April 2012 has been a bad month for sailing along the Pacific Coast. On April 14th, five sailors were killed when their boat was swept into the rocky shoals of the Farallon Islands. Then, two weeks later on April 28th, three sailors were confirmed dead, the fourth is still missing, in what was at first believed to have been a collision with a commercial vessel. Subsequent reports indicate that the vessel may have grounded and broken apart.
There's an old saying in sailing that 'if you're not cold, wet, hungry, bruised, and bleeding, then you're not having fun'; but there is no humor in this kind of stuff.
Be careful out there!
-fl