Ed,
Any time you have your VHF radio turned on you
are supposed to monitor channel 16.
There is no requirement that you turn it ON
though...
Eric Thompson
S/V Procrastinator
South San Francisco
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ed Kelly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 12:27 PM
Subject: [Liveaboard] Near death experience -
remember to monitor Ch 16 whenonboard
>I wanted to share an email from a friend of mine
>who may have helped
> save someone's life at sea, due to his
> monitoring VHF Channel 16. My
> friend is Mike Clark on Fidelio and his action
> deserves credit for
> performing like a hero in my book. You may see
> them in Cape
> Canaveral or elsewhere going south.
>
> I believe there may be a requirement that you
> monitor Channel 16
> while sailing. When some friends were leaving
> Charleston for Florida
> the week after New Years they discussed staying
> on Channel 69. I
> suggested also monitoring 16 as well, just in
> case some traffic might
> be trying to reach them. He did not know how to
> set the radio to scan
> two channels. (Most radios will do this) I
> figured out how to set
> his to monitor that channel too as he was
> warming up the engine to
> leave. I am glad I did. Here's what he told me
> in his own words:
>
> ---------
>
> The following is strange but true.
>
> We left St Augustine at 6 am in the dark and
> fog. The forecast was
> for winds 10-15 kt out of the NW and seas 2-3
> ft. The rumb line
> course to Cape Canaveral inlet was a heading of
> 151degrees. After
> going about 7 miles off shore we decided to set
> the sails and shut
> down the engine. By now the wind was from our
> bow so we bore off on
> a heading of 125 degrees. The wind piped up to
> 15-20 kt and we were
> really moving along at 7+ kts. I was really
> enjoying the sail after
> so much motoring and we were really making good
> progress. All went
> well for about 3 hours and we ended up much
> further off shore than
> originally planed. However, DeAnn and Danna (on
> Quequige) both
> became seasick and as the wind was continuing to
> increase Danna
> suggested we turn around and go back to St.
> Augustine. We were
> communicating with Quequige on Ch 69 on the VHF
> and monitoring Ch16
> at the same time (Ed had shown DeAnn how to do
> this on our radio
> while we were in Charleston). We decided to reef
> in the sails and
> come about when we received a very faint
> distress call on Channel
> 16. The call was to the Coast Guard but they
> were out so far they
> could not be received. The person on the radio
> was on a trawler and
> young and inexperienced. It turned out he was
> on the bridge and
> heard there dog who was in the cabin with his
> father and the fathers
> girlfriend start yapping. He went down stairs
> and both the father
> and girlfriend were unconscious and then the dog
> went unconscious.
> The girlfriend started convulsions bit her toung
> and was bleeding
> from the mouth and both father and girl friend
> were having difficulty
> breathing. The boy smelled an exhaust leak into
> the cabin. He shut
> down the engines and was trying to get some
> medical assistance. We
> were the only boat who could here them so we
> turned again and relayed
> their call into the Coast Guard. The Guard
> could hear us and we
> could hear the boat in distress. I told the boy
> to keep the engine
> turned off and try and drag the people and dog
> out into fresh air.
> He was able to give me his GPS coordinates and
> we headed for his
> position. In the mean time we relayed all the
> information requested
> by the Guard to them and Seatow who immediately
> headed out. To make
> a long story short, Seatow arrived first and got
> the father and
> girlfriend onboard and immediately headed back
> to St. Augustine for
> medical assistance. Quequige had seen us turn
> around and did not
> know what was going on as they were on Channel
> 69, later they
> switched to 16 and were there to assist as well.
>
> What was unusual about all of this is that if
> the winds were as
> forecast we would not have gone far enough off
> shore to hear their
> distress call. If Danna had not wanted to turn
> around and De wanted
> to bring in the sails we would not have heard
> the faint call on our
> radio. If Ed had not shown De in Charleston how
> to monitor 2 radio
> frequencies at the same time we would not have
> received the call and
> had we not relayed the call into the Coast Guard
> there would not have
> been any medical assistance. Even had the
> people on the trawler not
> had a dog to make the noise which alerted the
> boy, the problem would
> not have been detected in time.
>
> We are back in St. Augustine and will depart
> again tomorrow morning
> for Cape Canaveral.
>
> ------ ###### -------
>
> I guess we should all make sure we keep Ch 16 on
> and the volume up in
> the future. It can make a difference.
>
> Ed Kelly (& Sue Kelly)
> currently lying Charleston, SC
> USSV Angel Louise - a Catalac catamaran
> Our Skype Phone (202) 657-6357
> Email: EdKelly ("at" symbol) netins.net
>
>
>
>
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