I think a lot of people feel trapped, like prisoners of their lives. The idea that you could go for a boat ride or show up at your regular job and be just swept away contains both an element of horror and an element of tantalizing possibility. People often long to start their lives over, to walk away from their troubles. They read stuff like this and perhaps feel a mix of hope that it might actually be possible and validation that the cost is very high. It may make them feel both more at peace with not yet having escaped and hopeful for a better future for themselves.

I was thinking more like a) it makes them feel less like incompetent dolts for not readily escaping their own problems, because, yes, you can disappear, but, wow, what a cost to pay and b) it fuels the imagination that perhaps escape from their current problems is possible (without such extremes of drama and suffering), if they keep at it.

and that is not the ocean, and yes he died

Over 10 years ago, I did the training you do if you want to be offshore crew. Loads of fun stuff like righting a capsized lifeboat in a training pool in full kit while someone sprays you in the face with a firehose. Anyway even back then we were taught: the era of epic survival stories is over, because with the proliferation of PLBs, EPIRBs, TABCEs, Iridium and so on, you could always signal someone. You might still die of course, but at least your location would be known :-)

It is still possible to get lost if you want to - the oceans, the mountains, the deserts are very very big. But you would either be doing it deliberately or you would be extraordinarily negligent, there's no middle ground here, really, assuming whatever the problem was didn't kill you immediately. That's why I am extremely skeptical of this story of two women who were apparently lost at sea for 5 months, because their engine that on a sailing yacht you only use to manoeuvre in the harbour anyway failed...

People get lost here, all the damned time. They even have cell phones but don't realize they are useful for more than driving directions. Yes, I have gone out and 'rescued' people (plural) who had no signal but had GPS on their phone.

However, once in a while, we don't find them. Sometimes, we never find them. This is just northern Franklin County, Maine. If you follow some pretty simple rules, you'll be just fine. If not, Mother Nature is a powerful force and may very well kill you.

This is nothing compared to the vastness of the ocean.