Evanston: crying
Evanston: crying
An article yesterday in the NY TIMES headed, ‘Kayaker Aborts Solo Pacific Voyage,’ caught my attention and led to my reading an earlier article this journalist wrote about the kayaker and watching an hour long documentary about a different man who died trying to kayak across the Tasman. The links are in the article.
Six to seven minutes into the documentary is the scene in which the Australian goes weeping convulsively out to sea. If you have an hour the entire documentary is worth watching.
I had a varied, but mostly negative reaction to all this.
The journalist does not have any real understanding of what he is writing about.
This guy blogged in the Huffington Post before he ever did anything? The Huffington Post obviously doesn’t understand either.
And how could a kayak voyage from California to Hawaii cost $70,000? All you need is a kayak, some paddles, a couple of months’ food and water, foul weather gear, and lots of sun screen and diaper rash ointment, which is cheap. I used copious amounts of Desitin while sailing CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE. $70,000?
I believe I recall from reading THE STRANGE LAST VOYAGE OF DONALD CROWHURST that Crowhurst lay in bed crying the night before he departed.
The two kayakers and Crowhurst played to the media; the media played back; and they got caught up in endeavors beyond their capabilities. Their failures were essentially failures of the imagination.
I don’t know why anyone would undertake a voyage, or anything else, that caused him to cry at the beginning. But then I am not an adventurer.
It might be claimed that the tears were due to fatigue and stress of last minute preparations. You know what I think about last minute preparations.
The Australian came close to reaching New Zealand. Not, I expect, as is claimed once in the documentary within sight of land, but within about thirty nautical miles. Toward the end of the documentary his widow insists belligerently that anyone who says he didn’t cross the Tasman “can get stuffed.”
I don’t think he crossed the Tasman.
Crying as you set out may be nature’s way of telling you you shouldn’t.
Saturday, January 5, 2013