Lessons learnt responding to Mayday

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Meagain

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I share but keen to learn other people’s experiences when going to help someone for everyones benefit. Over the weekend we went to assist a Mayday at old harry rocks. The gentleman calling sounded frightened due to electrical fire and lost transmission. As we were about to release from a mooring bouy at Studland we quickly released ropes and started to head towards the location, luckily we found the boat and we were advised they had extinguished the fire, quickly a border force rib arrived and then some minutes later the lifeboat.
so lessons learnt.
1) Ensure you make sure everything is safely stowed before rushing off, in our haste to assist a locker door wasn’t secured and yes (see later) plates everywhere.
2) make sure fenders are down in case need to go alongside (check)
3) close to old Harry appears to be radio dead zone !!
4) Despite Border force giving lat/long the lifeboat took a few course corrections. QUESTION why don’t plotter manufacturers make it simple to type a lat/long into the plotter to give a point? it Would appear that moving cursor to a lat long particularly in “head up” mode is not straight forward.
5) MOST IMPORTANT, if you are a Rib owner you are the most critical boat to effect a safe rescue PLEASE react and help in Mayday situations. In a rolling sea getting close to effect a rescue is difficult, luckily in our situation we established no immediate threat but the border force rib got immediately alongside and was ultimately more help. (Same if you read the Bournemouth biplane crash it was a rib that was the primary rescue)
6) Watch out for the lifeboat coming in at speed the wash a few seconds later will “muller” you as they are focused on the rescue and if not stored away properly plates will escape ?
7) if you are in trouble at sea its a great sight to see a lifeboat ! but also be assured that in times of need your fellow boaters are there too. Border force were impressivly quick launching their rib and other offers of assistance came in too.
8) Alway be grateful for a safe conclusion.
 
Everyday is a schoolday.

I also question when emergencies are referred to by their Lat / Long position.

A shout comes on the radio and someone in the coastguard back room who’s never even seen the sea starts running through a checklist of pre-prepared questions. The very first thing to established is where are you so others can respond. Just off Old Harry Rocks, in the middle of the Solent between Ryde and Cowes, quite close to the big chimney as you come into Southampton water.

If the casualty gives coordinates it wouldn`t be a bad idea for the coastguard to confirm the general location, that puts you quite close to the North East Ryde Middle red lateral mark, does that sound correct?

That allows boats who might be able to respond and are in the area to help. The Lat Long will pinpoint but that first generalisation will get help on the scene fast. As you say ribs are great to help, low draft, built in fenders, open decks, manoeuvrable and so on. It might be they transfer casualties, they are quick getting back to meet an ambulance and the helicopter can land someone on easily.

I also listen how loud / clear the radio signal is, loud and clear means close by.

I did hear the back end of your incident on Sunday from the Solent.
 
+1 to the problem of entering a lat/long by cursor in head up mode; I found that an easier way is to enter the lat/long as a new waypoint, which is nearly like typing it in. It also means that the position is retained if the cursor happens to move for some reason.

The Coastguard is supposed to have a computer gazeteer of location names, including those names only used colloquially/locally. HMCG's fixation with asking for lat/long wastes valuable time, especially if the caller is inexperienced/scared.

The OP doesn't say if he/she did but don't forget to let HMCG know that you are responding, with an ETA if possible.
 
sorry, silly Q:
isn't what DSC is for? (not having to type/give coords I mean!)
just lift the lid, press the red button and all boats in the viscinity have the exact point of the event shown in their plotter to guide them.
Not that I've seen it happen mind, but seems that this is the answer.

...and well done to the OP!
 
henryf said:
Everyday is a schoolday.

I also question when emergencies are referred to by their Lat / Long position.

A shout comes on the radio and someone in the coastguard back room who’s never even seen the sea starts running through a checklist of pre-prepared questions. The very first thing to established is where are you so others can respond. Just off Old Harry Rocks, in the middle of the Solent between Ryde and Cowes, quite close to the big chimney as you come into Southampton water.

If the casualty gives coordinates it wouldn`t be a bad idea for the coastguard to confirm the general location, that puts you quite close to the North East Ryde Middle red lateral mark, does that sound correct?

That allows boats who might be able to respond and are in the area to help. The Lat Long will pinpoint but that first generalisation will get help on the scene fast. As you say ribs are great to help, low draft, built in fenders, open decks, manoeuvrable and so on. It might be they transfer casualties, they are quick getting back to meet an ambulance and the helicopter can land someone on easily.

I also listen how loud / clear the radio signal is, loud and clear means close by.

I did hear the back end of your incident on Sunday from the Solent.
Click to expand...

I remember one off of Peacehaven/Newhaven in Sussex.

It like a comedy sketch between them, Solent CG in old days and us trying to figure out if they were E or W of the meridian, it came down to the CG asking if there was a W or E on the screen.

Well we found them on radar - foggy day and early so not many other boats about and I think they were 1-2 miles from where they thought they were.

W
 
Meagain said:
I share but keen to learn other people’s experiences when going to help someone for everyones benefit. Over the weekend we went to assist a Mayday at old harry rocks. The gentleman calling sounded frightened due to electrical fire and lost transmission. As we were about to release from a mooring bouy at Studland we quickly released ropes and started to head towards the location, luckily we found the boat and we were advised they had extinguished the fire, quickly a border force rib arrived and then some minutes later the lifeboat.
so lessons learnt.
1) Ensure you make sure everything is safely stowed before rushing off, in our haste to assist a locker door wasn’t secured and yes (see later) plates everywhere.
2) make sure fenders are down in case need to go alongside (check)
3) close to old Harry appears to be radio dead zone !!
4) Despite Border force giving lat/long the lifeboat took a few course corrections. QUESTION why don’t plotter manufacturers make it simple to type a lat/long into the plotter to give a point? it Would appear that moving cursor to a lat long particularly in “head up” mode is not straight forward.
5) MOST IMPORTANT, if you are a Rib owner you are the most critical boat to effect a safe rescue PLEASE react and help in Mayday situations. In a rolling sea getting close to effect a rescue is difficult, luckily in our situation we established no immediate threat but the border force rib got immediately alongside and was ultimately more help. (Same if you read the Bournemouth biplane crash it was a rib that was the primary rescue)
6) Watch out for the lifeboat coming in at speed the wash a few seconds later will “muller” you as they are focused on the rescue and if not stored away properly plates will escape ?
7) if you are in trouble at sea its a great sight to see a lifeboat ! but also be assured that in times of need your fellow boaters are there too. Border force were impressivly quick launching their rib and other offers of assistance came in too.
8) Alway be grateful for a safe conclusion.
Click to expand...
Well done for responding. If any of us were in need of help we would hope that every boat, like you, was listening on ch16 and be willing to assist if safe to do so. Unfortunately, many boats no longer keep the vhf turned on.

Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk
 
The only thing I'd add is either to wait for a request from the CG or offer your location and ability to help. Too many people rushing in can confuse the operation and I've seen the rescue vessel hopping from boat to boat asking if they were the casualty, and in one rescue the rescue vessel charging right past me and disappearing into the distance while I had the stricken vessel in tow.
The local CG is quite good at directing rescues and will call on all nearby vessels to respond to them, the CG, and then direct you to enter the search. Particularly when it's kayakers or SUPs or persons in the water they assemble a fleet. For boats they prefer to use the local emergency services available before calling in other boats. So these days I just inform them I'm in the area and standby for their request to assist rather than charge in.
 
We were outside Cala dor. A small sailing boat had lost its engine. For reasons I have no idea of they did not just sail - it was windy. No radio call just waving.

It was fairly rough with decent swells. I called the Marina and said can you collect him. No you do it. Well if I could do that I would in the first place. I am 60 foot motor boot, he is a 25 foot sailing boat. The water is rough. There is no remotely low risk way to get a line to him and pull him - and then where is he pulled exactly. I have been towed by the RNLI who put us along side to enter port. It vis a specialist thing to do in my view and relatively dangerous to people and vessel in rough weather.

In the end the local trip boat ( same size ) went along side and towed him off - I dont know where to or how they got into port.

So attending is one thing. Saving someone from a sinking boat is another ( you have no choice) but the middle ground is fraught with risk in my view and needs someone who knows what they are doing ( I do not profess to ).
 
BruceK said:
The only thing I'd add is either to wait for a request from the CG or offer your location and ability to help. Too many people rushing in can confuse the operation and I've seen the rescue vessel hopping from boat to boat asking if they were the casualty, and in one rescue the rescue vessel charging right past me and disappearing into the distance while I had the stricken vessel in tow.
The local CG is quite good at directing rescues and will call on all nearby vessels to respond to them, the CG, and then direct you to enter the search. Particularly when it's kayakers or SUPs or persons in the water they assemble a fleet. For boats they prefer to use the local emergency services available before calling in other boats. So these days I just inform them I'm in the area and standby for their request to assist rather than charge in.
Click to expand...
It’s a great point you made (and jrudge) in this case the Mayday transmisson was lost halfway through we had heard electric fire and rough location (Harry Rocks) a call with coastguard confirmed lost of contact and vessel description unknown, a do nothing felt wrong in absence of detail. If only to confirm location and status. To the point made above, once located the decision was “action to take”, we established the immediate danger appeared to have faded so stayed a safe but close distance & once the rib arrived we backed off further And left it to better qualified/experties. However if there had been an immediate danger to life I’m sure it would have had to be a different decision. Knowing your limitations is another key lesson and luckily I knew mine was limited to “only act if life in danger”.
 
PeterBoater said:
+1 to the problem of entering a lat/long by cursor in head up mode; I found that an easier way is to enter the lat/long as a new waypoint, which is nearly like typing it in. It also means that the position is retained if the cursor happens to move for some reason.

The Coastguard is supposed to have a computer gazeteer of location names, including those names only used colloquially/locally. HMCG's fixation with asking for lat/long wastes valuable time, especially if the caller is inexperienced/scared.

The OP doesn't say if he/she did but don't forget to let HMCG know that you are responding, with an ETA if possible.
Click to expand...

what struck me was that as we were so close to the cliff we appeared to be in a vhf dead zone, the boarderforce mother ship provided the lat/long (having launched the rib) to the CG/lifeboat, but they continued visibly on the wrong course, it was only when they gave them a visual things improved (big grey ship with a gun at the front !!)

it was post this and a reflection that I noted while lat/long is a great specific location description, that plotter manufacturers have missed a really simple fact that if someone is giving a lat/long location, it would be sensible that a person receiving it can easy translate it ie type it directly in. When back at the boat will go at option of typing in as a waypoint for future reference ( only set waypoints before via cursor!).

re DSC I hear you, but never seen it come up on the plotter, maybe I not looking hard enough ?
 
Few weeks ago after Leaving Southampton the vhf started bleeping and a message popped up on the plotter man over board.
underneath navigate too.
I clicked to navigate to the incident and contacted coast guard.
Luckily turned out to be false alarm but for a novice seemed straight forward enough to respond.
 
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Meagain said:
It’s a great point you made (and jrudge) in this case the Mayday transmisson was lost halfway through we had heard electric fire and rough location (Harry Rocks) a call with coastguard confirmed lost of contact and vessel description unknown, a do nothing felt wrong in absence of detail. If only to confirm location and status. To the point made above, once located the decision was “action to take”, we established the immediate danger appeared to have faded so stayed a safe but close distance & once the rib arrived we backed off further And left it to better qualified/experties. However if there had been an immediate danger to life I’m sure it would have had to be a different decision. Knowing your limitations is another key lesson and luckily I knew mine was limited to “only act if life in danger”.
Click to expand...

No you did great, that was my lesson learned. :)
 
petem said:
Agree with all of the above.

I always tell my wife that if she needs to make a Mayday call then just say we're in a motorboat heading to Ibiza from Altea and set off an hour ago.
Click to expand...
Not sure that that really helps in the Solent bit it’s perhaps actually a good start to work from
 
mm42 said:
Good work from border force and well done you on helping.
Click to expand...

My previous ‘experience’ of government types suggest they have access to resources and equipment others don't. Also full time and commercial crews are required to maintain competence and training.

But at the end of the day Im pretty sure that if you need rescue it doesn’t matter who responds as even if they’re a completely useless idiot it’s still a better place than you were!

W
 
Meagain said:
what struck me was that as we were so close to the cliff we appeared to be in a vhf dead zone, the boarderforce mother ship provided the lat/long (having launched the rib) to the CG/lifeboat, but they continued visibly on the wrong course, it was only when they gave them a visual things improved (big grey ship with a gun at the front !!)
Click to expand...
The gun at the front with the cover over it is a water monitor for dealing with fires I think you will find.

Well done for responding and indeed for maintaining a radio watch, some dont, lets hope that those that dont dont need their dsc radio function in a hurry.

The hearing of a Lat and Long is great if your in front of the radio at the chart table when the message is transmitted, my intention would be to also give a brief verbal location in the mayday so anyone who was nearby would know they were nearby.
 
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