Surfski Knowledge Base

tahalsted
12/20/17 #22368

Just saw KGMI report of CG helicopter rescue of kayaker in water. Possibly pulling crab pots. Is everyone in our community accounted for?

Looking for more info, but nothing yet…

Reivers Dustin
12/21/17 #22369

Haven’t heard anything. Noticed a couple surfskis doing reverse down winder late yesterday. Tuesday LB chatted with a guy taking his 6 ft inflatable power yacht out. His fly bridge was a lawnchair. It was like a Gary Larsen cartoon where someone is acting in a way that warns you to not try to reason with them.

Larry Bussinger
12/21/17 #22370

RD, turns out those guys were manufacture's from up the hill and were testing the landing wheels on their boat. They weren't actually going out. Which was a good thing.

Larry B

tahalsted

12/21/17 #22371

News this morning says he fell off his “sit-on kayak”.
He didn't make it.
Damn.

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article191002759.html

lori & beau whitehead
12/21/17 #22372

The victim was wearing waders. That's all I'll say.

Reivers Dustin
12/21/17 #22373

when I was a kid my dad moved us all to England for three years. We lived in Felixstowe, East Suffolk, right on the coast. I remember dad telling a story about going fishing with a buddy. There were tons of “Skate” which is basically a sea ray. That's usually what the fish was when you got fish 'n chips. Anyway, he wore waders one time and it got real rough. This is in a little boat in the north sea. I well remember how the boomers would come onto the beach on a storm. They never came out of the boat, but he said all he could think about was those stinking waders filling with water and no way to get the damn things off once you're in the drink. He wanted desperately to not have them on, but it was full time bailing and heaving oar to get to land. I think about that from time to time. It's one reason I gave away my muckluk type boots. They're nice and warm, but any kind of high boots have a down side.

Such a little thing to take a life.

rd

paddler mayday
Reivers Dustin
01/02/18 #22395

I heard more about that the paddler that got into trouble a few weeks ago (that didn't survive). It seems he made a cell phone 911 call. The call was routed to a 911 dispatch in another county (not sure if it was island county or Skagit). Responders from Whatcom county (C.G. or other emt) didn't get into the communications for a long time.

Note that a vhf radio mayday might be picked up by distant cg station. In fact one time my radio mayday was picked up first by Victoria station, Canada who called Bellingham c.g. (with a whole lot more beans than a little five watt handheld radio). Another time the mayday was first picked up by Port Townsend. The difference is that a vhf mayday is a broadcast and handled immediately by dedicated vessel emergency responder.

Back those many years ago when I worked, I was responsible for jobs on the west coast. We used crews from all over and the jobs were sometimes in little places like Roundup, MT or La Junta, CO. So our job safety plans always explained to the crew members that their cell phone 911 call could go to unexpected dispatch locations. We expected aid calls to use land lines. Also, we included the direct dial for local responding agencies. This has been a problem for a long time and some dispatch centers are getting smart about how they take phone calls. But heads up if you take your cell phone to the gorge and the dispatch center sees this prefix from another planet which begins a whole lot of hijinks.

Maybe that's not a good example. The gorge is one place where a cell phone is for real. Most of the time we team up on those runs and we might cover each other better than water rescue down there.

That's a good question. What is disposition of water response down there? Is it Coast Guard or what? It's an interstate boundary so that complicates. Also, good chance that the “rescue 21” program is not implemented down there. So the digital select calling with auto mayday would not work (panic button on equipped VHF radios). Anyone know the score?

(Ed: In 2024 to our knowledge all US CG stations are on the coast. There is some adjunct support in Kennewick but that's too far from the Gorge. Commercial and private vessels can recieve DSC signals, (but obviously the barges will probably not be able to help much ))

rd