Religious family abandons US, gets lost at sea

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Religious family abandons US, gets lost at sea

GREG MOORE | August 10, 2013 06:35 PM EST AP

PHOENIX — A northern Arizona family that was lost at sea for weeks in an ill-fated attempt to leave the U.S. over what they consider government interference in religion will fly back home Sunday.

Hannah Gastonguay, 26, said Saturday that she and her husband "decided to take a leap of faith and see where God led us" when they took their two small children and her father-in-law and set sail from San Diego for the tiny island nation of Kiribati in May.

But just weeks into their journey the Gastonguays hit a series of storms that damaged their small boat, leaving them adrift for weeks, unable to make progress. They were eventually picked up by a Venezuelan fishing vessel, transferred to a Japanese cargo ship and taken to Chile where they are resting in a hotel in the port city of San Antonio.

Their flights home were arranged by U.S. Embassy officials, Gastonguay said. The U.S. State Department was not immediately available for comment.

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Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20130810/us-lost-at-sea-religion/

[TheCowsCameHome]

1. Wasn't Moses available?

[Link Speed]

2. Why didn't God simply make it happen?

I just don't get it.

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. There's your sign. n/t

[Warpy]

6. You nuts? Gawd wouldn't do that to his people!

Those storms had to be whipped up by the devil and his demons, dontcha know.

[rug]

4. I'm glad they're all right.

This small family could easily have encountered disaster.

[cbayer]

8. Based on the information available, they are very fortunate to have survived.

And with an infant.

I'm not sure whether they were unprepared or just had some really horrible luck, but their relatively positive attitude after going through all this is pretty impressive.

While I don't agree with their religious beliefs, that is such a minor part of this story, imo.

They are humans and they could have perished.

[lumberjack_jeff]

9. I would be interested to read more about the sailing part of their story.

The article linked in the OP is pretty superficial. Passagemaking can quickly become a survival situation for even the well prepared.

[cbayer]

11. Me, too and I am sure that more will become available.

If they had not made a big trip before, this seems poorly thought out.

They left while the window was still open, but just barely.

But if they had enough provisions for 2 months, that's pretty good.

[Autumn]

5. Talk about a sense of humor. That God sure does have one.

They are going home to AZ and going "come up with a new plan." HELLOOOOOO You trusted in God and you're right back where you started from. Maybe he's trying to tell you something.

[cbayer]

7. The bulk of the responses in this thread are sickening.

Let me know when any of you have attempted or made a journey like this, then maybe you can mock.

Wow.

[lumberjack_jeff]

10. The original article invites ridicule.

Among other things, it suggests that they couldn't navigate.

Eventually, their boat was spotted by a helicopter that had taken off from a nearby Venezuelan fishing vessel, which ended up saving them.

"The captain said, `Do you know where you're at? You're in the middle of nowhere,'" she said.

They were on the Venezuelan ship for about five days before transferring to the Japanese cargo ship, where they were for nearly three weeks before landing in Chile on Friday. The Chilean newspaper Las Ultimas Noticias reported the story of their arrival.

"They were looking for a kind of adventure; they wanted to live on a Polynesian island but they didn't have sufficient expertise to navigate adequately," police prefect Jose Luis Lopez, who took the family's statement at San Antonio, told the newspaper.

I would like to read more with a little less emphasis on their religious and political beliefs and more about the events that led to their need for rescue.

[cbayer]

13. Well, I don't agree that it invites ridicule.

More information is needed as to how much they could and not control things.

Admittedly there are some really naive people that really don't have the what they need for a trip like this, but then again, some really experienced sailors have gotten lost at sea and had to be rescued.

I just find mocking them because they are religious really juvenile.

[lumberjack_jeff]

14. I don't disagree with the last sentence.

But if I'm at sea, and someone asks "do you know where you are?" and the answer is anything other than "yes", I think I'm inviting ridicule.

Particularly on a cloudless night, in the age of GPS and especially if I answer using any combination of the words "adventure", "rescue" "providence" and "God".

Certainly there are many experienced sailors who require rescue, but I dispute that any of them are "lost".

[cbayer]

20. I don't want to be in the position of defending these people, who I suspect

were woefully unprepared for this trip.

I do, however, think the whole thing is tragic and object to the ridicule.

We are all good.

[ann---]

28. We may all "be good"

But, we all don't do good things all the time. Risking the life of an infant because you think the USA doesn't give you enough religious freedom is FOOLISH. It was not a well thought-out plan, just done in spite and fortunately for the baby, they were rescued. Hope they learned their lesson.

[ann---]

26. It certainly does invite ridicule

Not their getting lost but the idea they would have to leave the USA in order to have religious freedom. I guess their "god" showed them. If you want to survive - STAY HOME. It's not so bad.

[Xipe Totec]

15. They were abysmally stupid. Beyond comprehension or redemption

They endangered themselves and their child needlessly.

They could have flown there on commercial flights.

This is not about facing unavoidable perils. This is about being mindlessly delusional.

[cbayer]

21. You have nothing to base that on at all.

People make passages like this all the time and they do it with children.

They may have been totally unprepared and all of the things you say, but that information has not been made available as far as I know.

Sailors don't sail places because there are no flights.

Do you know any cruisers or anyone who has just made a long passage?

[Zoeisright]

36. Oh bull SHIT.

"People make passages like this all the time"..

Uh huh. Show me some links, dear, of the idiots who set out in a boat by themselves and safely got where they're going. Because you're blowing white smoke.

[cbayer]

38. Really? Do you not know any cruisers?

We are about to move our boat from Southern California to the British Virgin Islands.

Zoe is wrong and apparently knows absolutely nothing about cruising.

Call me surprised.

[okasha]

18. Good thing this wasn't yet another story

of a couple dozen Yucatecans found dead of heatstroke and dehydration in the desert. Some of the posters on this thread would fucking rupture themselves laughing.

[cbayer]

22. Yeah, I know. It's freaking hilarious when believers go through something really bad.

True colors

[trotsky]

25. They went through something bad...

THAT THEY COMPLETELY BROUGHT UPON THEMSELVES.

It was utterly stupid, and criminally reckless to subject their children to that risk.

I don't know how you can stomach defending such horrible behavior.

[2ndAmForComputers]

29. I know how.

Can't say, though.

[cbayer]

30. Oh, go ahead. Say it. You know you want to.

[rug]

31. Lol!

[cbayer]

32. Did you catch this one?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1218&pid=90784

Seriously -

[rug]

33. No, but

I . AM . NOT . SURPRISED !

At least he didn't call you a republican troll.

[cbayer]

34. That's not big and bold enough, rug. He wins.

Get with the program.

[rug]

35. I'm crushed.

[2ndAmForComputers]

47. No. YOU want me to.

[cbayer]

48. Why beat around the bush, 2ndAM?

If you are going to make an accusation, why don't you just make it?

Why so coy?

[2ndAmForComputers]

49. Coz it's fun.

[cbayer]

50. It's fun for you to imply that I am a troll, that you have known it all along

and now have proof?

What kind of person has fun with that?

[2ndAmForComputers]

51. Where did I say such a thing?

Why are you putting words in my mouth?

[cbayer]

52. Sure. You obviously know you shouldn't, so I'm going to ask you not to.

Go have "fun" with someone else.

[Lordquinton]

19. I would never endanger children like he did

If I were attempting a journy like this I would actually prepare, not "Let god guide me" and endanger my wife and two children.

They survived, thankfully, therefore he deserves everything he gets. If they had all died this would be a terrible tragedy. I suppose he was just mentally ill.

[cbayer]

23. How do you know to what extent they prepared.

Believe me, if they were provisioned enough that they never ran out of food, they did some preparation.

There is an assumption here that if they mention "god's guidance" that they did nothing else, which is a false and prejudiced assumption.

People cruise with children all the time. As to your comment about your wife, that's just flat out sexist. Women and men sail as couple's all the time and women also sail with other women or completely alone. Your patriarchal position of needing to protect your fragile wife from the perils of the sea would enrage a lot of women I know.

And your comment about mental illness is equally offensive. The fact is that there is not enough information on what happened here to draw conclusions yet. But apparently not for you and others.

[Lordquinton]

24. Well, I read the article

You stretch and spin great lengths to make the argument fit your narrative, in one thread the person is obviously mentally ill, because you say so. In another they are obviously not, because you say so. How do you know they were prepared, aside from because you said so? The article says he was inspired by god's will to do it, and even if they had made it to the bay of wreaks (great destination) there is really nothing else they could have done, aside from being sent home by the people of the tiny island.

Really grasping at straws and going out of your way to to attack me personally, which is very rude, and uncalled for.

[Zoeisright]

37. No kidding.

Apparently rudeness and defensiveness are "Christian" values.

[cbayer]

39. You are making the assumption that I am christian and using it as an opportunity to smear me?

Once again, Zoe is wrong.

[hrmjustin]

40. Cbayer never said she was Christian.

And with due respect, you should not call others here rude here considering you can be very rude yourself at times.

[okasha]

41. Cbayer has said, several times, that she is not Christian.

I sympathize, since I've had to point out several times that I am not, either.

Apparently there are some posters for whom "Christian" and "atheist" are the only two possibilities.

Oh, wait. make that "fundamentalist Christian" and "atheist."

[cbayer]

42. And for those, if they like you, you must be an atheist.

And if they don't, you must be a christian.

It's about a narrow minded as it can get.

[okasha]

44. Most if not all of them don't like me.

For which I count myself fortunate.

[hrmjustin]

43. Yes sometimes people can only see two camps.

I hate when that happens.

[okasha]

45. Some people can't get past

their own linear left brains. I prefer linkages to camps.

[HooptieWagon]

53. They did run out of food.

They had only a couple of jars of jelly left when they were picked up.
It looks to me like they were woefully unprepared, and to bring young children along appears to be reckless endangerment.

[cbayer]

54. As more information came out on this story, I think what

you are saying was pretty much confirmed.

I did see the information on their provisions running out, but never did see any more information on whether they or their boat was prepared for this trip.

Rescues happen on pretty much a daily basis. The sexy part of this story was the religious motivation for the trip.

[HooptieWagon]

55. The religious factor has to be part of the story....

...since they brushed off their lack of preparation with "God will take care of us".
I still haven't read what size and make of boat they had, only that it was described as "small" which could mean anything.

[cbayer]

56. Agree, it was a part of the story.

After the initial splash of this story, I never saw much more.

Small could be ok. My questions would be whether it was seaworthy and whether the storms they ran into could have been avoided.

[HooptieWagon]

57. Nothing wrong with small, per se.

Trekka made the trip, and on around the world...only 20'. However, if the boat was too small to carry enough provisions for a family of 5, then size becomes an issue.
And size also becomes an issue if the boat is too big. Too big to prepare for trip (spend all their money on purchase), too big to adequately maintain, and too big for the crew to handle at sea.

[cbayer]

58. We once saw a man leave this harbor in a handmade boat

that was, bar none, the strangest thing we had ever seen. We were relieved to hear that 6 months later he had actually made it to Polynesia.

You can store a lot of beans and rice.

Boat choice for a journey like this involves a lot of variables. Personally, I would prefer a multihull, but they are expensive and have their own potential problems.

But that's just me. I've seen people take off in all kinds of things.

[HooptieWagon]

59. Many factors go in to "seaworthiness"

size, stability, strength...but ultimately it depends on the crew. In this case, the crew and skipper appear so ill-prepared and inexperienced, no boat would have been entirely seaworthy.

[cbayer]

60. Agree that crew plays a huge part, but

the captain has the ultimate responsibility. I would rather have a weak crew than a weak boat, though.

[djean111]

12. So good that they are safe!

But they picked a kind of bad place to go - the islands are being gradually overrun by the sea, are getting very crowded to the point that the government is suggesting orderly evacuation and a lower birth rate, and fresh water is running low. So maybe it was a sign that they did not make it there.

[dimbear]

16. The Biblical way of acting during difficult storms at sea involves casting lots to determine

whom God seeks to punish, and then feeding said selection to the fish. Surely they knew this simple truth.

[MrModerate]

17. "Something" was trying to send them the message . . .

That they're too stupid to survive without (incredibly expensive) help provided by (wait for it) their fellow humans.

Which they, of course, attribute to god.

Sigh. Still gotta save 'em — it's the decent thing to do.

[SummerSnow]

27. Oh so they hate govt interference but took a flight arranged by the govt back home.

LOL. I thought god was their co pilot? Seems as if god led them right back here.lol

[MellowDem]

46. Another good example of how faith is a dangerous way to think...

and can harm other innocent third parties, like your children.