Help Bob. - Summoning help from the water.

[Mark-1]

.

 

[Bouba]

Would a boat on fire not attract a lot of attention in the lake Solent area?

A lot of people might mistake it for a Viking pyre and keep a respectful distance

 

[Mister E]

So Bob has put out a mayday and it is picked up by a rib who is out with a few mates on their jet skis and they set of at full speed to where they think he is. Also the phone there mates to tell them of the excitement. So about another dozen all set off at full speed chasing then.
Seeing the excitement some of the gin Palace things wonder what is going on so they join in.

One of the rib drivers drops his beer and while trying to pick it up runs down a jet sky.
Both people are now in the water and all the others forget Bob and try to rescue the pair.
They can not decide who is going to get them out of the water and a big fight breaks out for the honour of the rescue.
Then one of the big boats arrives and smashes into to fight.
Seeing the carnage a red funnel ferry driver decides to releive his boredom and join in. Giving 5 blasts of the horn to try and shift then.
The ferry swamps a lot of the smaller craft a t bones a gin Palace.
The combatants decide to board the ferry and carry on the fight with the crew and passengers joining in.
A major incident is declared with all assets tasked to the big mass sinking.

Meanwhile Bob is bobbing about watching the carnage wondering what happened when his luck changes.

An sailor who looks like he could have been at the Battle of Trafalgar comes along side in his old beaten up Westerly and picks him up. The old man tells Bob he is on a non stop voyage to Scotland but will drop Bob of wherever he wants.
Bob looks at the pitched Battle that is still raging and replies.
Scotland is good.

Moral of the tail sail somewhere pleasant.

 

[Mark-1]

Moral of the tail sail somewhere pleasant.

Bob doesn't dream of sailing in Scotland and curse fate that confines him to sailing on the South Coast.

...but I do.

 

[Mister E]

So Bob has put out a mayday and it is picked up by a rib who is out with a few mates on their jet skis and they set of at full speed to where they think he is. Also the phone there mates to tell them of the excitement. So about another dozen all set off at full speed chasing then.
Seeing the excitement some of the gin Palace things wonder what is going on so they join in.

One of the rib drivers drops his beer and while trying to pick it up runs down a jet sky.
Both people are now in the water and all the others forget Bob and try to rescue the pair.
They can not decide who is going to get them out of the water and a big fight breaks out for the honour of the rescue.
Then one of the big boats arrives and smashes into to fight.
Seeing the carnage a red funnel ferry driver decides to releive his boredom and join in. Giving 5 blasts of the horn to try and shift then.
The ferry swamps a lot of the smaller craft a t bones a gin Palace.
The combatants decide to board the ferry and carry on the fight with the crew and passengers joining in.
A major incident is declared with all assets tasked to the big mass sinking.

Meanwhile Bob is bobbing about watching the carnage wondering what happened

So who else turns up to the rescue?

 

[Bouba]

The worst scenario is that the Coast Guard phone Bob’s home to check....Bob’s wife answers and says...Bob is definitely at work today !

 

[Juan Twothree]

So when you said this, you knew it wasnt true:

"The phoning around to see if it's a false alarm happens once SAR assets have been tasked."

And you haven't corrected the original post.

Google loves YBW, anyone searching for information on PLBs is likely to end up here, if an account with some credibility misleads, someone is going read it, take it seriously and make flawed decisions.

I based my original post on my 30+ years as a lifeboat crew.
And I can only tell you what I've experienced.
Sorry if that doesn't exactly tally with what you've read on Google.

Sometimes we've been launched, have started searching, and have then been stood down, as enquiries by the CG have revealed the vessel to be safe ashore, or the EPIRB to have been in a rubbish skip, or in someone's lifejacket in their yacht.
On one memorable occasion, it was in the back of a van, on a liferaft that was being taken for servicing (I couldn't work out initially why the bearing of the homing signal was following us along the coast)
In each of those examples, the lifeboat had been tasked to search whilst enquiries continued ashore.

My recent visit to the MRCC wasn't the first time I became aware of the procedure for dealing with EPIRBs. I visit the ops room regularly, and this time I had some newer recruits with me. So the watch manager we were talking to went through the whole call collect and tasking process for them.

In your very angry PM to me (with the subject title "Disgraceful"), you directly accused me of lying.
I only post on here because I think my experience of SAR might be useful to people, and also to scotch some of the more wild and inaccurate rumours that get started about the RNLI.

If people don't find my posts helpful, or you feel that I'm damaging the reputation of the RNLI rather than enhancing it, then I'll bow out.

 

[Mark-1]

So who else turns up to the rescue?

Well, here's how it turned out...

All of Bob's mechanisms for summoning help worked perfectly. There was a stampede of rescuers racing to pick him up. Survival was a certainty.

However, by chance, the little known "Ventnor Topless Air Sea Rescue Service" was already in the air in their pink Helicopter. The fetching life savers were on a training mission and noticed Bob's bright red hair in the water.

The three buxom ladies swooped down and skillfully plucked Bob from the water in a strangely bouncy aerobatic manoever.

Shortly afterwards the VTASRS helicopter was found ticking over in a field near the Military Road. The occupants had left the helicopter in a hurry, leaving only three pairs of skimpy bikini bottoms behind as they went.

For reasons that will never be known all Bob's location devices ceased to transmit.

All we can do is offer Bob our thoughts and prayers. He sacrificed so much in the interests of internet discussion on emergency comms.

 

[Mister E]

Bob is safe.
But what about the mess he caused and who will go to their aid?

 

[Daydream believer]

Would a boat on fire not attract a lot of attention in the lake Solent area?

Bit like a burning car in Tilbury. People think that the joy riding, thieving yoofs, have finished with it & now want to hide the evidence. So they just ignore it as an everyday occurrence

 

[Daydream believer]

Well, here's how it turned out...

& there was me thinking that so many people got the distress calls that they left it to someone else & Bob stopped bobbing & has never been seen since.

 

[Mark-1]

Bit like a burning car in Tilbury. People think that the joy riding, thieving yoofs, have finished with it & now want to hide the evidence. So they just ignore it as an everyday occurrence

This wasn't the direction I wanted to go but now I think about it I saw a massive plume of smoke in tbe Solent last summer.

It was probably 2 hours sailing away from me and I had no clue what it was and I didn't call the CG. I heard no other reports on 16.

Turned out to be a burning powerboat and I'm sure people closer called it in.

But it really highlights the problem Bob perceives with the AIS SART. 5000 people might see it, but in busy areas the vast majority of people will assume it's a false alarm or someone else's problem and won't chase it up.

 

[capnsensible]

I based my original post on my 30+ years as a lifeboat crew.
And I can only tell you what I've experienced.
Sorry if that doesn't exactly tally with what you've read on Google.

Sometimes we've been launched, have started searching, and have then been stood down, as enquiries by the CG have revealed the vessel to be safe ashore, or the EPIRB to have been in a rubbish skip, or in someone's lifejacket in their yacht.
On one memorable occasion, it was in the back of a van, on a liferaft that was being taken for servicing (I couldn't work out initially why the bearing of the homing signal was following us along the coast)
In each of those examples, the lifeboat had been tasked to search whilst enquiries continued ashore.

My recent visit to the MRCC wasn't the first time I became aware of the procedure for dealing with EPIRBs. I visit the ops room regularly, and this time I had some newer recruits with me. So the watch manager we were talking to went through the whole call collect and tasking process for them.

In your very angry PM to me (with the subject title "Disgraceful"), you directly accused me of lying.
I only post on here because I think my experience of SAR might be useful to people, and also to scotch some of the more wild and inaccurate rumours that get started about the RNLI.

If people don't find my posts helpful, or you feel that I'm damaging the reputation of the RNLI rather than enhancing it, then I'll bow out.

I find your posts very helpful in understanding what happens for real. There is always a lot of nonsense on forums like this when pro's do their best to help based on true world experiences and it doesn't match the expectations or dreams or whatever of the indignant.

Your insights are, I think, extremely valuable. I'm sure the majority do. Please keep it up!

I don't sail in the UK anymore but spent a decade or more on the south coast and Channel crossings. Your tips would have helped me learn a lot!

 

[capnsensible]

A friend of mine died after a fire on his yacht he was single handing. Here is a link. You can ignore the foul play issue, it was resolved years ago.

Murder hunt baffles daughter after death of British sailor on yacht in

 

[DanTribe]

Excuse a bit of thread drift, bit I wonder what the percentages are for MOBS at sea compared to people falling out of dinghies on way back from pub.
2 examples I remember.
1/A story on Yachting Monthly, a quiet evening on board and skipper hears a faint, polite "excuse me". Finds a swimmer holding his rail with white knuckles. Moral, if you need help shout.
2/ Someone was missing and later his false teeth and phone were found on the deck. His dinghy was found later a mile downstream. He was not found.

 

[Daydream believer]

2/ Someone was missing and later his false teeth and phone were found on the deck. His dinghy was found later a mile downstream. He was not found.

What did your old man leave you when he died?
Not a lot. Just his false teeth & his phone.
Well that is better than nothing.
Not really. They did not fit & the battery was flat

 

[RunAgroundHard]

So who else turns up to the rescue?

The Swedish Finishing School for Beautiful Young Ladies. They happen to be on a practical skills sailing course on how to be useful to future husbands.

 

[fisherman]

I was told yesterday that EPIRB hits go to Norway, which then emails Fal CG.

 

[onesea]

Excuse a bit of thread drift, bit I wonder what the percentages are for MOBS at sea compared to people falling out of dinghies on way back from pub.
2 examples I remember.
1/A story on Yachting Monthly, a quiet evening on board and skipper hears a faint, polite "excuse me". Finds a swimmer holding his rail with white knuckles. Moral, if you need help shout.
2/ Someone was missing and later his false teeth and phone were found on the deck. His dinghy was found later a mile downstream. He was not found.

As someone who is often afloat alone and going to do some time single handing this summer. It’s the reason why I am fitting a ladder to the stern of the boat that can be dropped from the water.
Boat to boat, boat to shore transfares I have always enderstood to be one of the biggest killers.

The other thing I always watch for on the way to from boats is exits from water. Boats, ladders etc some marinas really are not good.

 

[Juan Twothree]

I was told yesterday that EPIRB hits go to Norway, which then emails Fal CG.

That's incorrect.

The satellite download gets picked up at Fareham, then gets passed to usually the JRCC, or occasionally Falmouth, depending on who is covering that function at that particular time.

There are no Norwegian emails involved.