We do our very best to educate boaters before they get on the water but no matter how well trained or prepared you are sometimes things just happen, which is why we patrol and why we respond when the Search and Rescue alarm goes off. I spent the second day of National Safe Boating Week on Auxiliary Facility 181173 "Defiant". Every day I'm on the water has lessons and today was no exception.
The first lesson is that, as boaters, we are a community. The first three boats we saw in trouble today were already being assisted and towed by fellow boaters. Good samaritans had broken away from their day on the water to help fellow boaters in need. As Guardians and as mariners it is very gratifying to see the fundamental rule of the sea, to render aid when able, in action. It was particularly gratifying to see a sailboat under power towing a power boat. Bravo Zulu (Coast Guard for "job well done") to all three skippers who rendered aid.
Lesson #2. If your vessel is giving you trouble it is best to test it at the dock. Our first tow was a personal watercraft (PWC). The owner indicated that he'd "been having trouble". The middle of the Columbia River channel is a very poor place for the "trouble" to manifest. If your vessel isn't operating well please just don't go out. The stakes can get very high, very quickly.
Lesson #3. PWCs don't transport three large men and a cooler well. Our major distress case today was again assisted by good samaritans - we got a call of a PWC in trouble from a power boat with a VHF-FM (see Chief Roszkowski's post on the importance of VHF-FM radios), and were on scene within 3 minutes where we found another PWC assisting and they had already taken on person aboard. There were two men in the water and the PWC was 90% submerged. Luckily the two men were wearing life jackets and has not been exposed to the 55 degree water for more than ten minutes. We were able to pull the PWC up partial out of the water and then dewater using our gas powered dewatering pump. Again a Bravo Zulu to the good samaritans who assisted. If the people aboard the PWC had not been wearing life jackets this case could have been tragic - the cold water of the Columbia can cause shock within minutes.
Lesson #4: Everyone gets a dead battery from time to time... and it always seems to happen at the worst possible time. As we were heading in this evening we passed a boat on the beach at Government Island about 500 yards off. The sun was setting and it just didn't feel right so we went over to check to make sure they were okay. At the same time they realized they had a dead battery, which isn't a good situation at sundown, on a remote island, with your seven year old son aboard. Tonight this family got home. Dead batteries happen to everyone. When teaching our classes we recommend that all boats have a multiple battery installation with a battery switch to assure you always have backup power.Enough lessons for one day. Thank you to my shipmates Jon James and Ken Babick for another great day on the water. As we like to say, any day on the water is better than any day in the office. Please consider taking a boating safety class, get a vessel exam, continue to take care of your fellow boaters, wear your life jackets, and be safe.This is a repost of one of my stories that first appeared on the D13 Blog:
No comments:
Post a Comment