Dee, Montclair, NJ 8 hours ago
As a veteran sailor who has sailed across the Atlantic and around the world I will say that the most important part of any sailing journey is safety and crew. On a long distance journey, every crew member has to be able to sail the boat, navigate and facilitate an evacuation in the event of an emergency. In my experience emergencies happen all the time on sailboats, especially on long crossings. I have been lost at sea, dismasted, run aground, I have hit forty five foot swells and fifty knot winds. That's just part of the adventure.
Knowing these things, I have continued to sail and crew on boats. I give my adult consent to be on board, knowing that I could be risking my life. An infant and a toddler cannot give such consent. They can't stand watch. They can't evacuate. Had their parents been washed overboard by a rogue wave they would have died excruciating deaths. This in no way compares to getting into a car and getting into a car accident. They not only put their own lives in jeopardy, but the lives of those who had to rescue them. We have been looking for a jetliner in the Indian ocean for a month, the ocean is a big and unforgiving place, to bring infants and toddlers on board, with a satellite phone as your back up safety plan is unconscionable. They should pay for part of the rescue and the appropriate authorities should investigate whether they are mature enough to be parents. Saying on your blog "If you can't say anything nice..." doesn't cut it.
My DH and his BF took the BF family's 42' from MI to Bermuda to their vacation home over 20 years ago- and he still states it was the most scared he has ever been . ( he teaches HS- not much scares him). 
