First Pan Pan experience

[Resolution]

I do agree with Steve. The subject of maydays and pan pans is really quite important and accurate advice would be useful. Do let's try to keep it sensible and polite.

 

[Robin]

You need help matey.

Scottish sauce nearly gone, time to passout yet huh?

NOW you are on ignore but feel free to rave on unheard. The other place is welcome to you and you will not meet me there for sure. I'm selling up anyway so not overly bothered and have other forums to talk in more friendly company, elsewhere.

 

[jamieo]

I wandered off from this thread cos it had turned into a pissing contest.
Just came back to see if it had got any better and had any useful info.
Sadly not. But I have to say, as a newcomer, there is obviously a lot of history with many forumites, and maybe sometimes you need to sit back a bit and think why am I typing this?if your old enemies turn up.

I don't know Chanel yacht, robin or aunts whoever from Adam. But as a total noob and outsider, looking simply at what is written, I am not surprised that aunty......... ( these odd names really don't work very well) doesn't come here very often.
They wrote a couple of posts, which were an opinion, a perfectly valid and sensible one, and got jumped on. Partly for dissing the op, which is frankly bollocks, and partly it seems for just posting?
I was just going to abandon the thread again, but maybe a newbies perspective might be valid.
A spirited discussion is one thing, but Personal arguments and point scoring leave most folk not involved cold, and they don't even care who is right and who is wrong. Both sides are boring.

We haven't got to the Hitler bit yet

 

[Topcat47]

The skipper was the man on the spot. He made the call. Armchair critics may debate the case all they wish but it changes nothing.

Possibly not true, the skipper may decide not to post ever again, doubt his decision making in another comparable situation, and newbies might never make a pan pan call in case some dickhead would give him grief about it in the future. None of these particular outcomes are desirable, imo.

 

[AuntyRinum]

The skipper was the man on the spot. He made the call. Armchair critics may debate the case all they wish but it changes nothing.

Possibly not true, the skipper may decide not to post ever again, doubt his decision making in another comparable situation, and newbies might never make a pan pan call in case some dickhead would give him grief about it in the future. None of these particular outcomes are desirable, imo.

I haven't seen anyone of that description on this thread, although you don't appear to have read the OP.
He says,
"We were around 25nm south of The Needles in the Channel..."
"We were sailing and in no grave danger but we're in a little risk of making a more difficult angle into The Needles due to the set of the tide and our slowed progress..."
He then says, "Appreciate any thoughts and comments.....". Which is what he's had. Presumably that's why he posted.
Ignoring the fact that missing a tidal gate is certainly not a reason to make a distress call - a normal call would suffice if it's a problem - and that having to punch the tide for a few extra hours is not an issue for sailors normally, I'm sure it won't deter the OP from calling for help again.
Any "newbie" who has their hands on a VHF radio will have done the one day VHF course to be legal and will be very clear what constitutes a distress call, and that a Pan Pan denotes urgency.

 

[ShinyShoe]

Any "newbie" who has their hands on a VHF radio will have done the one day VHF course to be legal and will be very clear what constitutes a distress call, and that a Pan Pan denotes urgency.

It is explicitly clear on your licence, if you bother to read it, that ANYONE (course or not) can transmit in an emergency. That's not some "we won't prosecute you for breaking the law in an emergency" that is "it is explicitly legal in an emergency". So given that we deem a Pan Pan as a distress call it must be an emergency. So it is perfectly possible that a newbie will not be clear what constitutes a distress call...

...but even people with the ticket make their definitions rather differently. Channel Yacht has probably handled more distress calls than anyone else posting on this thread. Yet he seems to be more accepting of a lower threshold for Pan's than some of the exceptionally black and white definitions that people here seem to want to apply.

 

[chanelyacht]

Channel Yacht has probably handled more distress calls than anyone else posting on this thread. Yet he seems to be more accepting of a lower threshold for Pan's than some of the exceptionally black and white definitions that people here seem to want to apply.

Yes, for a simple reason - I'd always rather receive an early call of a non life threatening incident, than receive a mayday from someone on a lee shore with danger to life, that could possibly have been sorted out earlier.

Time is a glorious luxury in SAR operations, and if we know about something early then we can plan for it, get assets in place if needed, and help the casualty to resolve the situation before it becomes really serious - and that's from both a SAR coordinator's viewpoint, and a responding asset viewpoint.

I also tend to remember that 99% of people we assist aren't professional mariners, call us when they're in situations that they'd rather not be in, and need assistance, even if that assistance is just a reassuring voice on the other end of the radio.

Sadly, one of the issues with the new non-maritime Coastguards is that they are just being trained to point and shoot assets at a situation, not to properly assess and coordinate in an appropriate manner. The recruitment profile of the new MOC for example has included a large intake with no sea experience at all - when you have to start explaining to Solent coastguard (or the shadow of the former Solent that has kept the name) where Lepe beach is, and when saying "opposite Gurnard" doesn't help, there is a problem.