Every once in a while we read of stories of mishaps and rescues on the bay or even at sea and the story of the five adults and child who were recently rescued from the 47' sailboat Panache by our Coast Guard was widely reported in the media.
It pains me to read stories of people who are "rescued" when it appears, at least according to the news accounts, that they were not really in need of a rescue. The boat was not on fire, nor was it sinking, dashed upon a reef and breaking up, etc. etc. But every sailor knows you can run into bad weather--and sometimes that bad weather can be dangerous, especially if the boat gets knocked down, or a crewperson falls or the boat broaches or something like that but why should high winds and big waves require a rescue? Boats are made to bob up and down and pop back up. Loss of engine propulsion? Well, you are on a sailboat and sailing ships plied the oceans for hundreds of years before engines were invented. Loss of your rudder? Again, you are on a sailboat, you can always lie-a -hull, put out a sea anchor or lash a board or ropes or buckets or a spar or a table or something and try to steer or perhaps try to heave-to or maybe steer with the sails or for gosh sakes--do something!
But call the Coast Guard by satellite phone (which was only invented recently)? In this case they were what normally would be but a day or so out from Bermuda, but perhaps as their condition deteriorated, so did crew morale and who knows what else. Maybe it was much worse. Maybe they feared for their child and erred on the side of caution. But even a rescue presents dangers! According to the story:
A million-dollar rescue effort is launched and a highly-trained rescue swimmer at great risk to him or herself and everyone involved, pulls this family to safety--or to more relative safety. And I must ask, what is a "small-four-engine airplane"??? The reporter should have learned that the Coast Guard's four engine planes are the HC-130's and they are certainly not "small". By the way, the reporter described the ocean between the US and Bermuda as a 600-mile wide channel.
When you sail to Bermuda in November, expect some bumpy weather and when you take a four-year old child, think twice...think thrice. Perhaps in an age where so many rely on gadgets and gear, and when we know we have satellite phones, some of us don't prepare as well as we should. It may be arrogant and unfair to second-guess these unfortunate sailors, and I may have to eat my words one day if I find myself in a similar situation, but many sailors have come through much worse without help from anyone else. The bookshelves are filled with their tales. We can learn a thing or two from them and these people would probably have been fine had there not been the highly trained men and women from the well-equipped Coast Guard Air Logistics Center but a couple of hours away.
The old saying goes, you never step down into a liferaft. By the way, where is the boat? Had the reporter checked, she would have learned that it was abandoned. It will be bobbing around in the ocean making it a real danger to other mariners for months or years. In such cases, maybe the Coast Guard should pump a few 7.62 mm rounds into the hull or fire some flares into the cabin? Maybe the insurance company will hire a plane to find the boat, which according to more research I easily did on line, was in Annapolis recently where it was outfitted and where crew was obtained. The Bavaria 47' is generally listed within the 150k to 200k range.
See The Capital's article:rescue
There is even a video supplied by the USCG: panachemovie
For further discussion of this mishap from the viewpoint of cruising sailors, visit: panache
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