AntarcticPilot
Well-known member
Them, too.Or the 90+ independent lifeboats around the UK
Incident in the Twizzle Yesterday
- Thread starter dolabriform
- Start date
Juan Twothree
Well-known member
Plus, if the the casualty boat is a dinghy or kayak, they may only be using a handheld VHF, with insufficient range to reach the CG radio aerials.
A yacht can be a very useful comms link.
tillergirl
Well-known member
Talking of range, when we were down at the Ray Sand, a yacht with a lousy signal was calling the Coastguard to report that they had been dismasted (they were returned from the Outer Crouch area). The signal was pretty difficult to be clear but they were saying that they were dismasted but fine and needed no assistance. About 5 or 10 minutes later, they called up with a good signal to repeat that they were fine but then now had good comms as they had managed to deploy their emergency antenna. The difference was well worth the cost. A bit of a drift but......
westhinder
Well-known member
I heard Dover Coastguard calling a vessel today that had alerted to what they thought was a person in the water: ‘Station calling Coastguard about a person in the water, state your name and position...’ They repeated the call a couple of times and when there was no reply, Dover Port Control stepped in and stated name and position of the vessel a couple of miles off the port of Dover.
It makes you wonder, if Dover Port Control had the data, although it happened outside its patch, and the Coastguard did not.
It makes you wonder, if Dover Port Control had the data, although it happened outside its patch, and the Coastguard did not.
Aquaboy
Well-known member
To turn this all on its head the coast guard have got to weed out the unnecessary calls or they couldn't really function. To go through a check list before tasking a life boat etc. probably makes sense. Bit like phoning BT when your internet is down!
chanelyacht
Well-known member
Yes, but having done the job - you can usually pick out the element in the first few seconds which will gauge the level of response. The thing that has changed is we used to get assets rolling or an assistance broadcast out while taking the rest of the details - now I've seen the checklists take up to 15 minutes to get approval to task something on a mayday response, because the maritime knowledge and teatime experience - of all sorts - has in so many cases gone.
Habebty
Well-known member
Apart from the inane chatter, radio checks, etc, weather conditions lately have meant picking up some relatively long range vhf comms on the Orwell and Harwich area has been possible. Was listening to Cap Gris Nez coordinating migrant spotting this weekend as well as several French fishing vessels jabbering on ch16. So all in all, ch 16 was pretty busy. CG even answered as Solent Coastguard once but corrected himself to Dover, so I guess they man several aerials?
chanelyacht
Well-known member
Since the introduction of national network, any area can be handled by any operating centre - so in your case it sounds like the NMOC were handling it (NMOC are Fareham, using Solent CG normally) but in reality it could have been Stornoway, Shetland, Milford, Belfast, etc...
Great in term of resilience (although actually all the old stations could always link anyway) but explains the checklists and wish for a lat/long, because often there is zero local knowledge.