ItsBruce
Contributor
During our SI yesterday, we heard a rather interesting conversation between the Coast Guard and a vessel in distress. We could only hear the CG side of the conversation. However, it seems the vessel was taking on water. What is interesting is how utterly unprepared the boater was and how hard the CG had to work to get basic information necessary for either a rescue or to control the flooding. The CG had to request lat/lon 3 separate times; the boat's size and color, 2 times; how many adults and how many childres, 2 times; whether they had life preservers, 2 times; whether they had a dinghy or life boat, 2 times; and whether the water was cold or hot, 4 times. I assume the last was to ascertain if it was coming from the engine's cooling system. I lost count of the number of times the CG had to tell the boater to calm down and to slow down.
I was amazed how ill-prepared the boater was to assist with his own rescue. Incidentally, when the CG asked if any vessels were in the vicinity and gave the lat/lon, they only had the lat/lon to the nearest minute. Apparently, the boater did not or could not provde greater accuracy than that. Later, I plotted the lat/lon and found the boat was essentially in the middle of nowhere. Simply put, while the boat was only around 30 miles off the coast and 6 or 7 miles from Catalina, I could plot no course that would go from any one point on land to any other point on land (without using Hawaii or Alaska) that went anywhere near the boat's given position. (I'm guessing they were lost, too.)
There is a lot more to putting out to sea than writing a check to the boat broker, having him give you the keys and inviting friends out yachting. In any event, I've got the lat/lons and will try to find out if it actually went down.
I was amazed how ill-prepared the boater was to assist with his own rescue. Incidentally, when the CG asked if any vessels were in the vicinity and gave the lat/lon, they only had the lat/lon to the nearest minute. Apparently, the boater did not or could not provde greater accuracy than that. Later, I plotted the lat/lon and found the boat was essentially in the middle of nowhere. Simply put, while the boat was only around 30 miles off the coast and 6 or 7 miles from Catalina, I could plot no course that would go from any one point on land to any other point on land (without using Hawaii or Alaska) that went anywhere near the boat's given position. (I'm guessing they were lost, too.)
There is a lot more to putting out to sea than writing a check to the boat broker, having him give you the keys and inviting friends out yachting. In any event, I've got the lat/lons and will try to find out if it actually went down.