Talking About Adventure In Small Boats
WindTern
Member
Just read in Paddling.com an artcle about unmanned kayaks cost the us (the tax payer) billions searching for someone in an unmanned kayak. They have to asume that someone went over board. You can but a sticker for your kayak to have your name & phone number attached to your kayak for the Coast Guard or anyone else that may have found your kayak. I purchased one, they are only $2.00. Something I think we all should purchase.
WindTern
Member
WindTern wrote:
Just read in Paddling.com an article about unmanned kayaks cost the us (the tax payer) billions searching for someone in an unmanned kayak. They have to assume that someone went over board. You can buy a sticker for your kayak to have your name & phone number attached to your kayak for the Coast Guard or anyone else that may have found your kayak. I purchased one, they are only $2.00. Something I think we all should purchase.
WindTern
Member
I got attacked on the Water Triber Facebook page for posting this article for being fake news. Before anyone attacts me here, the article speaks for itself. My purpose for posting the article is in case your kayak or sailboat gets washed away, there is a ID sticker available for $2.00. I left the Water Tribe Face Book page because of it. I would prefer not to have to quit Water Tribe too. So if you have objections to the article, that's fine. Again, my purpose was to ID your water craft.
MisterMoon
Member
To be fair, you weren't attacked, the person who wrote the hyperbolic headline was. The article did not substantiate the 'billions' claim. I looked at the USCG budget online an their total SAR budget was $980 million. They aren't spending it all searching when unmanned kayaks are found.
THis doesn't mean you shouldn't put your name and phone number on your boat. Real problem, bad journalism.
MrMako
Member
WindTern, I was looking for that sticker and just bought it. The previous sticker on my boat was torn and needed to be replaced. Besides, if I can save the USCG a million dollars or so why not. My wife has orders to tell the Coast Guard when I go missing, that a Kennedy family member is with me. They have been known to even divert Ice Breakers for such searchs and spare no expense looking for a missing Kennedy. Thanks for posting!
WindTern
Member
MisterMoon, Thank you for your comments. The "hyperbolic headline" comment wasn't the one comment that unsettled me, although by that time everything was getting under my skin. If that would have been the first comment, I would have been alright. The first comment was "FAKE NEWS". Then several people went off on their own rant about the billons of dollars that the article claimed. Then I was getting Coast Guard budget numbers. I also got "Sounds like they just want to sell stickers to me," and, "A billion dollars to find one kayak, BS". What they didn't read or care to analyze was the very first sentance:
" Unmanned kayaks cause many problems: not only for the people who lost them but also for the US Coast Guard along with state and local authorities."
Even disregarding that, in a group setting like the Water Tribe, which I love, if I saw something that I thought was hyperbolic and wanted to comment on that, I would had said, "Hmm, that billion dollar figure seems awfully high, but I see the need for ID'ing your boat", not FAKE NEWS. But, maybe I'm too sensitive.
The bottom line is, it has unsettled me enough to not want to participate in anymore discussions.
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