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One of the most-overlooked safety items is a spot light. We have two - one is hard-wired and needs to be plugged into a 12-volt plug in our cockpit. The other has a rechargeable battery. These spot lights have made a difference in two hairy situations offshore in our past.
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| One of our spot lights |
In 2006, we were about 60 miles offshore from Norfolk, with the best weather forecast to sail straight down to the Virgin Islands. We had just had our engine serviced by a mechanic and were fully provisioned and excited about sailing to the Caribbean. That night (everything happens in the middle of the night), I spotted a commercial ship and started tracking it. We are always concerned about ship traffic - something that big could mow us down, sinking our boat, and never even know it. I had already tried calling the ship on our marine radio, with no answer. I woke Larry up, and we started the engine... or tried to. It sputtered and died. Suddenly, with the sharp clarity that impending danger engenders, we were in peril. The wind was almost non-existent and we had no power from our diesel engine. We tried to hail the ship again, with no answer. So, out comes our trusty two-million-candlepower spot light. We first shone the light on our sail, and then pointed it at the bridge on the ship that was growing larger by the minute. Aha! That got their attention, and they answered our next call on the radio. They did indeed see us and would take evasive action.
On another voyage, we were about 40 miles offshore in the Atlantic. In a big ocean, you'd be surprised at how like a broad highway the Gulf Stream is, with shipping traffic up and down the Atlantic coast. Up the coast, the ships take advantage of the Gulf Stream to sweep them north. Going down the coast, ships stay more inshore to avoid the stream, which is where we were, just off North Carolina. Again, at oh-dark-thirty in the morning, we were on a collision course with a ship. It seemed to be tracking us; as we changed course, so did they. Our spot light came to the rescue again.
So it's important to charge the batteries and check our spot lights. We may buy another to have in reserve.
We are also looking at a new horse-shoe buoy, with a bright light, for crew overboard emergencies. We both wear inflatable life preservers with built-in harnesses at all times when in the cockpit, even in the most benign weather. We tether ourselves to strong U-bolts on the boat as well. Even so, we need to guard against falling overboard, which is how many deaths at sea occur. We have a plan, including marking our GPS coordinates, immediately doing a U-turn to go back, starting the engine, and throwing all throwable safety cushions.
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| New Plastimo throwable buoy - replacing a badly deteriorated 30-year old one |
We also carry an EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicator Radio Beacon) whose sole purpose, when activated, is to send an emergency alarm to Search and Rescue operations with our beacon's information, boat information, and GPS coordinates, in case of sinking or other catastrophic emergency. It's one piece of gear we hope to never need.
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| Our ACR EPIRB - it goes into the life raft with us |
On our minds has been our lack of ability to identify ships at sea. So, we just purchased a new VHF marine radio, with a built-in feature called AIS (Automated Identification System). This radio has a nifty display that shows all commercial ship traffic within a 5 or 10 mile range, with an alarm when the ship enters our range. It shows the ship's name, departure point, next intended port, speed, and direction, among other information. Best of all, it shows the Closest Point of Approach distance, meaning that if both the ship and our boat keep on the same course and speed, how close they will be to us. No more guessing in the middle of the night!
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| Here's the new radio we are waiting to arrive |
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| Here's our old radio - a 30-year old ICOM |
We are waiting for this radio to come in so we can install it before we go.
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