Kudos to all hands onboard SV Concordia!!

Our hearts go out to the owners, captain, crew and passengers of the sailing vessel Concordia which went down last week in mid-ocean off the coast of Brazil. The survival of all hands, with few injuries and a successful rescue is a tribute to careful planning, excellent training and the presence of good equipment.

This was no disaster, and nor was the happy outcome a miracle; it was an incident at sea that was properly handled. As the residents of Haiti, and more recently of the Portuguese island of Madeira, can attest, you don’t have to be a foolhardy adventurer to fall prey to the vagaries of nature. In the case of the Concordia, 48 well-briefed and intelligent students, along with a captain and 15 crew members, were not foolhardy adventurers – they were people intent on pursuing educational excellence and life-skills training. Sad as the loss of the ship is, nobody should be wringing their hands over this unfortunate confrontation with a weather abnormality.

Let us hope that McCarthy (Nigel McCarthy, president and CEO of West Island College International) and his innovative Class Afloat program can pick up the pieces, obtain the necessary financing, and put back to sea with another group of students in a new vessel as soon as one is built.

Peter Kingsmill