Coast Guard rescues father and son from life raft

[chumtini]

Very lucky, and that must be one hell of a cell phone!! EPIRBs are so much cheaper now, there's no reason not to have one.

BOSTON- The Coast Guard rescued a father and son crew of a 40-foot Northeast Harbor lobster vessel after it caught fire and sank around 9 a.m., today about 20 miles south of Southwest Harbor, Maine.

Coast Guard Station Southwest Harbor received a phone call from a family friend around 11:22 a.m., reporting that David and Ryan Graves of the fishing vessel Midnight had abandoned ship into a life raft near Mount Harbor Rock.

The crew had a cell phone aboard the life raft and drifted for about two hours until they finally got a cell phone signal to call for help.

The Coast Guard launched a Falcon jet crew and a Jayhawk helicopter crew from Air Station Cape Cod, and a 41-foot and 47-foot boat crew from Coast Guard Station Southwest Harbor. Coast Guard Cutter Moray was diverted to the scene from a routine patrol.

Due to visibility of less than a quarter of a mile, the Coast Guard crews had difficulty finding the crew in the life raft.

Around 1:53 p.m., the 47-foot boat crew located the two men and pulled them to safety. No injuries were reported.

"This was a challenging case due to the low visibility," said Chief Petty Officer Ed Iversen, the officer in charge at Coast Guard Station Southwest Harbor. "The crew of the Midnight used whistles and the cell phone to help us pinpoint their location."

[AlloyToy]

You are dead on about EPIRB's Chum.............luck was on thier side!!

[Boonebird]

I think we all know what service they had for a phone. Global star rocks. Yea boy.

[fin-chaser]

We have an EPIRB and raft, etc... but my son recently bought me a SPOT - Personal Satellite Tracking device. It works very well and for an all in cost of about $300. it is well worth the investment.

Tracks you where ever you are and you can send messages to your family while you are out in the boat and they will know exactly where you are located. OR you can send distress signals to coasties, etc.......in case of an emergency.

Hope I never need to use it for that reason, but I know that my wife will like the tracking feature when we are off shore.

WWW.findmespot.com

Give it a try......

Fin-

[chumtini]

We have an EPIRB and raft, etc... but my son recently bought me a SPOT - Personal Satellite Tracking device. It works very well and for an all in cost of about $300. it is well worth the investment.

Tracks you where ever you are and you can send messages to your family while you are out in the boat and they will know exactly where you are located. OR you can send distress signals to coasties, etc.......in case of an emergency.

Fin-

There was a lot of talk when those started rolling out. The main issue raised was that it connects via the global star network. Works well for you?

[fin-chaser]

There was a lot of talk when those started rolling out. The main issue raised was that it connects via the global star network. Works well for you?

Yes, I was concerned about that as well, but it seems to work well. We will be giving it a real test tomrrow as we are headed off shore. I'll report back on the results.

Fin-

[Devils Fiddle]

Oddly enough the Globalstar has been working on and offshore lately?