Ed Kelly wrote: > Arild, > > I was puzzled and not so sure you understood what I was saying > in the quote you snipped. If you assumed I am recommending > "call the fire department". I am not. I am assuming a situation > where you are underway when the fire is discovered. > REPLY I did read and understand your specific POV. However, after teaching Power Squadron classes for 20 years with an average of 20 students per class I think I can say I have seen a fair cross section of the boating public. As far as I am concerned a radio is not very helpful and in many cases creates a false sense of security in the mind of boaters. Especially those boaters with limited background or experience. They seem to think a radio can summon instant help.
While it is true that in high density population areas there may be a Jayhawk chopper on hot stand by, it is just as likely any coast guard asset is already engaged elsewhere and for some reason is not able to get you you in less than one hour; if not more. My students were horrified to learn I sailed for over 10 years without a radio on board. In fact I had absolutely no electronics aboard whatsoever. Never had a problem I could not deal with myself. But I was careful. I am the idiot you might see sailing single handed with a safety harness on, even in daylight. One year our Squadron had a raft up overnight event. Someone had a galley fire flare up at breakfast. Although the boat was less than 100 yards from the mainland shoreline, we were 15 miles from the nearest possible road close enough to shore that a transfer to an ambulance was possible. Flight time from nearest helo base was 2.5 hours. Fortunately, among our members, we had a senior nurse and someone had a fully equipped first aid kit. A fast boat was dispatched with the burn victim but had to travel several miles before they reached a point that was not blanketed by a radio shadow. Once in radio communications they could make arrangement to meet an ambulance. But truth to tell, at that point it would have been just as easy to go in a different direction and travel directly to the town that had a hospital. Oh yeah! The fire. Our guys put that out as well; No big deal. Self sufficiency is the ONLY answer. Ed wrote: There is no downside to pushing the red DISTRESS button on your radio so that a rescue for those on board may be summoned while you are fighting the fire, in case you cannot later summon help and have to go into the water. Otherwise, the boat owner may sadly learn the answer to the question: > "How long can you tread water?" > REPLY The downside is thinking that pushing the RED button is really going to fetch help in a timely manner. The best cruising grounds are far from such help. Thinking help is on its way may very well instill a mental perspective that as long as you can hold on a bit then "professional help" will arrive. I have come close to losing a boat twice and I have also had to deal with on-board fires a couple of times. Not necessarily same boats or related. None of the situations could have been improved by having summoned help. As for treading water. That's what survival suits are for. If you end up in the water inside VHF range you can most likely reach shore on your own. If you are too far out for that, then its an EPIRB you need, not a VHF on the burnt vessel. SAR assets need a continuing beacon to home in on. In any case, if you don't deal with an onboard fire by yourself, you will be swimming or wading home. anyways. So forget the damn VHF radio, concentrate on the fire aspect by being prepared. And if you do that right, you won't need the radio in any case. Arild _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
