northwind
Well-known member
Out of interest, does Bob use the SafeTrx app on his phone? isn't it meant to replace the CG66?
Help Bob. - Summoning help from the water.
- Thread starter Mark-1
- Start date
Daydream believer
Well-known member
Debateable. If one has been drawing a pension, presumably the pension still continues- Well if you are not dead then you are entitled to the pension. It can be saved up for the other half or the kids when probate comes through. Handy if it is a decent one person only private pension.
Iliade
Well-known member
Waterproof mobile phones - I bought some rubber plugs to jam up the USB charging port after my S22 got upset by the sea water which had dripped into said port. It didn't actually stop the phone working, but it wouldn't charge for several days until I cleaned it with aerosol brake cleaner, after trying all manner of appropriate stuff from warm universal solvent up!
Would not a bag of yellow dye have helped the poor unfortunate Bob be seen from the helicopter? Or three times as much from a drain company for a fraction of the price.
Also, as it is daylight, what about a nice fat stogie?
Would not a bag of yellow dye have helped the poor unfortunate Bob be seen from the helicopter? Or three times as much from a drain company for a fraction of the price.
Also, as it is daylight, what about a nice fat stogie?
Daydream believer
Well-known member
Dodgy. They might fly past thinking that he was just a lump of efluent discharged illegally by southern water when no one was looking.
Last edited:
Mark-1
Well-known member
I use aquapacs for PMR Radios, Mobile Phones and VHFs in Kayaks and Dinghies and on the boat so I'm 100pc the phone itself will function for Bob in the water.
What I wasn't so sure about was how well it would work in terms of reaching the transmitter when wet and low in and out of the water. My gut feel is superbly given the height of the aerials that side of the Island. Nobody in this thread has said "No that will never work.".
Next time I'm out I'll try it from the water.
Last edited:
Mark-1
Well-known member
Yes he does. Although now we're told there is no delay from establishing if the PLB is a false alarm there doesn't seem much point in that for Bob in this situation. It won't speed up the rescue at all.
Although the big orange "Call for Help" button which I've never dared press might come in handy.
Last edited:
fisherman
Well-known member
Ermmm....really?
A local boat sank off the Lizard. The epirb went off. The Cg started ringing round, sadly the (new) owner had not changed the epirb owner details so they were ringing the previous owner and the HM on Scilly. (Who rang the new owner's mum, that cheered her up). Scilly is within a half day passage to the position, so quite possible. Another boat told the CG that the boat had gone from the AIS and the crew weren't answering phones. It was 30 minutes from the epirb to the LB launch.
The boat capsized, reason unknown, and floated upside down for several minutes with the crew sitting on it. The liferaft of course didn't release until the boat sank. The skipper had pressed the DSC but didn't make the full five seconds required before he had to jump.
When this appeared on the MAIB site it gave details, 'investigation ongoing', with 'particular attention to the emegency services response'. A month later those last words had disappeared.
The ex LB coxn sank last year. he was in the water in a LJ hanging onto the bow of his 15ft boat, forepeak keeping it up. He could not reach his PLB as the LJ had pushed it behind him. He fired 7 of his 9 miniflares, kept in his breast pocket. The LB was launched and then he got the PLB so they had a position, he was picked up after 40 minutes.
mjcoon
Well-known member
Not sure that even applies to a hand-held flare. But a rocket flare is so far from a symmetrical viewpoint as to be a ridiculous comment!
Roberto
Well-known member
About 10years ago Florence Arthaud fell overboard while singlehanding, she was on her personal boat at a few miles from Corsica, she called by phone her mother and then his brother, who eventually called the MRCC. She was rescued by an helicopter.
La navigatrice Florence Arthaud a frôlé la noyade au large de la Corse
Greenheart
Well-known member
(Wikipedia) "On October 29, 2011, she fell from her boat in the middle of the night off Cap Corse. By chance, she had with her a headlamp and a waterproof mobile phone. Arthaud managed to call her mother who then called her brother. He then alerted the CROSS (the French Coast Guard) and three hours and twenty minutes after her distress call, she was located using the geolocation of her mobile phone. Conscious but in a state of hypothermia, she was airlifted to a Bastia hospital, from which she was released the following day."
boomerangben
Well-known member
As already said, mini flares or a day night. Either or both easy to put in a pouch on a life jacket, next to the PLB of course.Still thinking of inshore waters off the Isle of Wight, and of the lifeboat TV show, it always seems that despite the enormous energy and resources of the RNLI, the watchfulness (and connectedness) of shoreside observers, and the cleverness of today's tech, there is routinely a period when the floating casualty, like a dark football on the wide grey sea, just urgently needs locating.
I asked here about ten years ago, if nobody makes a really big, high-viz reflective flag with a pole that can pack down either to be wearable on a lifejacket, or grab-able with the items you take before consigning the boat to oblivion and stepping off.
Ten years back, somebody posted a link to a dan-buoy with a flag the size of a note pad.
The orange coat I bought for cycling in rain is such a glaring colour, mademoiselle can spot which boat is mine from half a mile. A flag of the same fabric, a metre square and complete with reflective strips (because the fabric is only high-viz with a degree of daylight) would be unmissable to anyone actively looking, or even to the many casual observers.
It doesn't seem like a huge task to create such a flag. Wouldn't it be a significant help? If I saw such a thing offshore while sailing, I'd certainly investigate.
.
Also a bright yellow or orange neoprene balaclava with reflective strip. Keeps your bonce warm too.
And you’ll be waiting in vain for a tow off a Seaking…..
Roberto
Well-known member
The French maritime SAR air patrol used to make very interesting seminars about their activity at the Boat Show, among other things, they recommended an individual pouch with a plb, fluoresceine, a day-night signal (smoke+flare), etc.
When offshore I use one around neck/waist, all equipment can fit inside a 15cm x 15cm square pouch, it's relatively light and one can sleep without problems (version MK2 has an external pocket for kitchen timer, knife and gloves ). In busy coastal areas I prefer a portable DSC vhf.
.
When offshore I use one around neck/waist, all equipment can fit inside a 15cm x 15cm square pouch, it's relatively light and one can sleep without problems (version MK2 has an external pocket for kitchen timer, knife and gloves
). In busy coastal areas I prefer a portable DSC vhf..
Bouba
Well-known member
I think I have found BobThe French maritime SAR air patrol used to make very interesting seminars about their activity at the Boat Show, among other things, they recommended an individual pouch with a plb, fluoresceine, a day-night signal (smoke+flare), etc.
When offshore I use one around neck/waist, all equipment can fit inside a 15cm x 15cm square pouch, it's relatively light and one can sleep without problems (version MK2 has an external pocket for kitchen timer, knife and gloves
.
View attachment 176007
Roberto
Well-known member
I think I have found Bob
Reminds me of a joke after the movie "Finding Nemo"
They Have Found It
billskip
Well-known member
Where's Bob's lottery ticket?
AntarcticPilot
Well-known member
The problem is that the shelf life of such cartridges must be short - hydrogen and helium leak through almost anything, even when liquefied. They'd probably need replacing annually, if not more often. Helium will leak less but is a non-renewable resource, and of course hydrogen is dangerously flammable in the event of a leak rather than just seepage.
Personally I think a self launching kite makes more sense.
ylop
Well-known member
How do you think he set fire to the boat? I suspect some unofficial testing ;-)
No there are a number of MAIB reports which spell out the time line minute by minute. A PLB will get a response but it’s far from instant or absolutely automatic. Lifeboats may well be paged, and requests made for a helo whilst shore contacts are still being pursued but - they take time to get a gps fix, they take time to transmit that to the satellite, it takes time for the system to communicate that to Falmouth (there may still be a fax involved!). It takes time for Falmouth to allocate to the local MRCC, they will need to decide how urgently to treat it (which might depend on how sensible your records are etc) but almost certainly starts with a VHF call to you, and a Mayday Relay to vessels in the vicinity, whilst someone tries your shore contacts. THEN they call the RNLI DLA to ask if they can have the lifeboat and after they’ve heard the story they authorise paging the crew. Similarly they call the ARCC to ask for a helo. The nearest helo may be tasked elsewhere (as happened in the clyde today - meaning help had to come from Inverness!).
And yet in 10 years you’ve not fabricate a prototype!
Mark-1
Well-known member
Thanks, I've been googling this quite hard with no definitive answers. Never occurred to me to check an MAIB report or two which pretty much must spell it out.
I confess I was a little cynical about claims of an immediate launch before they do the checks. It didn't really seem consistent with a 96% false alarm rate from PLBs - the helicopter would never be on tbe ground to launch for real rescues! (That 96% number in itself came from a random forum so may also be part of further misinformation and guesswork on this topic.)
Last edited:
Juan Twothree
Well-known member
Much of what you've described takes very little time.
A PLB/EPIRB gets a satellite fix within a couple of minutes (or at least the ones at my lifeboat station do, as it's my job to test them every 6 months).
Those satellite alerts are now received at the JRCC at Fareham, which is also where the ARCC is now located.
There is no faxing involved, the whole system pings messages around between the JRCC, ARCC and local MRCC almost instantly.
Even the process of paging an RNLI launching authority, and then the crew, can happen within a couple of minutes.
In fact, for a person in the water, vessel on fire or some other situation demanding an immediate response, the CG can page "Launch ILB" (or ALB) without paging the DLA first, thus allowing the crew to start making their way to the boathouse whilst the DLA speaks to the CG.
But even on a less urgent job, the gap between the DLA page and the crew page is usually only about a minute. As soon as the DLA authorises the launch, the CG operator can press a button on their screen which pages the crew whilst the DLA is still on the phone taking details.
You're not going to get a lifeboat or helicopter on scene within five minutes, but the process is as quick as it can be. And the PLB/EPIRB route is stil more reliable than the person in the water drifting around for hours before somebody sees them.
Whilst I like the idea of a kite/balloon/flares or whatever, they would be most effective for pinpointing the casualty once SAR assets get on scene, rather than generating the initial alert.
Although a lifeboat/helo can home in on the 121.5 signal, a civilian vessel responding to the Mayday Relay can't, so there is still value in having something visual to aid detection.
I'm aware of previous incidents where the CG response to an EPIRB was a lot slower than it should have been, which is why in the last year or two it's become more streamlined.
I was at my local MRCC only the other week, going through the whole process with them.
Part of the problem historically in the CG has been understaffing, but I'm told that has been addressed now.
There certainly seemed to be plenty of people on duty when I was there the other day, although many were under training. The issue will be whether they can be retained, as staff turnover has been very high in the past.
What sounds like an exciting and interesting job on paper often proves to be anything but in reality.
Mister E
Well-known member
Would a boat on fire not attract a lot of attention in the lake Solent area?
