Let's talk safety on the water guys!

[gofshn]

situation #1

you are running out before light and you experience the dreaded thud, boat yanks hard to one side and you lose speed somewhat. you have your crew check the bilges, you are taking on water, it appears to be coming from a 1foot square hole in the keel. what is your gameplan. what safety equipment would you need onboard for this disaster. what have you already packed on your vessel for these types of encounters. let's talk damage assessment, proper mayday calls. proper raft deployment, epirb use and keeping your crew together.

situation #2 .....

you are out in the bluewater, and you lose power, you have filed a float-plan as a wise choice, you have tried repeatedly to regain power of your motor/motors with no luck, and you are drifting due to the heavy current. seas are building as we speak and there is a squall line heading your way. what is your mode of survival now? if you have a sea anchor, let's talk proper deployment as well as when to use it and when not to.

[2nahunter]

don' t panic , keep it together mentally ,call your mayday and give your position to anyone that can hear your signal don't waste time don the surival suit,grab your flairs ,epirb,hopefully life raft depoys,account for everybody in raft,better say your best prayer to god because he is going to see if your number was picked .you better be reel lucky because out there in the unforgiving ocean you probly won't get a second chance for mistakes #2 hopefully you have an anchor and enough line to keep your bow to the waves. better have good battery to make a distress call. set off epirb.better don the surivalsuits,its gonna be awile,stay calm, dont pannic, only makes things worse,better say your best prayer to god,you must have the right tools for the job,be prepared, this is no test run. out there you don't get second chances. no one out there to help ya so be prepaired for the worst and hope for the best. god bless my good buddy Capt. Sean Cone of the Lady LUCK, RIP. last month he went down in the gulf of maine. we all wish with our hearts he had a second chance. Topnotch CAPTAIN the very best. usually we don't think of bad stuff when we are having such a good time. you must RESPECT the allmighty ocean at all times, its not a game and we all know it. its not like we are on land and money can fix anything. i hope i didn't miss something. safety first.

[Chilli]

Guess I got a little long winded on this one... Capt. Fred would be happy.

Situation #1

You’ve discovered your large hole and you are taking on copious amounts of water. As your kneeling there with your head in the bilge a great epiphany is about to hit you. Right here and now you are about to find out something very important about yourself… You are either going to panic or turn into a smooth operator. Although folks may think they know the answer to this question, on thing is certain, you don’t know until your there… Well brothers in this story we are THERE… Take a deep breath, push out all the what ifs from your brain and turn the check list on. No time for questions. Its time to shake a leg. I’ll make the assumption we have a charter sized crew aboard. My assessment of the situation is we’ve got more water than we’ve got pump. The way that hole sits and the size of her we don’t have much chance of making it any smaller. First call is to get everybody suited up in floatation gear. Life vest at a minimum. AFTER and only after you get that done, get the raft out of the cradle, in the water and inflated. Tie her painter to the bow. I’m back up on the bridge with my notebook in hand. I’ve pulled the tab on the epirb and handed it to John Doe with the very specific instruction “This is a part of your body, just like your heart. You loose either one and we’re not going to live long. Hang on to it, it goes where we go.” I’ve got the radio humming and the call going out. We’ve also loosed a couple of red rockets off the stern. Hope somebody is paying attention. As I get one out on 16, I’m talking back over my shoulder. Water boys… Water… Drop your camera, we’re not going to need that. I want all the water you can find and any thing that floats. Don’t toss it over the side, I want all the coolers, rings etc lashed together in the cockpit. Get that water and in the raft. I know theirs a ditch bag in the raft, but it only gets looked at once a year. Get this secondary ditch bag in the raft. Meanwhile, I’ve still got no response on the radio. The transome is nearing the water. I hit the local vhf channels with more calls. Now I’m working both radios. I hit pay dirt. The coasties come back. They will want to know in this order: What is your position, what is the nature of your emergency, how many persons on board, are they wearing vests, are there any medical conditions at this time, what is the vessel name. There will be more questions if time allows, but you’ve got to have those answers ready. If your lucky, you have several minutes and can get a feel for the heading of your drift and drift speed. Nobody has left the boat yet, nobody is in the raft. The boat is still afloat, although there is water in places where you would never want to see water. It becomes a waiting game if you are luck to have that much time. You are still focused on the essentials. Do we have our gear together, will everyone float, we all STAY TOGETHER, what can we do to make ourselves more visable… And we wait for one of three things. 1st is going to be a C140 tossing pumps out the back… This is going to be a tough affair if it goes down. They wont land the pumps on the deck, as a matter of fact, they will most likely land them far from the boat. That brings up and interesting question. Billy bob who is a very strong guy sees the pumps land and want to swim for it. “He can get it!” he tells you…. Hmmm? Can he? Whats the current doing? Do you let him go? Do you try and put a safety tether on him? Will the pump even fire when you get it on the boat? Will it’s capacity even have an effect on the raging cluster fuck happening below your very feet??? It it worth the risk?

Perhaps option two might occur first. You see the bridge of a sportfisher appear on the horizon. She’s running full tilt and right for you. Perhaps you’ll be lucky enough to see her back down on your transome, black smoke wafting in the air as guys jubilantly step off your ride on to your new best friend in the whole wide worlds boat… That would be nice wouldn’t it? In this pleasant scenario is on of the reasons I secured the raft to the bow… I wanted to leave the easiest means of egress available for just such a stroke of luck…

And stroke of luck we would need. In all likely hood we will be opting for option number three. We’ve been on borrowed time for quite a while and appreciating every SECOND of it, but that jigs up now and the covering boards in the pit are looking more and more like photos from a divers log. Calmly now boys, ease on into that raft. It would be convient to bring that raft around to the stern and hop in, but I’m afraid of the stern slipping under and dragging that raft over the cockpit and dangerously close to all sorts of entanglements like the lip on the bridge or the riggers or the medly of rods reels and hooks that we have recklously strewn about… Up to the bow and into the raft every last one of you. NO! Don’t cut that painter! We are all in the raft, but we stay tied to the boat until the last possible second. If she traps air in her bow and stays adrift, that’s where I want to be… We’ve got anything that will float tied up along side of us, we’ve got the boat still barely afloat, we’ve got our arials, our dye packs, our epirb that John Doe has created finger grooves in… We’ve done what we can do. Keep your heads up and brace yourself for that sinking feeling that is about to hit your emotions. The adrenaline is going to where off and that anguishing battle of mental toughness is bound to set in. That’s what we’re focused on now… We’re being tough…


Situation #2:

We can’t get the mill running and it looks as though we’re about to get a spanking by old ma nature… Once again, we’re making sure everybody will float. I make to call to put it away or tie it down. Its going to be very rough in a short time and we don’t need to be battling loose gear and the ocean at the same time. Get it taken care of guys… If you think it might come off, put another hitch in it. While the crew is working, I’m talking. Trying to raise the coasties and make them aware of my situation . I will stay in contact with them as long as I can, keeping them abreast of my position and situation. Hopefully that means I talk to them right up to the point where I see their ugly tin can boat rolling up. I know I am going to be forced to ride this one out. With the weather before me I know nobody in orange is getting to me quick. So I do the best I can. I let them know what I’m doing and where I’m going so they can form a plan of attack to reach me fastest. Its that calm feeling right now that comes before the front. I’m going to use that moment to get my sea anchor out. It will be nearly impossible to deploy it once the wind starts snapping. Matter of fact if I try that stunt, the darn thing will be so tangled and twisted, it will probably never open correctly. I run out all the scope that I have, which should be a LOT… The more scope I have in the line the less risk I run of having the sea anchor inhibit the motion of my bow. By the looks of it, that bow is going to see quite a bit of bobbing in its future. I’ve got calls on the wire, I’ve got the deck lashed down, I’ve got a means of stability in place. Time to get the boys to drink up and eat a bit. It could be one hell of a long uncomfortable battle ahead of us and I want everybody to have a little gas in the tank. In all likelihood, something is going to come up that is going to call for immediate action and require strength. I want the crew to be ready for that. While we’re catching a drink of water, I make assignments. Johny is on the epirb, John Doe is on the ditch bag, Billy Bob is ready with the manual pump, and Fred is going to pick up the slack… What ever that may turn out to be. We do not know what is going to happen. But we do know that what ever needs doing, we will do as a team. We will work methodically, we will listen and we will STAY TOGETHER…

[BTH284]

Situation #1 (I am a small boater) 9 out of 10 times I am fishing near other boats. EPIRB gets turned on. First call to the Coast Guard let them know of my situation. Next call to surrounding boats in the area to see if someone can assist. As soon as I see the hole everyone gets a life vest with strobe I might add. Get ditch bag out. (this gets checked listed for items before every trip) Even call Sea Tow to assist in towing in if boat does not go completely under. Keep everyone calm until help arrives. If boat capsizes and floats everyone will stay with the boat as long as possible then stay together. All coolers are lashed together and tied off .In the mean time I will keep transmitting as long as water does not top the batteries. See someone coming on plane in distance to help. I pop the penguin smoke/flares to let know my location. Praying and trying to keep calm the entire time.

#2
Throw the anchor first or sea anchor. Try out the jump start pack on motor. Life jackets and strobes on everyone. Start calling coasties and surrounding boats and keep transmitting until response or help arrives or loose power. Loose power, EPRIB gets turned on. Get ditch bag ready. Keep everyone calm and wait for help. See help coming flares or smoke gets popped.

Most of the places I fish A cell phone is still in range too. Could be a valuable tool in this situation.

[Jones]

#1
If you've got a 1-foot-square hole below the waterline, you probably don't have time to do ANYTHING except don lifejackets and pop the EPIRB before the boat sinks, but assuming you do, here's what I would do: First, Capt directs crew and passengers to don lifejackets immediately while Capt and crew deploys a collision mat or tarp over the hole under the boat. EPIRB out of holder, laying on deck but not yet turned on. As soon as passengers and crew have lifevests on, capt directs a crewperson or passenger to get on radio and issue either Mayday or PanPan while capt continues to deal with stopping water ingress and/or getting water out. In other words: 1st attempt to stop the water coming in while crew/passengers prepare for possible ditch. Once you stop the water coming in, the story changes drastically for the beter.

#2
sea anchor off bow, get on the radios and try to get help. all crew and passengers have lifejackets on. keep the chunk baits going out in an unbroken line.

[Swami]

Scenario 1: Let's assume we're in a big convertible sportfish/charterboat. Flip the valve on the crash pump and let the engine(s) start sucking out some of that incoming water. Might not keep up with what's coming in but it's all about buying time now--time to raise help on the VHF, time to get the crew situated, time to deploy the raft.

Scenario 2: Even if you don't have a sea anchor or are too deep for regular anchoring, anything that creates drag will help keep the bow into the wind. Put the word out so you can get help heading your way.

The underlying theme with both is to stay calm and not freak out completely. Like my old Scuba instructor told me, you lose it down there and you die with air left in your tanks.

Calm down, take a deep breath and think. Then act.

Sam