Articles

THE MOST COMMON AT-SEA EMERGENCIES

Check the Coast Guard’s annual boating statistics, and you’d think it never happens. The most common reason a boater calls mayday, the topic of so many news stories involving rescue, the thing that rescuers respond to most often barely gets a mention.

Though collisions are the most common mishap on the water, they are rare for offshore cruisers and usually can be avoided. It’s not flooding or fire or even a failure of some sort that causes the most serious problems at sea. And no matter how good a mariner you are, your boating skills cannot help you avoid this one. All you can do is prepare.

What is most likely to go wrong at sea? You are. Medical problems far outweigh problems with boats as reasons for distress calls. If you’re unsure you believe this, I suggest searching Google for “coast guard medevacs.” When you pick your jaw up, come back to this article and learn how to avoid making the news this way — and how to prepare for a not-so-unlikely medical problem during your next outing.

Time vs. Distance

Every mile from the dock is another four minutes (on average, in a fast boat) from a hospital. Even during the relatively short run from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Freeport in the Bahamas you are a good two or three hours from advanced medical care. Distance can be dangerous if you’re not truly prepared when a medical problem arises — and it takes more than just having a first aid kit on board to be truly prepared.

You should know the medical history and health concerns of every passenger on your boat, and they should know yours. Too often fishing buddies have no idea what medications their friends are allergic to or whether they are diabetic or have a heart condition. These things matter to responders, and since a trip to the emergency room from the fishing grounds is four times longer than from the dock, this knowledge can make a huge contribution to a successful outcome.

Asking your passengers about their private medical history or telling them yours can be awkward, but there is an easy solution. I have a one-page letter, sealed in an envelope, with everything the doctor would need to know about me. Take me to sea, and I’ll hand it to you at the dock, saying, “In case I can’t talk for any reason. You don’t need to know what’s in it; just hand it to the emergency medical technician who shows up and tell them what happened to me.”

If this seems like overkill, consider how simple it is and weigh that against how valuable it would be should you or a passenger experience a stroke, chest pain, appendicitis, etc. And consider this: I never had to medevac a professional mariner where the ship’s captain didn’t hand me an envelope with everything the doctors need to know about the patient I was taking. If it’s not too much for the pros, why should you have a problem with it?

Drugs Allowed on Board

A half-day trip can turn into an unplanned overnighter a dozen ways. Run aground, throw a prop or blow a fuel line, and suddenly you’re missing lunch back at the marina — or worse, you might still be at sea when you planned to be back in time for your blood pressure medication. On more than one occasion, the inconvenience of waiting for the tide to rise turned into a mayday because a diabetic didn’t pack that important prescription.

Your hard rule for passengers and yourself should be: Prescription meds come aboard or you don’t. Insist and never assume. How much is enough? My rule is enough doses for 24 hours or four times the planned length of the trip, whichever is greater. Better to have it and not need it than the other way around.

Training and Gear

All professional mariners, from captains to deckhands, are required to have first aid training, and they must know how to administer CPR. Their boats have automated external defibrillators, as well. Most boaters do not. And the sea doesn’t care if you are a pro or an amateur. The risks are identical.

There are two kinds of EMTs in the Coast Guard: those who have performed what we called “public relations CPR” and those who hope they won’t have to. If someone on your boat has a heart attack that progresses into V-fib (ventricular fibrillation), things get grim quick.

With some basic training and the right kind of gear, your boat is a much safer place. If the most common mishap at sea does occur on your boat, you’ll be better prepared to handle it.

BY MARIO VITTONE

Call of Duty - How to make a distress call!!!

Any boater worth his salt should know how to make a distress call and what to do when he hears one

Just because everyone has a cell phone in their pocket doesn’t mean the VHF radio is a quaint relic of past technology. Onboard, a VHF is an essential part of your safety kit. If you need help or want to broadcast critical information, there are established procedures depending on the urgency of the situation. Here’s what to do when you hear one and how to make an efficient call should you need to.

VHF channel 16 is dedicated to calling and distress messages. It’s the time-proven method to broadcast your situation to everyone around you. In a real distress situation, it might even make the difference between life and death. Because VHF radio waves are line-of-sight, limiting your signal range, another mariner hearing your call can relay your plight to the Coast Guard and come to your assistance while rescuers are rallying their response. Using the VHF taps you directly into the community of mariners all around you.

Remember, channel 16 is for distress, safety and hailing communications only. The law prohibits any form of communication on this channel that might adversely affect the transmission or reception of distress, urgency or safety calls. That means channel 16 is not for radio checks, idle chatter or broadcasting the national anthem on Independence Day. Any of these uses interferes with the availability of this channel to remain open for the important things. There are three safety VHF channel 16 categories, listed here in increasing levels of importance: Sécurité, Pan-Pan and Mayday. Each one is dedicated to particular types of announcements or requests.

Sécurité (pronounced sea-cur-i-tay) is exactly what it sounds like, security. This type of call is used to broadcast information about the safety of navigation. It is used to transmit significant weather information and exceptional vessel maneuvers or report particular hazards to navigation, such as a dangerous object adrift. I like to think of a Sécurité call as a heads up safety announcement.

Pan-Pan (pronounced pahn-pahn) is the international urgency call for a situation onboard that is significant but not an immediate threat to either the vessel or those onboard. Panne means “breakdown” in French. Most often, we hear a Pan-Pan message broadcast by the Coast Guard on behalf of another vessel, asking anyone nearby to render assistance or to help look for someone overboard. If you lose propulsion or navigation ability, get fouled or if you’ve developed a controllable leak, if there’s someone overboard and in sight, or any other situation onboard that is not life-threatening, you may make a Pan-Pan call on VHF channel 16. When you make your call, slowly and clearly communicate your boat’s name, your position, the nature of the problem/request for assistance and the number of people onboard.

A typical Pan-Pan announcement might sound like this: “Pan-Pan, Pan-Pan, Pan-Pan. This is the 30-foot fishing boat Josie, Josie, Josie. Located 8 miles due south of Montauk Point in position 40 degrees 56.4 minutes North and 71 degrees 51.3 minutes West. We are leaking slowly with four people onboard. Requesting standby
assistance.”

Mayday is the real deal—the distress message requiring the most urgent response. A Mayday call is only to be used if the vessel or someone aboard is in grave or imminent danger and requires assistance. Mayday comes from the French M’Aidez, meaning “help me.” If the vessel is sinking, on fire, disabled and being swept onto a dangerous lee shore, or if someone is gravely injured or in need of critical medical assistance, a Mayday call on VHF channel 16 is in order. Identify the vessel, its location, the nature of the emergency and the number of people onboard. Repeat the word Mayday and your vessel’s name three times. If no response is raised, continue the Mayday periodically, listening for a reply in between transmitting. Do so for as long as it takes, or until the radio fails. A Mayday call might sound like this: “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. This is the 30-foot fishing boat Josie, Josie, Josie.
Located 8 miles due south of Montauk Point in position 40 degrees 56.4 minutes North and 71 degrees 51.3 minutes West. We are sinking with four people onboard and require immediate assistance.”

When making a Pan-Pan or Mayday call, I recommend you also include a description of your location in addition to your GPS coordinates. You could say something like this: “I’m located 8 miles due south of Montauk Light.” This information can help other mariners form an immediate idea of your proximity.

Ensuring the radio is on high power will extend the call’s range. Speak slowly and annunciate clearly, to enhance your recipient’s ability to copy your information down. It’s a good idea to have a prepared pro-forma Mayday card or written distress procedures prepared. This helps a panicked user stay calm. As in all seamanship, make sure your watch standers know how to use the VHF, understand the proper etiquette and procedures and know the fastest way to produce your present GPS coordinates in an emergency.

If you hear a Mayday call, listen carefully to the details and write the information down. Acknowledge that you copy the Mayday on channel 16, determine the caller’s proximity, and assist if needed. Listeners are required to cease any transmissions that might interfere with distress traffic and continue to monitor until satisfied that assistance is being rendered. Relay the distress call if you conclude the sender has not received help.

New radios come equipped with Digital Selective Calling (DSC) to establish automatic radio distress calling. DSC gives your VHF a Mayday button, labelled “distress.” When set up properly, it’s like an automated 911 response system for boaters. If the button is activated, the VHF automatically broadcasts a coded distress call, including your position and vessel description, that will be received by nearby vessels’ DSC radios and the U.S.
Coast Guard.

If you have an older VHF that doesn’t have GPS already integrated for DSC, your electronics technician can easily connect it to your stand-alone GPS.

To use the DSC feature, you must first obtain a Maritime Mobile Service Identity (MMSI) number. Your MMSI is your boat’s assigned 9-digit identification code, like a phone number for your vessel, specific to your boat and maintained in the
national emergency database. If yours is a U.S. flagged recreational boat used in domestic waters, you may acquire your free MMSI with BoatU.S. or the U.S. Power Squadron, both authorized by the FCC. Or use the paperwork provided with a new DSC radio purchase to register for a MMSI. Your VHF manual will give instructions on programming in your MMSI.

Here’s an important note: If you use your VHF radio’s DSC button, you need to make a voice follow-up distress call on channel 16 that includes your MMSI number.

It’s worth mentioning that commercial vessels routinely use VHF channel 13, the channel dedicated to ship-to-ship working communications, to make Sécurité calls. Ships broadcast their location, their particular navigation restrictions—like backing out of a berth or maneuvering in a turning basin—and when any safety information is of interest to others. I often monitor channel 13 when on narrow rivers where visual contact is obscured, when crossing heavily trafficked shipping channels or in darkness while in proximity of a big port’s entrance.

Along with AIS, it’s the best way to stay abreast of the movements of commercial vessels. There’s nothing wrong with making your own responsible Sécurité call on channel 13. A ship’s bridge has a lot of information to track, and pilots are often thankful to get a brief update on a recreational vessel’s impending proximity and intentions.

Experienced boaters probably hear VHF messages in their sleep. But however commonplace, coming to the aid of someone in need is one of the most satisfying elements of seamanship. And if you’ve ever been in need yourself, it restores your faith in humanity when someone hears your call and becomes a seagoing Good Samaritan.

Monitor channel 16, and know how to communicate effectively in an emergency. And please do register your DSC radio. Your life might depend on it someday.

From SoundingsPAT MUNDUS
MAY 10, 2021

Don’t Wait For An Emergency To Learn How To Use Your EPIRB

PAT MUNDUS
MAY 30, 2018

If your vessel has an EPIRB, you’re not alone in an emergency. Distress signals can be received and acted upon within minutes, typically taking less than an hour for your position to be known to within 3 miles. That’s almost a miracle for a $500 purchase.

There are different types of EPIRBs and mounting brackets to suit various boats. Register your beacon, test it routinely and train your crew in its deployment as part of your safety routine.

EPIRBs work by transmitting a coded message on the 406 MHz distress frequency via Cospas-Sarsat satellites, which downlink the signal to Earth-based stations. Computers then transfer information to the nearest rescue coordination center. In U.S. waters, the distress information is relayed to the Sarsat Mission Control Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s satellite operations facility in Suitland, Maryland. From there, the information is sent to Coast Guard rescue coordination centers.

Intended for use when you are in grave or imminent danger, an EPIRB sends your coded message in a series of short digital bursts, with your beacon’s unique identification. A GPS-enabled EPIRB has a built-in transmitter that can greatly reduce search-and-rescue time, typically alerting rescue services within three minutes and to a positional accuracy of 500 feet. GPS-enabled is the most effective type of EPIRB.

A Category 1 EPIRB activates automatically with a hydrostatic release and can float free if the vessel sinks. Plan to mount a Cat 1 EPIRB clear of overhead obstructions so the beacon can bob to the surface following auto-deployment without the risk of getting trapped inside the boat. A Cat 1 beacon can also be manually released.

A Category 2 EPIRB is designed for manual deployment. It can be mounted above or below deck in an easily accessed but protected location. Some of us keep our Cat 2 EPIRB in a dedicated pocket in a floating ditch bag so it will be close at hand if we have to leave the boat in a hurry.

EPIRB registration is mandated by the Federal Communications Commission and enforced by the Coast Guard. Before use, an EPIRB’s specific identification code must be registered by following manufacturer instructions or by visiting beaconregistration.noaa.gov. You’ll be asked to provide your vessel’s information and your emergency contact information.

In the event that your EPIRB’s distress alert is relayed to a search-and-rescue center, the information you provided is passed on to authorities. Also, by attempting to contact you and/or your emergency contacts, rescue authorities are better able to determine if the distress alert is real or unintentional. If the alert is real, they will have information that improves the chances of finding you quickly — and saving your life. If the alert is unintentional, search-and-rescue resources are not diverted from a potential actual survival scenario.

You’ll need to update the information when your circumstances change — if you get a new boat, or if you change your address or primary phone number. Remember, an EPIRB is registered to a vessel, which means that if you buy a new boat and keep your beacon, you will need to reregister it.

An EPIRB battery is rated for five years of use and must be replaced by the date indicated on the label. A dealer approved by the manufacturer should replace it. If you dispose of an old beacon, do not throw it into the trash. Have the battery removed, label the EPIRB as deactivated, recycle components if possible, and update your information in the registration database.

Routine testing verifies device readiness. EPIRBs have a switch or setting for running test sequences according to manufacturer specifications. Never activate the distress switch except in a real emergency. If you accidentally activate an EPIRB, turn it off immediately. You will get a call from the Coast Guard, but there is no penalty if there was no malicious intent.

Hopefully, you won’t ever have to use your beacon. If you do, remember that EPIRBs are designed to float vertically with a relatively unobstructed view of the sky. The distress signal of a submerged beacon, or a beacon with its antenna blocked by a boat, is unlikely to be received by satellites. Tether the EPIRB’s lanyard to the crew, the boat if it remains afloat or the life raft. If you are in a raft and prefer to have the EPIRB inside, be sure that the aerial is always vertical for the best chance of detection. The battery life of an activated EPIRB is 48 hours.

It’s been said that an EPIRB takes the “search” out of search and rescue. Everyone on board should know about the beacon and its operation. The captain should assign responsibility to grab the EPIRB (if not him/herself) in the event that you have to abandon ship. If the EPIRB is stowed in a ditch bag, the person in charge of that bag should ensure that the beacon is, indeed, there.

Most important, “know before you go.” After a trusted friend spent a freezing night clinging to an overturned catamaran, one piece of advice stayed with me: Don’t wait until you are in the water to learn how to activate an EPIRB.