Two random trips bring on a strange coincidence

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understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

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With my family we flew to Skiathos and boarded our sailing boat chartered for the week. We set off for one of the islands, stopped for lunch and eventually moored in a harbour for the night. This pattern was repeated on the next two days. We chose our destination each morning depending on wind direction and sea conditions as my wife is apprehensive of loosing site of land. On the fourth day sitting in a taverna on another random island and in a random choice of resturant (one of many), a young woman came to sit on the opposite side of the block of chairs. This was Sue from the office where I worked, neither of us knew that the other was on holiday, nevermind on a Greek island. She and her husband had taken a last minute flight, booked a room at the airport, gone to the harbour the next morning and took the next ferryboat leaving, getting off at its destination, getting a room and repeating this each day. So how did we end up same island same taverna at the same time?
Total votes: 190
Date submitted:Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:09:18 +0000Coincidence ID:5075