Have You Seen This Boat?

Many of you have written about your experiences with the historic sailboat, Niña.  It is not surprising people have stories to tell, since the Niña was built in 1928, and started winning races the first year she was launched, including the Fastnet race which years later would claim the lives of valiant sailors.  As a consolation for the 1978 tragedy, that Fastnet race was the beginning of better life support equipment, including life raft stowage and supreme construction.  Those changes may be what has given the Niña 7 the best crack at survival.

We believe the Niña is in this picture from
the David Dyche facebook page.  We are looking for a better
picture from the top down.

We are searching for a photograph from the top down to the decks.  Despite the thousands of photographs of the Niña, I have not seen a single top down pic.  Someone somewhere must have one.

Please forward to us if you have one or have seen one.  The search for the Niña continues.  It would be helpful to have a top-down profile for our satellite search which is in process.

You can send those to immigrants2bfree@gmail.com, please mark in the header Niña because I get a million emails a day!~

How can a crew survive this much time floating around in the currents of the Tasman Sea?  It is hard, but possible.  There is a lot of rainwater.  Turtle blood doubles as hydration in a pinch.  You can also drink your own recycled water, at least for awhile.  Fish are plentiful.  All it takes is an adventurous spirit.  The Niña crew has that in spades!

Personally, speaking for myself only, and no one else, if the Niña is still afloat, her crew is in the hands of the public.  Great effort has been spent in encouraging officials to do what they are charged to do.  The only voice left is your voice.  We encourage you to use it HERE.  You can also vote with a buck, as the private search to do the job the professionals should have done is costing an absolute mint.  The staff at Sailing Savoir Faire hopes an even better method for reaching out to people in charge will soon come into play.  Each of you has a lot to do with that.

The Niña story from the start: S E A R C H

More Information:  N I N A 7

Protocol Costing New Zealand and US

INDEX TO PRIOR POSTS!

Be sure to check out EVXX.com


Please help get the word out, post this to your facebook and other accounts!  Please repost the link!

HERE IS THE LINK!  http://sailingsavoirfaire.blogspot.com/2013/08/protocol-costing-new-zealand-and-us.html

Search Coordinator Ralph Baird Says Call

 The Department Of State

I was very disappointed to learn the flights had been halted in the Nina search today.  It is not that I disagree with the decision to halt the flights and the $20,000 daily bill the families have to pay to keep the planes in the air.  I have intimate trust in Ralph Baird, Executive Search Advisor with Equusearch.  There are valid reasons to conserve resources pending better information.  


Rather, I see it from the point of view of the sailors.  They are out there, in a floating hell, caught in the circular currents of the immense Tasman Sea, waiting for rescue.  They are catching rain water to survive.  They are fishing and spearing the critters that lurk near the man made reef which once was the national treasure, the historic sailboat Nina.  The people who have the equipment to rescue the sailors won't do it because of bureaucratic stink.

A tranquil scene from the press conference and 

fundraiser for the Nina 7

Professionals realize the Nina is out there.  Yachts that sink cough up flotsam.  Yet, nothing has ever been found of the Nina.  The only evidence the yacht sank is the inability of the authorities to find her.  


"They" thought the Scotch Bonnet sank last year after it was abandoned near the last known position of the Nina.  Except for a single sighting, the Scotch Bonnet was never seen again...until it floated onto Brunswick Heads, New South Wales, an Australian beach, 5 months later.  While the Nina will no doubt float to land, the longevity of the crew is at risk.


John Glennie and three crewmen rode his capsized trimaran for 119 days off the coast of New Zealand until they washed up upon an island.  By then, the authorities had cancelled the search and friends had held a eulogy.  Glennie got the last laugh.  He said he created his own miracle because the authorities were not going to create if for him.  


The problem is, the people who have the ability to look for the Nina have washed their hands of the responsibility to look for her.  They have the assets needed, including long range aircraft for an over-the-ocean search.  They can process satellite information being collected by Equusearch.  They can authorize drift models to be run by the Coast Guard at nominal cost.  They can cooperate with the private organization tasked with doing a government job.  The U.S. has other high-tech means to help the seven sailors aboard the Nina. Yet, the U.S. State Department has placed roadblocks in the way of the private search consultant, Equusearch, at every step.


Worse, by mutual cooperation with the U.S., New Zealand could save millions of tax payer search dollars.  Lives could be saved through the deployment of new search tactics for sailors lost in the Tasman Sea.  If the U.S. and New Zealand rolled up their sleeves and got to work on the Nina case, new frontiers would be forged.  Lives, sailor's lives, rescuer's lives, anguish by worried relatives, all could be prevented if the authorities worked together.


This first effort between countries using high technology might be written off as an exercise to pave the way for future searches.  By those terms, a few dollars invested now by each country would yield huge benefits later.

Media volunteers and organizers prepare a commercial with speaker John Glennie

 Instead, the U.S. sends inquiries from the search coordinator and from families to an office in the U.S. State Department which manages the return of the bodies of persons who have perished in a foreign country.  The State Department is not working in tandem with Equusearch.  By indulging red tape, the U.S. State Department robs the families of the basic right to hope. At least the U.S. State Department can't rob the 7 brave sailors of that same hope.



PLEASE CALL THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT.  The telephone number is 202.642.4000, push #4, then ask for John Kerry's comment phone line. Leave a message!


Please also contribute to the fund to save the Nina 7.  Every cent counts!

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Breaking Excitement In The Search Camp, Nina Life Raft Search

CHECK OUT PRIOR POSTS ON THE MISSING SHIP!  INDEX

An object found in the Nina Search

"Any news yet?" asked one person in the email thread being spread excitedly through the network of volunteers at the Equusearch effort trying to find the Niña, a 1928 schooner lost in the Tasman Sea off the coast of New Zealand.

Behind the scene is help from surprising places, many of which had refused to help before.  Everyone is grateful for the second effort.

Aircraft observers

Ralph Baird, Executive Advisor to Equusearch, (TES) has assembled an army of the brightest minds in the country.  Some are NASA scientists working as private citizen volunteers.  Others hail from a variety of experience.  All assembled to help seven people find their way home.

Today, search aircraft lifted off, not just to search, but to check out an interesting object found on the Tomnod site.  Tomnod, partly through the influence of TES, obtained satellite photographs of the search area.  The trick is, finding enough people to pour over hundreds of thousands of miles of ocean looking for the Niña.

New Search Area

A few days ago, cautious cheers rang with an URGENT email sent to executive staff.  

"What is this thing that looks like a life raft?"

  Everyone is excited with the prospects of finding the Niña crew alive.  We all pray this is the final moment of the search.  If it is not, we are prepared to do whatever it takes.  

Please stay tuned, a press conference is scheduled for Thursday, August 22nd, in Houston, Texas!

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