an unsatisfactory situation

At least the outcome was OK. It's 10 yrs since we visited the Falmouth Coastguard centre. I wish I'd asked them what their protocol was for a distress call from a non English speaker. Although English is the international language, I don't think there is any obligation on a yachtsmen, for instance, to be able to speak it well enough in an emergency.
 
johnalison said:
Although English is the international language, I don't think there is any obligation on a yachtsmen, for instance, to be able to speak it well enough in an emergency.
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Apart from a more extensive curriculum the German-speaking countrys' VHF SRC course is claimed to be longer for non-English-speakers to learn emergency call protocols in English.
 
Bosun Higgs said:
See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-22652743. Does he really expect to be able to talk to all the different nationalities using the Ushant corner of France in French?
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You've got a point There. Ships sailing through The Minch have to report in to the coastguard, and there are several reporting zones. I have always been very impressed by the way that Stornoway coastguard is able to communicate in the Scandinavian languages, as well as Russian, Polish, Greek, French, German and Spanish.
 
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johnalison said:
At least the outcome was OK. It's 10 yrs since we visited the Falmouth Coastguard centre. I wish I'd asked them what their protocol was for a distress call from a non English speaker.
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Struggle, if the calls I overheard a few weeks are anything to go by. I was hearing Portland (but not the replies) trying to talk to a French yacht that spoke no English, with the coastie attempting almost non-existant holiday French of the "Oui, je understand that" variety. I think they mentioned phoning CROSS Jobourg at one point, but of course Jobourg couldn't talk to the yacht directly because of range. I wasn't really listening closely and I don't know how it all panned out.

Pete
 
Over many years of cruising to Southern Brittany WE often spoke via VHF to the French coastguards and also to Ushant traffic control in English, no problems and in fact one sad year when sSWMBO's father was taken to hospital in the USA and eventually died, they contacted us via the USA embassy in Paris and thence French CG who were very helpful and spoke very good English, plus (pre mobile phones) we then used the French VHF radio Link call service to make calls regularly to the USA and we never did receive a bill for that service, they did know from our initial conversations in setting up the link calls why we were calling. As far as I'm concerned FULL MARKS to the French in that instance. However I Have remarked several times that some of the minor inshore CG stations over there putting out requests for info fon overdue or broken down small vessels could usefully have transmitted in English also since so many Brit boats were about nearby
 
When the tanker Sea Empress ran aground approaching Milford Haven in 96 the owner of a local Chinese Takeaway was recruited as an interpreter for the Coastguard.
 
Some things don't run true in that article.

Firstly, CROSS Corsen (who cover that patch) like all the CROSS stations, have excellent English - there may have been other equipment issues which made ity worse.

Secondly, his colleague on the yacht phoned (so obviously within phone range) called a friend - a 999 to Brixham may have been the better option?

We frequently have calls from non-English speakers, we can connect any radio to phone, so will run through either an MRCC in the country of origin, or through our interpreting service.

But the main thing is the guy was OK.
 
chanelyacht said:
Some things don't run true in that article.

Firstly, CROSS Corsen (who cover that patch) like all the CROSS stations, have excellent English - there may have been other equipment issues which made ity worse.

Secondly, his colleague on the yacht phoned (so obviously within phone range) called a friend - a 999 to Brixham may have been the better option?

We frequently have calls from non-English speakers, we can connect any radio to phone, so will run through either an MRCC in the country of origin, or through our interpreting service.

But the main thing is the guy was OK.
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I did wonder why not call 999. I assume that since they were on the line to the French Coastguard they would probably have been in French phone territory and so any emergency call would have gone into the French system and they'd probably have ended up talking to the same station they had on the radio.
 
chanelyacht said:
We frequently have calls from non-English speakers, we can connect any radio to phone.....
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I'm always impressed by the way your colleagues at Brixham/Foulmouth manage to cope with the likes of me....

Anyhoo, I was down your way today, gazing wistfully out over the sunlit La Manche from the bench seats at Varne Ridge on the Old Dover Road, peering at France through the haze. From that elevated vantage point I could see maybe 6 ships - and 3 yachts inshore. Frenetic, no?
 
oldbilbo said:
I'm always impressed by the way your colleagues at Brixham/Foulmouth manage to cope with the likes of me....

Anyhoo, I was down your way today, gazing wistfully out over the sunlit La Manche from the bench seats at Varne Ridge on the Old Dover Road, peering at France through the haze. From that elevated vantage point I could see maybe 6 ships - and 3 yachts inshore. Frenetic, no?
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It's not down my way, I'm not based at Dover.

I work for a living ;)
 
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