Think it’s a good idea if you have a regular crew to assign one person to be the one to get PFD’s, one for life raft, etc.
and don’t forget the duct tape!
It is amazing everyone made it home safe. Good on the young man who kept a cool head and knew what to do. Dad must have tought him well.
If the DSC signal was sent but had no coordinates, could that be caused by not having the radio connected to a working gps unit?
218WA Sailfish
200 Verado
The "Penn"sion Plan
I have never been in a serious boating emergency, but I have been in a few non-boating emergencies, and often times there is not time to think. Things happen QUICK, so quick that sometimes you cant even remember exactly how it happened. It is best to do the thinking ahead of time, so when it happens you don’t have to think about it. Like everyone is doing here. Discussing the likely scenarios and what to do about them. It is no different than Police, Firefighters, and Soldiers do. They train for likely scenarios, so when it happens they know what to do without having to pause and think it out.
One thing that this incident has brought to light for me is that I am not the only one that needs to know what to do in the scenarios. The Captain may have been ready to deal with it, but if you have just one passenger do something like this it changes everything. Because he relied on his thinking (or lack of) at the time of the emergency rather than clear thinking before hand. There needs to be a brief safety meeting when everyone gets on the boat. I know that you often fish with your buddies who may already know, but it doesn’t take long to hit the basics. Like not jumping in the water…especially without a PFD.
Like Larry said, the one you haven’t thought of could happen tomorrow. But, there are some EXTREMELY experienced people on this forum who have seen or heard about most of it. This is an awesome thread, and I appreciate all the advice everyone is sharing. I like to read about big fish, but this one could actually be saving lives.
Things can go sideways in a hurry out there, and life or death can be a second apart. It is a good idea to have an “underway checklist” before you leave the dock. Make sure you have all the safety stuff, check major mechanical components, verify systems are working. I know this may sound extreme to some, but it works. I would hope most people do some, if not all of this anyway. Let me also say that there is no shame as a passenger to ask me where things are if I haven’t told them yet. How many captains have failed to tell their guests, families, buddies, whatever… where the throw cushion is, or a fire extinguisher? I know I am guilty. I can’t tell you the last time I practiced Williamson Turns for a man - overboard… probably 15 years ago. There is more to good seamanship than flemishing a line on the dock or knowing red-right-return.
quote:
There needs to be a brief safety meeting when everyone gets on the boat.
Absolutely, I do this every time, with everybody who gets on my boat. Show everybody where the life jackets and fire extinguishers are. Where flares and other safety equipment and tools are located, how to work the radio and send a distress call. How to turn on the bilge pumps. Activate the EPIRB or inflate the life raft. Drop the anchor. Somebody beside you needs to know how to crank the engine, switch fuel tanks and batteries, and operate the GPS too. What if the Captain is the one disabled? I want them to be able to get me back home if necessary.
When offshore fishing, somebody, or preferably more than one somebody, should be certified in CPR and basic first aid. Have a very good first aid kit aboard. On my charter boats my first aid kit was larger than my tackle boxes. I carried everything from sutures to blood pressure cuff to inflatable splints. I’ve had to use them all. If diving, a tank of pure oxygen is aboard.
Preparation is the key to happy endings. As the man said above, nothing will happen when you expect it too, and when it does it will go to heck in a handbasket real dang fast. There won’t be time to think, just to act. Do your thinking ahead of time as much as possible, have a plan for anything you can think of, and expect the next problem to be the one you didn’t.
Then when you hear something like " Captain, there sure is a lot of water inside the cabin, is that normal?", you can say no, but no problem. Joe, break out the life jackets, just in case. Bob, grab those foam plugs and noodles that I showed you, Skeeter, turn on the pumps, Tony crank the engine, take the helm and keep her pointed into the sea, slow and easy. Jason, you stand by that anchor and drop it if the engine quits. If the boat sinks pop the raft. I’
Same make and model as my boat and the forecast wasn’t that bad for the 4th. Definitely makes me take all the advice and get a game plan together. I always file a good float plan but I will have a ditch bag and EPIRB before going through the jetties again. Also the safety meeting before leaving will be in my routine, sounds like if all the above would have happened here a lot of time and panic could have been avoided. I am fairly new to the offshore, just bought a bigger boat and took it 15 miles out for the 1st time Sat. This story opened my eyes to how real it can get and how fast. Thanks for all the advice and Thank God everyone made home to there families.
Keebler
23’ Mako
17’ Montauk
“Fishing - Hours of boredom with moments of Chaos” John Payne
Does anyone know what the conditions were the day of the accident and do you know how far offshore they were when it happened?
Glad everyone came out okay. This was a timely post as we just arrived in Islamorada today. We don’t go way out (10 miles or less) but even at that distance bad things can happen. I’ll go over emergency ops with my family tomorrow before we head out to the reefs.
“Apathy is the Glove into Which Evil Slips It’s Hand”.
I go thru most of Larry’s check list! I am amazed at the people that I have had on board that have no Idea of how to run a boat! I allways show them how to follow the waypoint back home! Thank GOD that the lost were found and all right!