Don't panic!

[Quandary]

Just get your priorities right.
From a MAIB report on the sinking of the prawn trawler Sapphire II off Bayble, Lewis in January. 'MCA have urged fishermen not to leave their wheel house unattended when under way'. Silver Chord with a crew of three was in collision with Sapphire, apparently there was no one in the wheelhouse of either vessel (not at all unusual when fishing in my experience) Both were holed and Sapphire II went down in less than ten minutes. The lone skipper reported that his bow started to rise so be stepped in to the wheel house, picked up his mobile phone and his tobacco and stepped on to Siver Chord as his boat slid under the water.
At least he was able to have a smoke if he needed to settle his nerves

 

[Seajet]

Don't Panic !

I've seen a few fishing boats go past on autopilot with no-one in the wheelhouse.

On a lighter note I had 'Don't Panic' painted in 'large, friendly letters' ( Hitchikers' Guide To The Galaxy ,by the late great Douglas Adams ) on the bottom of my racing dinghies; one day while doing a buoyancy tank capsize test a bloke on shore ran up to photograph this inscription as we clambered over the thing to right it .