Emergency in the Med? Who do you call?

[mjcoon]

Does one have to make a survey if a Mayday is launched for a man overboard ?

Survey of the jackstays?

Mike.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

One, One, Two
Now that will do
Nine, Nine, Nine
How ass-i-nine

999 was chosen for the very good reasons that it is a) memorable and b) difficult to dial accidentally on a rotary dial telephone - you know, the kind that was once universal. The second is no longer viable as a reason, but the first is still a really good reason not to change. 999 is part of popular culture in the UK, and changing popular culture is very difficult.

 

[davidej]

How do you call CROSS?

Do you use it like an english word, spell it out letter by letter (presumably using your best french alphabet), say "coastguards" or what?

I spent about an hour ot two trying to raise them using all three of these and "pan pan". We were in SE gale off the south of france and wanted advice on which ports/marinas were safe to enter. Eventually some relay station on Porquorelles (?) answered in english, passed our questions on and translated the reply into english. Very helpful but didn't make up for the angst while nobody was responding.

 

[Roberto]

How do you call CROSS?

Do you use it like an english word, spell it out letter by letter (presumably using your best french alphabet), say "coastguards" or what?

I spent about an hour ot two trying to raise them using all three of these and "pan pan". We were in SE gale off the south of france and wanted advice on which ports/marinas were safe to enter. Eventually some relay station on Porquorelles (?) answered in english, passed our questions on and translated the reply into english. Very helpful but didn't make up for the angst while nobody was responding.

in the Atlantic coast I hear people calling "CROSS-A" (from cross Atlantic), in phonetic english would be more like "cross-r" ; in the Channel there is cross Joburg (djoboore) around cherbourg, cross Gris Nez (greenai) facing Dover, Cross Corsen (corsèn) near Ushant, in the Mediterranean "cross-med" or "cross lagarde" would do (there is cross corse in corsica)


Also, for minor needs there are the "semaphores", radio signal stations handling traffic outside of distress or urgency: if you skip a weather bulletin for example a CROSS station would hardly repeat it on the radio, while a semaphore is a lot more likely to help. I called them once when I skipped the missile firing info and they read everything again.

The problem is a lot of semaphores are called by their names, in the Atlantic one can hear calling "sainjuliàn sainjuliàn sainjuliàn" and hardly know it's a signal station..

will try to dig and find the names of the Med semaphores

 

[Koeketiene]

Then give you the bill?

Saving life is ALWAYS FOC - indeed, it's a legal obligation (SOLAS).

Saving your craft OTOH... yes, you can expect a bill.

 

[Roberto]

or you may call them in DSC, Cross La Garde is 00 227 5400