Help advice - lost contact with yacht! off Morocco

[monte]

OK, we are currently in the canaries, Arricife, Lanzarote. Will keep an eye out for Sarah

[algarveChris]

Contact re established, yacht skipper ok more news to follow when I have it. ETA to destination 12 hours

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by algarveChris

Contact re established, yacht skipper ok more news to follow when I have it. ETA to destination 12 hours

Great!

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by algarveChris

Contact re established, yacht skipper ok more news to follow when I have it. ETA to destination 12 hours

Oh, Chris, that's such good news!

Ann

[Cormorant]

Shall we have a pool, speculating as to the cause of the loss of communication?

--InReach died
--InReach fell overboard
--Skipper just forgot to check/send messages

others?

So happy to hear he's okay!

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Cormorant

Shall we have a pool, speculating as to the cause of the loss of communication?

--InReach died
--InReach fell overboard
--Skipper just forgot to check/send messages

others?

So happy to hear he's okay!

Maybe we should just ask?

[Cormorant]

What -- rely on facts when there's all this time for wild speculation? Are you crazy?

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Cormorant

What -- rely on facts when there's all this time for wild speculation? Are you crazy?

Yep!

[Cadence]

You must be on the Hudson?

[Cormorant]

We live up in the mountains about an hour west of the Hudson, but do most of our sailing in Maine or Cape Cod. . . .

[Cadence]

What is a Michalak Cormorant? Those that build themselves are always interested,

[IslandHopper]

Originally Posted by algarveChris

Contact re established, yacht skipper ok more news to follow when I have it. ETA to destination 12 hours

Another good news story to start my day....

[algarveChris]

[SIZE="5"]Well here is the end of the story. The skipper has been in contact. The Delorme in reach satellite two way communicator flashed its little green light to say all was well and he had sent his fix so he sails on oblivious of us thinking the worst and contacting the coast guard The UK CG doing a fine job contacted the Portuguese CG , they the Moroccans and also the Spanish. UK CG happy with the good news but says that they are getting a lot of these false calls from concerned relatives etc. This means that if we are not careful we will all start thinking these issues are false etc. etc. Now either the device is wrong or badly designed and /or explained in the product advice. Delorme and others make money out of these things but at the end of the day if the CG is getting too many false alarms then this needs looking at! If I knew it was definitely a faulty machine I would sue the company and give the money to the CG and especially the life boat guys who do it voluntarily. Many people have been stressed to bits by this maybe until the kit works better it is best to keep to just the SOS facility (similar to EPIRB) and not bother with the doddgy tracking.
A big thanks again to all of you who gave advice and showed concern, I really appreciated it, Thanks.

[CaptTom]

It's a huge relief that your friend is OK, thanks for keeping us posted!

Now, my next concern is if this device was indicating the message was sent, but it wasn't really. That would be something of interest to all of us, and I hope you share the answer when all the details are known.

Meanwhile, those with these or similar non-EPIRB devices might want to set up a 2-way comms plan of some kind. Maybe the sailor should expect a text saying the position update was properly posted, and if it doesn't come he/she should take extra steps to make contact.

It would be sad if it turns out these things aren't reliable. I for one intend to keep my full-sized EPIRB.

[amytom]

We had a similar experience with SPOT. Paid for the service and the tracking - didn't really get either. Worked for a bit then went coast hopping and it wouldn't work. Warranty not honored. To make it worse the company had no sympathy when I contacted them and even auto renewed the fee for the service after I had closed the account. Had to cancel the credit card to prevent further bills.


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