Messages sorted by:
[ date ]
[ thread ]
[ subject ]
[ author ]
My thoughts here are aimed NOT at the ocean-crossing types and completely
wild weather situations, but rather at the mom and pop (MAP) TRAWLER
cruising conditions most of us face. You semi-pros out there are hopefully
rigged and ready to be washed off your boats and safely retrieved, but
you'll not find me and my lots-a-glass Grand Banks out challenging my
manhood and its "boathood." I spent plenty of years going to sea when
somebody else decided I needed to do that - no more!
My guess is that lots of us MAP trawler types are not likely to be all that
far from a safe haven and that 6-foot seas will send us either scurrying to
port, or, better yet, not even leaving. But even being caught in
six-footers with a MOB poses some food for serious thought. An unconscious
MOB or one in the COLD waters of the Great Lakes is serious in ways almost
unthinkable to the spouse/partner remaining on board. Unthinking and
frenetic efforts could well end up with both persons lost. My wife is new
to me and boating, so I need to train her (a not really athletic type) to
help me or herself should we end up in the wa-wa? I do not consider us
really well prepared for the worst case yet, but we're working up to it. We
have discussed the issue, and I have taught her to think ahead about the
situation by having unannounced MOB drills. I have been known to go below,
leaving her at the conn, and throw "Oscar" over the side shouting "man
overboard!" Then I do nothing while she thinks back to the last time she
had to get the boat in and out of gear and turned around (not often enough
yet), etc. She looks at me with barely concealed agitation as she spins the
wheel and hits the throttles while I stand by on the main deck smiling up at
her. We always get into a good discussion afterward as to the various
merits of the Anderson, y-backing, and Williamson turns and other methods
for recovery. As we have six and a half grandkids, we also discuss who
would go in the water and when were one to go swimming. These discussions
are probably the best thing to come out of my drills, because I can impart a
lot of information to a mind that is for the moment focused on the issue.
Were it just us 2 MAPs aboard, the worst case scenario is me unconscious in
the water with no PFD in rough (remember my six-foot limit) weather. That
is kind of contrived because I consider that we'd have at least type III
vests on by then. I'm not at all sure she could do other than get the boat
near me (while calling MAYDAY), shut down, and jump in with the life sling
and a line between herself and boat in the hope she could keep me breathing
while getting me back toward the boat. The boat will go broadside to the
seas making the swim step not untenable, but not really safe either, but
what choice does she now have but to get me with the life sling on near the
boat and climb back aboard via the swim step? Now she could await the
proper timing by keeping me bobbing just beyond the step until a propitious
wave helps wash me aboard. Then she'd have to try lashing me in place and
running like hell toward port and/or approaching help. The gun tackle rig
from the end of the boat boom (overhead of the swim step) would be of help
in the later stages of the operation.
For outside passages, out of sight of land, I have determined to empty the
inflatable of all junk except the ditch kit (flares, walkie-talkie, wet
suit, water, EPIRB (not yet)) and attach a long line to it. That way it is
light enough for either of us to slide it off the cabin top over the rail
(boom being useless in rough weather) and into the water. It should be
somewhat safer and easier for the conscious one to then jump in the water,
into dinghy, and to get a body into it, and at least get the rescuer back
aboard. Then you could and just tow the dink and rescuee, if need be.
I'll not be rigging unsightly and cumbersome rescue devices on my boat for
the simple reason that my limited cruising and consequent minute risk does
not warrant that sort of expense and trouble. That's my theory of defined
risk. I'll reassess the risk as retirement, old age, wider cruising habits
may dictate.
Now that 406 MHZ EPIRB prices are coming down out of the stratosphere, I'll
be looking into them because it should be in the "rescue inflatable" ditch
kit mentioned above because it could end up being a choice between partner
or boat once you're in the dink with a damaged partner. Anybody got a 406
EPIRB they would recommend? I think there are only a few certified
manufacturers out there.
As mentioned by another listee, we plan to avoid the horrifying "missing
person" MOB wherein one is realized gone long after falling over by keeping
sight of each other during any transit outside the skin of the ship.
No doubt this thread is exhaustively covered in the files somewhere, but
this is my two cents worth today.
The foregoing notwithstanding, does anybody actually have a story of a MAP
trawler MOB? I have no personal knowledge of one, and I have been hanging
around marinas and my boat for 14 years now. The old saw about men with
flys down is apocryphal and has been around for years. In 20 plus years in
the Navy and several subsequent stints as a merchant mariner, I saw only one
MOB incident and that was two sailors who jumped overboard as we left San
Diego en route to Vietnam (ship behind us snatched 'em up in two minutes).
Rich Gano
CALYPSO (GB42-295)
Homeport Panama City
I'd rather be cruisin'
