Things that I've heard on Channel 16

[PatMc57]

Here are some things that I've heard, and said on Channel 16..especially concerning May Day/ Pan Pan. The boat names are NOT the actual boats.

Chesapeake Bay....
Sender 1: LaLaLaLaLA...lalallalalla....La...ha!
Sender 1: La La...Hi...Hi...Hi..HeeHee...
US Coast Guard: Little girl, would you please bring your mommy or daddy to the radio?
Chesapeake Bay...
Sender 1: Bascule Bridge, Bascule Bridge...respond...
Sender 1: Bascule Bridge, Bascule Bridge....respond...
.....Silence...
Sender 1: Bascu..
Sender 2: Buddy, they're ALL Bascule Bridges...What the Hell are you looking for????
Chesapeake Bay....
Sender 1: May Day, May Day, May Day, This is the sailing vessel Carpe Diem to US Coast Guard...There are 6 souls aboard, we are taking on water and...
Transmission broken by Sender 2: Liquid Assets to Inner Harbor restaurant Rusty Scupper....over..
Chesapeake Bay...
Sender 1: Namaste to US Coast Guard...We are immediately south of the Kent Island/Annapolis Bay Bridge. There is a small sailboat capsized with several persons in the water.
A few minutes pass...
US Coast Guard: We are on site....It doesn't look good.
This was the Saturday that Hurricane Matthew came it's closest to the Chesapeake. The water was insane..I was there. The sailboat that capsized was a 17 footer..[a toy]..with 6 people aboard [overloaded]..including a 5 year old...with no one wearing life jackets. The Captain should have been instantly arrested, except that he was the only one that drowned, as I heard it.
British Virgin Islands...
Sender 1: May Day, May Day, We are a 45 foot catamaran with 8 people aboard. We are aground on Eustatia Reef and taking on water.
It turns out that the Captain was chartering the boat and violated his Charter by sailing into the reef, and also doing it at night. By the time that the US Coast Guard helicopter [was the closest...from Puerto Rico] got there, there was nothing left of the 3/4 million dollar boat but fiberglass splinters and people in the water, on top of coral, where the Atlantic meets the reef. Everyone lived. I don't know if the actual owner ever got reimbursed. The kicker is that when the Coast Guard helicopter went to the local International airport to refuel for the trip to Puerto Rico..They couldn't...the airport, by then, was "closed"....Island Time 'Mon....
Call that I made:
Chesapeake Bay...
Me: Pan Pan, Pan Pan, Pan Pan.... This is the sailing vessel Nutsy Fagan. We have a failed engine, and have just lost our steering. We are in the middle of the channel one nautical mile outside of the Inner Harbor....over..
US Coast Guard: Are you taking on water?
Me: No.
Us Coast Guard: Is anyone hurt?
Me: No.
US Coast Guard: Call a local towing service. [US Tow, eg.]
This was in October 2001. I was chartering a 40 foot sailboat and heading to Baltimore. I was buzzed twice by a US Coast Guard helicopter in the Bay....observed near the Francis Scott Key Bridge by a US Coast Guard Cutter...and when I made the call, there was a Coast Guard zodiac on either side of me armed with machine guns. They only watched. I used the sails, and the assistance of a Samaritan who heard the call to make it to the Broadway Dock at Fells Point.
Pat