the dangers in most cases can be minimized if you have a set of rules and stick by them. a good example of this is cave diving. everyone thinks cave diving is extremely dangerous, but the trained cave divers take so many precautions that they are able to minimize the danger. you always hear of people dieing in cave accidents, but you never hear about the people that followed all of the safety precautions and didn't deviate from them. plan your dive. dive your plan. the same goes for sailing. wear your jacket. have all of the required safety gear and then some. it may not be perfectly safe, but nothing is. it does get expensive though. give me a life jacket, a couple of strobe lights, a flashlight, an epirb, a handheld radio... and while we are at it, one of those breitling emergency watches (you know, the one with the built in emergency beacon).

as i like to say, anything is possible if you throw enough money at it.