Singer/songwriter Paul Simon once had a hit titled “Slip Slidin’ Away”. The song was certified gold and reached number four on Billboard Magazine’s rankings. (And for what it’s worth, the Oak Ridge Boys sang back up!)
The last verse of the song is particularly haunting:
“Whoah… God only knows, God makes his plan.
The information's unavailable to the mortal man.
We're workin' our jobs, collect our pay.
Believe we're gliding down the highway,
when in fact we're slipsliding away…”
I thought of these words this week when I read the following headlines in the news: “BILLIONAIRE'S LUXURY SUPERYACHT SLIPS FROM CARGO SHIP, GETS LOST AT SEA.”
According to Elizabeth Llorente, who reported the story for FoxNews.com on June 1, 2019,
The billionaire owner of a 130-foot yacht, named MY Song, is singing the blues after his vessel got lost at sea when it fell off a cargo ship. The $38 million superyacht, which was on the last leg of a journey that began in the Caribbean, was not secured correctly by the crew, according to the company that transported her, when it fell overboard last Saturday.
The owner is Italian billionaire Pier Luigi Loro Piana, who is heir to a luxury clothing company. Forbes magazine puts his net worth at $1.6 billion. "For anyone who loves the sea, his boat is like a second home, and it is as if my home has burnt down," Piana, 67, told Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
MY Song, which was built in 2016, was being transported to Ibiza to take part in the Logo Piana Superyacht Regatta, which is running in Porto Cervo from June 3 to June 6, when it broke loose over the weekend. MY Song won last year.
The yacht has since been located, with salvagers now working to prepare her for tow. The head of Peters & May, the company that handles MY Song’s transporting, said in a statement to the press: “Upon receipt of the news Peters & May instructed the captain of the MV Brattinsborg to attempt salvage whilst 3rd party salvors were appointed."
“The vessel maintained visual contact with My Song until the air and sea search was initiated. As of 0900hr BST on 28th May 2019 the salvage attempts are still ongoing,” David Holley said.
“A full investigation into the cause of the incident has been launched,” he continued. “However the primary assessment is that the yacht’s cradle (owned and provided by the yacht, warrantied by the yacht for sea transport and assembled by the yacht’s crew) collapsed during the voyage from Palma to Genoa and subsequently resulted in the loss of MY Song overboard. I will add that this is the initial assessment and is subject to confirmation in due course.”
On social media, yachting organizations and publications lamented the misfortune that befell MY Song, a star in the regatta and luxury yacht worlds. Its past honors include Best Yacht at the World Superyacht Awards.
GCaptain.com noted that besides being an award-winning performer in competitions, MY Song was a jewel in luxuriating circles: “The interior accommodation is for six to eight guests including the owner, the focal point being a spectacular deck saloon with hull and superstructure ports, plus skylights providing panoramic outboard views.”
Wow! For my part, I am glad they have at least located the poor man’s yacht. Note that I use the term “poor” here to describe his feelings only! After all, he is a billionaire. Nonetheless, a loss is a loss; and I do not take any perverse pleasure in seeing another individual lose something of value to them.
Of course, most of you are probably like me in that you do not live in a world of $55 million luxury play toys. And I do not even necessarily know that I would spend such an amount of money on a yacht if I did have it to spend. But it is no crime either to be rich or to enjoy yachting; so I hope for a happy ending to the matter.
That being said, the story reminds me that all we ever presume to possess in this world is really just slip-sliding away from us. The stuff of this world, lands, buildings, cars, boats, planes, etc… all of these items continually elude us as they inexorably slip from our grasp and slowly but surely slide further and further away from us.
Like me, you may not have ever lost a yacht. But how many homes have you lived in that are no longer yours? How many cars have you driven that are no longer yours? How many sets of clothes have you worn that are no longer yours? How many pieces of jewelry have you worn that are no longer yours? More to the point: how many toys have you played with that are now in someone else’s toy box?
We would do well not to get too attached to the things of this world, for they are fleeting at best. At most, we make believe that we possess them but for a little while. Soon enough, however, they are wrenched from our grasp and placed in the hands of others. Ironically, they do not then belong to these individuals either. Someone after them will quickly be the next to claim them.
But there will come a day when no one can claim them, for as Jesus tells us (in the New Testament Gospel of Matthew, chapter 24, verse 35), this earth will one day pass away. The Apostle Peter (in his Second General New Testament Epistle, chapter 3, verses 10) tells us how this will happen:
“The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and its works will be laid bare.”
To this, the Apostle John adds in the Revelation given to him (chapter 21, verse 1) that he saw a new heaven and a new earth, because the first heaven and earth had passed away.
Little wonder then that Jesus admonishes us not to get too attached to the things of this world. In his famed “Sermon on the Mount”, found in Matthew chapters 5-7, he says (6:19-20):
19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Only the treasure we store up in Heaven will neither slip nor slide away! Only it will be with us for all eternity!
SOURCE: https://www.foxnews.com/world/billionaires-luxury-superyacht-slips-cargo-ship-missing-sea.
NOTE: Elizabeth Llorente is Senior Reporter for FoxNews.com, and can be reached at Elizabeth.Llorente@Foxnews.com. She can be followed on Twitter on Twitter @Liz_Llorente.
The last verse of the song is particularly haunting:
“Whoah… God only knows, God makes his plan.
The information's unavailable to the mortal man.
We're workin' our jobs, collect our pay.
Believe we're gliding down the highway,
when in fact we're slipsliding away…”
I thought of these words this week when I read the following headlines in the news: “BILLIONAIRE'S LUXURY SUPERYACHT SLIPS FROM CARGO SHIP, GETS LOST AT SEA.”
According to Elizabeth Llorente, who reported the story for FoxNews.com on June 1, 2019,
The billionaire owner of a 130-foot yacht, named MY Song, is singing the blues after his vessel got lost at sea when it fell off a cargo ship. The $38 million superyacht, which was on the last leg of a journey that began in the Caribbean, was not secured correctly by the crew, according to the company that transported her, when it fell overboard last Saturday.
The owner is Italian billionaire Pier Luigi Loro Piana, who is heir to a luxury clothing company. Forbes magazine puts his net worth at $1.6 billion. "For anyone who loves the sea, his boat is like a second home, and it is as if my home has burnt down," Piana, 67, told Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
MY Song, which was built in 2016, was being transported to Ibiza to take part in the Logo Piana Superyacht Regatta, which is running in Porto Cervo from June 3 to June 6, when it broke loose over the weekend. MY Song won last year.
The yacht has since been located, with salvagers now working to prepare her for tow. The head of Peters & May, the company that handles MY Song’s transporting, said in a statement to the press: “Upon receipt of the news Peters & May instructed the captain of the MV Brattinsborg to attempt salvage whilst 3rd party salvors were appointed."
“The vessel maintained visual contact with My Song until the air and sea search was initiated. As of 0900hr BST on 28th May 2019 the salvage attempts are still ongoing,” David Holley said.
“A full investigation into the cause of the incident has been launched,” he continued. “However the primary assessment is that the yacht’s cradle (owned and provided by the yacht, warrantied by the yacht for sea transport and assembled by the yacht’s crew) collapsed during the voyage from Palma to Genoa and subsequently resulted in the loss of MY Song overboard. I will add that this is the initial assessment and is subject to confirmation in due course.”
On social media, yachting organizations and publications lamented the misfortune that befell MY Song, a star in the regatta and luxury yacht worlds. Its past honors include Best Yacht at the World Superyacht Awards.
GCaptain.com noted that besides being an award-winning performer in competitions, MY Song was a jewel in luxuriating circles: “The interior accommodation is for six to eight guests including the owner, the focal point being a spectacular deck saloon with hull and superstructure ports, plus skylights providing panoramic outboard views.”
Wow! For my part, I am glad they have at least located the poor man’s yacht. Note that I use the term “poor” here to describe his feelings only! After all, he is a billionaire. Nonetheless, a loss is a loss; and I do not take any perverse pleasure in seeing another individual lose something of value to them.
Of course, most of you are probably like me in that you do not live in a world of $55 million luxury play toys. And I do not even necessarily know that I would spend such an amount of money on a yacht if I did have it to spend. But it is no crime either to be rich or to enjoy yachting; so I hope for a happy ending to the matter.
That being said, the story reminds me that all we ever presume to possess in this world is really just slip-sliding away from us. The stuff of this world, lands, buildings, cars, boats, planes, etc… all of these items continually elude us as they inexorably slip from our grasp and slowly but surely slide further and further away from us.
Like me, you may not have ever lost a yacht. But how many homes have you lived in that are no longer yours? How many cars have you driven that are no longer yours? How many sets of clothes have you worn that are no longer yours? How many pieces of jewelry have you worn that are no longer yours? More to the point: how many toys have you played with that are now in someone else’s toy box?
We would do well not to get too attached to the things of this world, for they are fleeting at best. At most, we make believe that we possess them but for a little while. Soon enough, however, they are wrenched from our grasp and placed in the hands of others. Ironically, they do not then belong to these individuals either. Someone after them will quickly be the next to claim them.
But there will come a day when no one can claim them, for as Jesus tells us (in the New Testament Gospel of Matthew, chapter 24, verse 35), this earth will one day pass away. The Apostle Peter (in his Second General New Testament Epistle, chapter 3, verses 10) tells us how this will happen:
“The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and its works will be laid bare.”
To this, the Apostle John adds in the Revelation given to him (chapter 21, verse 1) that he saw a new heaven and a new earth, because the first heaven and earth had passed away.
Little wonder then that Jesus admonishes us not to get too attached to the things of this world. In his famed “Sermon on the Mount”, found in Matthew chapters 5-7, he says (6:19-20):
19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Only the treasure we store up in Heaven will neither slip nor slide away! Only it will be with us for all eternity!
SOURCE: https://www.foxnews.com/world/billionaires-luxury-superyacht-slips-cargo-ship-missing-sea.
NOTE: Elizabeth Llorente is Senior Reporter for FoxNews.com, and can be reached at Elizabeth.Llorente@Foxnews.com. She can be followed on Twitter on Twitter @Liz_Llorente.