selling off all their belongings, including a car, to buy Lagniappe for $5,000

At least they rescued their EBT cards.

8 feet of water huh?

Everything I've worked for, everything I've owned since I was a child, I brought with me. It's just floating away and there's nothing I can do," Walsh told WFTS.

Don't ever put all your eggs in one basket... I mean boat.

Hopefully, other stupid people learn from your loss. It's called life.

Learning how to read the depth on a chart: Priceless!

Learning how to read the depth on a chart: Priceless!

Charts and bouy placement can be incorrect. Bottoms can change with currents.

Charts and bouy placement can be incorrect.

It is getting and it is past your bedtime. You have to get up early in the morning for church.

Charts and bouy placement can be incorrect.

It is getting and it is past your bedtime. You have to get up early in the morning for church.

I don't attend church. My church is an extensive technical library and life experience.

"voyage abruptly ended in John’s Pass"

John's Pass...

I wonder why it's called that.

Deadlier than the plague, identify, highlight, and stay clear of dashed outlines with descriptions like "Spoil Area", "Fish Haven", "Fish Traps", or "Dumping Ground". Ever wonder where all those old cars and trucks, building material, or garbage goes? Now you know! Spoil areas never show soundings because depths change all the time.
https://www.skippertips.co m/public/831.cfm

======================

It's clearly marked on the chart.

www.charts.noaa.g ov/OnLineViewer/11412.shtml

3', 5'

7' at the deepest part of the channel.

LOL. Only an idiot would take a Sail boat anywhere near there, let alone try to navigate that "pass".

Looks just spiffy on Google maps though.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Madeira+Beach,+FL/@27.7834033, -82.8002354,14z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x88c2fc0aee993b0f:0x2250dda308b4444!8m2!3d2 7.7980814!4d-82.7973247>

That what Gilligan was using to navigate "in John's Pass"?

John's Pass...I wonder why it's called that.

Their website:

I did like your chart though.

They reached Tarpon Springs in May. They docked at Mar Marina, where Broadwell got a job. They worked on the hull, rewired the boat and got it ready for their journey.

"We met a bunch of good people," he said. "Everybody gave us a nice farewell off the docks."

They set sail Tuesday, anchoring off Anclote Key. The next day they passed by Clearwater Beach and made their way to John’s Pass to dock for the night.

Then it all went wrong.

• • •

It was about 8:45 p.m. when they sailed into a new port, navigating a channel they had never sailed before, in the dark, fog rolling in.

Broadwell steered while Walsh stood at the bow, lighting their path with a spotlight, trying to figure out the navigational buoys. But the red and green buoys seemed out of place, they said, and the shoal wasn’t where their 2016-17 navigational charts said it should be. Had Hurricane Irma altered the channel?

Then it happened: The Lagniappe struck something underwater. Walsh almost flew off the deck."
http://www.tampabay.com/news/Sunken-dreams- Everything-they-own-is-at-the- bottom-of-John-s- Pass_165308644http://www.tampabay.com/news/Sunken-dreams- Everything-they- own-is-at-the-bottom-of-John-s-Pass_165308644

=======================

New to sailing. Trying to run that tricky channel in the fog. At night. Going too fast.

Oops.

That other article made it sound so dramatic like they were out to sea and a ship came to rescue them.

They were in sight of the shoreline when they ran into a sand bar. Why didn't they call the Coast Guard? Have a little Colorado herbage on board perhaps? And no life boat or even a dingy?

Bad judgement from start to finish.

New to sailing. Trying to run that channel in the fog. At night.

Why couldn't they just stay at sea overnight? I don't get it.

It must have made sense to them at the time. Before they learned their Expensive Nautical Lesson.

They keep mentioning some journey to somewhere but never identify their destination. It seems they sold a used car, bought a $5,000 28' sailboat (surely a rundown unit with problems at that price) and spent another $5K on it. I keep trying to imagine how this was supposed to work out well. Maybe they were hoping to start some charter gig by sailing tourists around down in the Caribbean or something.

Apparently this is a price point for late Seventies and early Eighties coastal cruising sailboats, according to this 3yo Reddit thread. (I have no idea how accurate this is.)

Reddit: Is $5,000 realistic for a starter cruising sailboat?

"We met a bunch of good people," he said. "Everybody gave us a nice farewell off the docks."

The same could be said for passengers on the Titanic or Lusitania. LOL

Same result.

The ocean is a real bitch.

Why couldn't they just stay at sea overnight?

Yeah. They spent the first night anchored out of port.

And why didn't they call the Coast Guard?

keep trying to imagine how this was supposed to work out well.

Maybe they were just going to ride the seas and have adventures and stuff. Like Caine in Kung Fu. Or something.

So I built a second one. And that one sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, and then sank into the swamp.

But the fourth one stayed up. And that’s what you’re going to get, Son, the strongest castle in all of England."

The ocean is a real bitch.

Not the ocean's bitchiness that was the problem in this case - but it's beachiness. This photo tells the tale:

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2018/02/11/couple-sells-all- possessions-for-sailboat-sinks-2-days-into-trip.html

The boat on the left is in the correct position in the channel relative to buoy "5". Per the chart, the capsized sail boat is in 3ft of water. That's about a foot and a half less than the 4.5 or so foot draft of the sailboat.

Ooops!

Buoy "5" is probably what Mrs. Gilligan was looking for with the spot light.

Bad judgement to go poking around in the dark/fog with all those shoals clearly on the chart. Shouldn't have proceeded with out a clear visual on the guide buoys.

I was thinking that maybe a 100 or so buck fish/depth electronic finder could have been considered in the refurbishment of the "yacht." I guess the budget was too tight.

Yep. A little bit of reading makes it obvious that coast is notorious for having shoals on the harbor entrances. Would've been a good investment.

A couple’s plan for a better life has been sunk.

Nikki Walsh, 24, and boyfriend Tanner Broadwell, 26, decided nearly a year ago that they were tired of working.

“How can we live our lives when we’re working most of the day and you have to pay so much just to live?” Walsh, who booked timeshare tours for a living, said to the New York Post.

“Most of the work you do goes to your home. There has to be another option,” she added.

So, the Colorado couple sold all their furniture and their SUV and purchased a 49-year-old boat in Alabama to live on and eventually sail the world in.

However, the two were not prepared for what happened next. Nearly two days into their venture, the couple’s boat capsized in a channel of water called John’s Pass.

“We thought the channel was where we were going, but it wasn’t,” Walsh told the New York Post, telling the publication they were armed with GPS and paper navigation charts.

Local boat captains say the sandbars often shift in John’s Pass, the Post reported.

“We started freaking out because waves were coming, and it was tossing our boat back and forth,” Walsh recalled.

Broadwell was at the rear of the boat, holding onto Remy when the trouble hit. “My hands were shaking. We were terrified,” she said. Before abandoning ship, Walsh said they grabbed some clothes and important documents, as well as things for their dog.

“I also grabbed Remy’s food and just about everything he needed,” said Walsh. “He doesn’t deserve to go without his favorite toys.”

Walsh admitted she and her boyfriend, who used to drive for Uber, were “new to sailing.”

However, the couple, who has been left with just $90 in cash, no jobs and no boat insurance, say they are still hopeful for their world-sailing plans and have started a GoFundMe begging people to help them “not give up on [their] dreams.”

The pair are seeking $10,000 to rescue the ship, which sunk off the coast of Madeira Beach, FL. Walsh said raising the boat alone will cost at least $6,700. “We have a lot of family helping us, but it’s hard when you’ve lost everything,” Walsh told The Post from Jacksonville, where the couple is staying with loved ones.

Though the pair seem down and out, they still plan to “buy or salvage another boat” at some point and “try try try again,” Walsh writes on the GoFundMe. “You only have one life. Why spend it doing what you don’t love. Money isn’t everything!” Walsh told the Post.

"We thought the channel was where we were going, but it wasn’t,”

They either didn't have a visual on buoy "5" or they didn't know how to read the chart - which shows the channel being to the right of "5" when approaching the shore.

And the fact they didn't call the Coast Guard is still interesting.

Doooood! Where's the channel?

Sucks to be them. Maybe she can work at the Hooters in Johns Pass Village.

They actually have:

$9,034 of $10,000 goal

Raised by 210 people in 3 days

Check it out! https://www.gofundme.com/new-sailing-life

You have to wonder what kind of idiots would give them that money. Much of it is obviously from family but even so...

You're right about the comments at GFM. Apparently, they were deleting some of the harshest ones.

You're right about the comments at GFM. Apparently, they were deleting some of the harshest ones.

Looks like they've deleted all of them and disabled comments now.

Well, good luck to them. Hopefully the next related GFM won't be for funeral expenses.