I only would hear the deep waves cover me.

To die when the bright glow of twilight is fading,
And catches the waves in its last net of light;
To be like that sun as its luminous shading
Expires and is lost in the arms of the night.

To die, and die young: before time has destroyed
The delicate fabric illusion has spun;
When life can still say:"I am yours," but the void
Of a final echo tells us death has won!

- Gossamer Stories,
Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera,
Translated by John A. Crow

[hedda_foil]

9. Thank you,, Xipe Totec, for this exquisitely written and gorgeously translated poem.

[Judi Lynn]

11. Thank you! n/t

[OnlinePoker]

3. The girl didn't have a choice

The parents were irresponsible in taking their 6 and 9 year old kids out on the open ocean like that. It's fine if you want to risk your own life, but don't drag your kids down with you.

[cstanleytech]

4. Oh give me a break. There is more of a chance that a kid will die in a car accident vs a boat.

[Xithras]

6. Sailing a on the ocean is generally safer than riding in a car.

My wife practically grew up on boats, and she and my father-in-law have had my children sailing ever since they were old enough to securely don a life vest. Accidents can happen anywhere, and good parents raise their children to balance risks and rewards. You risk death every time you climb into a car, but few people avoid cars over that risk because they understand that the odds of actually getting killed during any random drive are vanishingly small. It's fairly rare for modern sailboats to sink, and you're more likely to be killed on the drive TO the marina, than to be killed by having the boat sink beneath you after leaving the marina.

[L0oniX]

7. OFFS ...keep your kids out of the car then.

[aikoaiko]

5. Sad.

[Plucketeer]

8. "Their time was up" or "God called them home"

BOTH epitaphs are hominid BS to try and affix reason (and therefor, accountability) to someone's death. One can die at the moment of birth - or of old age - the result is the same and no one has he right to decide if whatever potential was missed was truly "lost". At age six, it's probably OK to surmise this child knew love. Lotsa folks who live to be much older never get to know what real love feels like.

[Beacool]

10. So sad when it's someone young.

Rest in peace, little angel.