Baltic sea eats sailboats. The waves are steep and short. A lot of sailboats went in nose first and were flipped over up side down like toys. It's actually worst than open ocean when it gets nasty. Lake Superior in NA is similar way ate some big ships never mind sailboats.

This is Lake Superior at visual 30knots.





Baltic sea at visual 30knots. These are conditions that Jan had during the crossing.




Come on follow me on the pontoon.

Who the hell are all these guys bitching about his backup plan? He was crossing the Red Sea! Not the Atlantic Ocean!

Crossing the Red Sea with a boat following would be boring as hell. What would be the point? You'd have to be a major pussy to do something like that and tell anybody about it. Maybe okay to send a postcard to your grandmother, but not something to write your local paper about. Either do it or don't.

Jan was following in the steps of people like Amelia Earhart. And her failed rescue involved a lot more people and a lot more money. She died, he lived. But both were pushing the limits, going for the gold. Good for them. The rescuers were doing their job. Why else do we pay for and train guys like that? It's not as if they are rescuing kiteboarders every day. I wonder how many of the pussies commenting on this thread will ever need the help of the Coast Guard because they fucked up just mowing the lawn somewhere. At least, Jan was doing something!

Good job, Jan! Glad you survived to tell the tale!

lets not get carried away here.

for sure!!!

Hi edt,

I'm completely out of my mind? If so, thanks for pointing that out to me. Sometimes we lunatics are the last to know.

I can't comment on your initial numbers as you changed them.

If Egyptian and Saudi gas is costing as much as you suggest, I stand corrected. And if a small simple chase boat with a small 4 stroke outboard really only gets 1-2 mpg I again stand corrected.

On the other hand, I think that a 9.8 hp 4 stroke outboard on a small boat will use a gallon or 1.5 gallons an hour and will probably get 5-10 times the mileage you estimate. And a 200+ PWC at half throttle will get 4-10 times the mileage you estimate. Even if you double or triple what I'd guess for fuel, I think you could cross in under 40 or 50 gallons of fuel, and possibly in 15-20. Has fuel gone way up over there?

Anyway, you seem like you know quite a lot and I must be pretty stupid, but I think the cost is a lot closer to my estimate than yours. I also think that responsible people wouldn't be willing to endanger complete strangers to save a bit of money.

I'm guessing that in addition to being intellectually superior to me, you are also a little less enchanted with that silly concept of self reliance and probably more willing to make others responsible for your problems...but hey, I'm just an idiot who is completely out of my mind.

I'm glad Janek survived and nobody was hurt or killed after unknowingly being assigned to the first line of his backup plan.

John

OK.

1. Use Facebook/Kiteforum/own friends to establish contact with someone in Saudi Arabia. Ask for advice. Plan welcome party.
2. Contact Saudi authorities to confirm contact details for emergency services. (It's also worth asking if you need a visa, and how you formalise your arrival into the country... you don't want to be thrown in jail for entering illegally).
3. Have plan in place for actions on receiving SOS message from Egyptian or Saudi side of Red Sea.

In this instance, it seems like steps 1 and 2 didn't happen until after the SOS was sent.

The confusion over the GPS coordinates sounds like a pretty ordinary "lost in translation" situation - it sounds like the Saudis really came to the party. However, getting results in this part of the world - particularly with government agencies - is a lottery... everything depends on talking to the right person. If you talk to the wrong person, or say the wrong thing, you get f*** all. You plan ahead, you know who to call when things go pear-shaped, and you will always be looked after.

I'm sure that we're only seeing half the story - surely nobody attempts to make a crossing like this without arranging to meet someone on the other side?

That's what I think. He probably had a chase boat (not edt's which only goes 5-10 miles on 5 gallons of gas) and a bunch of irresponsible friends who abandoned him in the middle of a glassy sea at dinner time for sharks. I would guess he had a better plan than to send a radio beacon signal if a line broke, bladder leaked, panel blew out, harness hook failed, wind died, wind got too strong, health problems occurred, etc. The guy probably had much more of a backup plan than we have heard about yet. Pretty amazing adventure.

For example: Jan cross Red Sea with support ( may be me on pontoon ) then suddenly comes conditions like above or whatever , shit happen. Jan survive , support not .How you will comment ? In this example is he more selfish than when he gone alone? It's better to expose to risk own ass .

How would I comment?

If you agree to provide support and accept the risk I would say that is a lot less selfish than essentially deciding to put unknowing people at risk as his first line of defense. I think it is great that we have rescuers who are willing to put their lives on the line when people get into trouble, but I think it is irresponsible and disrespectful to them not to make reasonable plans to avoid putting them in harm's way.

If a guy who knows nothing about rock climbing goes way beyond his limits, he endangers those who try to rescue him.

If an out of shape, inexperienced hiker tries to hike in bad winter weather without good safety plans, carrying only a radio beacon for help, he endangers those who try to rescue him.

Out of respect and appreciation for those who are willing to put their lives on the line to save lives, I believe individuals should make every reasonable attempt to be self reliant and responsible for their personal safety.

If Jan were simply stupid or made a poor judgment, I wouldn't call him selfish. We all make mistakes at times. It's part of being human and hopefully we learn from it and don't repeat mistakes which might endanger others. Everything we do or hear about gives us an opportunity to learn.

Another uninformed opinion.

I have spent years commercial fishing in Alaskan waters. I have had experiences that would scare the crap out of most people and we put ourselves in these situations on purpose because we only had small windows of opportunity to make money that would not wait for pleasant weather. It was not uncommon to work in 30+Knot winds bobbing around like a cork. We only hid from the weather once in 25 years because it was gusting 85+ knots. I guarantee that the fisherman I know would also say this guy was foolish not to have a backup plan and needs to develop a healthy respect for the sea. I would just love to see you get out from behind your keyboard along with Marlboroughman and tell these guys they are pussies for thinking Jan should have a backup plan. All of them have known someone that has died at sea. All of them know how fast things can go wrong at sea. Many of them are still alive because they respect the sea. It is very obvious to me that you dont know, what you dont know.

One time I got into a situation where I had water coming over my stern. While I was busy dealing with my own problems, a boat 1/2 a mile away from me sunk and 2 of the 4 crew were lost. The other 2 only lived because of a passenger helicopter dropped right to the water with no floats and pulled them out. No cables lowering baskets to the water. Talk about balls!! This is just one quick story from many I have had in all my years fishing. Your view that a 200km crossing is trivial is comically misinformed. In the right circumstances, which can happen often,1/4 mile is too far. There are 100s more stories just like this you would hear if you sat around with these fisherman sipping a beer. It just takes one more thing to go wrong than you planned for to go wrong and you are DEAD.

You could continue to spew some more ignorant bravado like marlboroughman or you could consider that you may not know it all and knee-jerk into calling people pussies.