Sailboats in “High Seas Rescue” Coming on Weather Channel

For sailors who can't get enough visual stimulation and entertaining disastrous sailing stories, the Weather Channel is premiering a new series called High Seas Rescue starting this Sunday, October 25, at 8 p.m. ET. Three hour-long episodes will be aired back to back, offering enough adrenalin and fear to keep you up half the night afterwards (using their "Storm Stories" hyper-dramatic approach). Each episode apparently includes three or four separate stories, of which at least three involve sailboats:

• One U.S. Coast Guard swimmer responds to a mayday call that becomes a high seas mission when a family must abandon their sailboat in threatening waters during Hurricane Gordon.
• A small yacht on course to Australia is disabled at sea with a dead engine, broken main mast and a hole on deck. Help comes from a passing container ship in a risky rescue.
• Sailing for Bermuda, turbulent waves force three friends to abandon their sailboat and wait in the windswept ocean.

In addition to the fun, I enjoy programs like this because it's interesting to speculate, from a safety perspective, how you might have avoided getting into the emergency situation to begin with—or have improved your odds for coping once it started. What great sailors we are with such hindsight!