Cheeki Rafiki

Those of you in the UK will have seen the news about the four missing yachtsmen. A petition has been organised to try to persuade air/sea rescue services (it seems the US coastguard has the resources) to resume the search.

The reason that the sailing community is being so vocal here is that there is a very real chance of survivors from the capsized yacht. Our son George is friends with and works with the younger yachtsmen in the crew and could so easily have been among them. We've been following the incident, therefore, with all kinds of mixed emotions - anger that the search was called off, anguish for the families involved, and a sense of thankfulness yet guilt for our relief that George wasn't among them. It's heightened too our concerns for George because he is at sea again this week. I don't want him to do an ocean passage now, not on a boat like this. When you're out in the middle of one of the great oceans and something goes wrong, you're a long way from help, in spite of all our modern technologies. A blog I posted today.

As I said in the blog, now isn't the time for recriminations, but a lot of questions will need answering over this incident. In the meantime I hope that someone, a ship, anyone, finds these men and finds them alive. The Atlantic is indeed a cruel sea.

My heart isn't in the blipping just now.