Dave,

Hopefully I'm not being misinterpreted in all of this. The point I was getting at was that we need to accept full responsibility for the things we take on and weigh the risks without the expectation that someone is standing by to bail us out. We own both the decision to go, and the outcome.

Of course, there are many things that can happen that may be out of our control. That's the nature of life. For that reason we have the Coast Guard and other SAR units whose mission it is to come to the aid of those in trouble, often at great risk to themselves. They do a great job. My opinion, however, is that the existance of such folks should in no way influence the decision of go vs. no go.