It's a good idea to file a sail plan before you head out on the ocean. This is just letting someone on land know where you are going and when you expect to arrive there. I admit that the comment I left on the blog to Ross that I was going out on the ocean for a night or two, was not the most detailed sail plan.
Amy got worried after she didn't here from me for a couple days on the ocean passage. She called the coast guard. Let me clue people into the fact that there are not a lot of cell phone towers out on the ocean. Amazingly, I occasionally had some cell phone service as far as 20 miles from land. Not enough for a phone conversation. But enough to send a text message.
I guess I have conditioned folks that there will be constant contact from the boat. I'll take the blame for putting up a webcam, hooking up my gps to the internet, and posting daily to the blog. But let me tell you now that there will almost certainly be periods of days on the trip north when I will be incommunicado. While there was daily internet on the ICW on the way down, there will not be on the ocean trip north.
And as distressing as it may be to loved ones on land, there isn't much you or the coast guard can do to help if I get myself in a jam. You may have some expectation that they are going to send out helicopters and boats to rescue me, but I think that is mostly the stuff of movies. I don't know what their protocol is, but when a sailboat is overdue, all I've heard is a pan-pan call that vessels should be on the lookout. Also if a boat is in distress, I've heard pan-pans that other vessels in the area should assist if possible.
Trust me that as long as I'm alive and the boat is afloat, I'm doing everything I can to get the boat safely into port. And I wouldn't really expect someone to come save my sorry ass anyway. I'm the one who made the choice to go out in the ocean. And if weather conditions deteriorate to where it's unsafe, I would feel really bad if someone came out to help me and ended up getting hurt. I don't care if they have trained for it and it is their job.
Anyway, Leon and Kim are anchored a couple hundred yards from me. We're going to happy hour. I'll talk to you tomorrow, as long as my head gaskets arrive and I have some electricity.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Float Plan
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8 comments:
Well, I guess a whole blog on chastizing poor Amy on calling the coastguard might be the way to get the point across. However, I think you should be grateful that someone cares enough about your sorry little *** to worry about you. What can I say except this is a woman's perspective. You guys do many a foolish thing and thank goodness us women are around to bail you out and care about you in spite of yourself. I think you owe Amy a much nicer blog than this one!
Rose
Looks like I hit a nerve with the ladies. For the record, I don't mean this post to chastise Amy. This is a learning experience for both of us. I only posted about it because it was something that happened on the trip, thought it was interesting and had broader implications about safety, the coast guard and people at home worrying.
I am very happy that I have people at home who care about me. Just please don't worry so much, and don't call the coast guard.
It's funny how different things seem depending on where you're standing at the time. When I've been cruising and/or traveling and out of touch then I'm usually so involved in what I'm doing that I'm not tuned in to how my situation may appear to someone at distance. Also, when you're out there things don't appear dangereous because you're looking right at them and all seems well. You have the confidence that if things don't go as planned you'll be right there to get back on track. In other words, you feel involved and relatively secure.
Yet even though I've been on that side of the equation many times I found myself feeling somewhat anxious for Scott - and we've never met! If Amy didn't know any more about where he was than I did then it's easy to understand how unnerving it must have been.
For what it's worth - I imagine that the Coast Guard is probably quite pleased to help out with a VHF check-in. They probably feel good about being able to offer some peace of mind with so little effort. Hey - after all, this is what they're supposed to be doing.
I hate that you happened to run into some guy who had been listening in and ID'ed you as "that guy". It's like the classic senario where you bring your boat into a tricky marina docking situation,do a perfect job, and only the shipyard cat is watching. Yet the very next time you mis-judge the current, rub up against a piling, and there are 10 people sitting around watching you struggle to fend off.
Hey - that's great news about the outboard only needing a new ignition wire! I feel like 'click & clack' (the car talk guys) in having suggested that as a possible problem area. Believe me, if it had been my engine I'd never have been so on target.
Here's hoping your mechanical fixit luck holds out for the generator.
My apologies for the first comment (which I removed); I can be a little hotheaded.
Your clarification helps, Scott, and on my request you took out the paragraph that I found most patronizing. Some things that I think are important to note: Not having any contact from you in two days is a reasonable cause for worry given that we've never been out of contact for that long, even when you were on land. Also given that you left little warning that you might be out of contact that long (only your vague comment to Ross, in case people think you might have told me something more detailed, which you didn't). Did I know that calling the Coast Guard was going to cause you so much embarrassment? No. Do I know that now? Yes. In fact, I figured that out pretty quickly, before you blogged about it. See, a lesson learned.
But I'm hoping one of the other lessons learned is that something closer to a sail plan (something like, "I might be out of contact for 2-3 days, I'll get in touch as soon as I can.") could have saved us both a lot of trouble and embarrassment. Text messages do travel in both directions.
ps. Thanks for the support, Rose.
Hi Ross - your comment went up while I was still writing mine. Just wanted to say that you do a good job making both of our perspectives clear... I think we'd both do well to keep your words in mind.
Scott,
It's called a float plan. It can be as complicated as filling out the form, with all boat info, and details about everyone on board,and sending it to whoever you think may care. (maybe noone). Or, as simple as I'm going offshore for two days, check on me after four.
I've been the contact person on many a float plan. Some have said call if you don't hear from us by noon next Sunday. I've also carried some that said follow-up if you don't hear from me in three months.
It's your responsibility Captain...
And just so you know, the person that cares the most about you called me, one day after you suggested you'd be in port. My response was it couldn't hurt. The worst that could happen is they'll issue a Pan Pan looking for him on the radio, find him, and he'll be a little embarrassed. If he really is in trouble, it wouldn't hurt to start looking.
Amy did the right thing. I think you owe her the space for a french press.
Carla
Lessons learned all around. Carla, I changed the title of the post to Float Plan. I'm going to post about something else, so that hopefully we can move on.
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