ASSIST WHEN ABLE – Janice Anne Wheeler, Sparring With Mother Nature
New readers swelled our ranks again this week; welcome aboard STEADFAST—you wisely joined discretionary loyal crew already charted. I wanted this story to reach as many rational folks as possible.
If you just dove into our very engaging little community, please read SPARS & SPARRING, .….it introduces my wonders and my wanders. ~J With the amount of stunning news each day, I’ve had to turn away in order to bear the sheer nonsensical immorality, but this particular NBCNews flash hit close to home. The headline read, “Mark Zuckerberg’s mega-yacht didn’t respond to call for help from small boat in Alaska” Seriously? As someone who resides on a sailing vessel, I’m not sure there’s a more firm and fabled rule than assist when able. Our planet’s seas are a great equalizer; Mother Nature doesn’t care about the balance of your bank account; her unforgiving rules apply to everyone. The tremendous number of people who end up in trouble are remarkably close to land. Whether you’re a pirate or a billionaire, there is no more common denominator than helping others in distress on the water. You are not obligated if said action is going to endanger your own vessel and crew, but that wasn’t the case the evening of August 3, when it appears that Mark Zuckerberg’s 387-foot megayacht inexplicably and blatantly did not assist a 21-foot motorboat which had run out of fuel with two women, one child and a dog aboard. After learning about that sheer lack of human decency and effort (not that much energy was even required), I was wound up enough to offer my version to Peter Swanson’s LOOSE CANNON instead of waiting until my regularly scheduled Sunday post here on SPARRING. His ‘Stack offers a plethora of informational boating tales, some too crazy/awful/stupid/ Zuck’s PR Miss Is Alaska Cruise Line’s Gain Meta Magnate’s Skipper and Crew ‘Didn’t Hear’ Radio Distress Call
This is the hero— Wilderness Legacy, a small ship cruise line for the big-hearted. www.uncruise.com I’m currently reading John Bacon’s 2023 work The Gales of November, which relates, with previously unpublicized details, the 1975 Edmund Fitzgerald tragedy that took 29 lives. Great Lakes freighter Arthur M Anderson, who followed less than an hour behind the famed ship, turned around after reaching safety, fully loaded, and went searching for survivors in twenty-five foot seas, against all odds and common sense in the worst storm on record. They didn’t find what they were looking for, but they went out there. “There’s an unwritten code,” Great Lakes Marine Academy instructor John Tanner states, “Oh, obviously there is. When someone is in trouble out there, you do whatever you can. You just have to….it was dangerous, and they knew that too. But they went.” Care to listen and reminisce? It’s a heart-wrenching classic. Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Gordon Lightfoot. I love heroes. And we need more of them. Until next week, be the hero. I’m definitely going to try. ~J LOOSE CANNON The author writes her own Substack called Sparring with Mother Nature. about refitting and cruising aboard Steadfast, a 56-foot classic wooden sailing yacht designed by William Hand… 5 days ago · 34 likes · 18 comments · Janice Anne Wheeler REFERENCES https://www.theguardian.com/ SUPER YACHT NEWS Detailed accounting and perceptions with a map of how the Legacy had to navigate around the megayacht to assist.—worth a view. Share SPARRING WITH MOTHER NATURE Sharing these stories, as LOOSE CANNON and I did, is the soul of this community and influences new readers to support my work. Thank you.
I so appreciate your support of my work. Have a wonderful week!
© 2026 Janice Anne Wheeler
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