Catamaran overdue - Caribbean

[Jamesw]

S/V ****** Catamaran ****** Open 40 White

Last seen on Marine Traffic AIS *******2018 22:29 UTC 7.7 knots Course 315 approx 10 miles North West of Barbados
Pos N13 25'56.11 W59 57'04 Heading for ********

Itinerary Barbados - **********

ETA ********** *******2018 10:00 UTC

2 people on board - ******* ****** *** (Capt)

Want to know possible sightings and if yacht and crew are safe.
Hopefully may just have AIS problem but we have expected to see them on skype and have not. Last on skype *********2018 (Barbados)

S/V ********* last AIS signal *******2018 22:39 UTC - Catamaran ******** Open 40 should have arrived on ***********2018 in ********* from Barbados. AIS signal lost after 10 miles NW of Barbados (normal) but not normal no further signals thereafter. Aboard -*********. Standard AIS signals do not seem to register when much more than 10 miles off the coast. Parents worried. Trying to establish that boat/crew safe.

Comms - Sat Phone (number unknown); VHF; SSB receive only; EPIRB's
Life Raft; Life Jackets; Safety Harnesses; Flares
VHF Satphone (number not known) SSB (receiver only)

Moderator note:
Some of the personal details have been edited from this thread at the request of the boat owner.

[Paul L]

You need a paid membership to MarineTrack to see the AIS positions received via satellite. You could sign up for this or ask someone who has one to look for you.

[Jamesw]

Thanks, I know but ******** will not be sending satellite AIS postings now, he did when he was part of the rally that recently crossed from Cape Verde to Barbados. Marine Traffic picks up local AIS traffic within 10 miles of coast at the islands and relays it on their site. I have tracked ********** every day since his arrival in Barbados with that. He was planning to island hop on his way north or stick relatively close to the islands. The local stations should have been able to pick him up on the **th unless his system broke down or another problem occurred.

[JPA Cate]

Jamesw:

Most likely everyone on board are fine. Lots of reasons to lose AIS, starting with antenna connections. It will take the people a while to learn that it is not working, and when they figure it out, they'll probably go and fix it before letting others know they're OK. When you're out cruising, you depend on your systems, and the priority should not be a surprise.

Reporting them overdue is pretty extreme, imho. They could have decided to re-direct to a different destination for reasons of their own. Plus, it is rather embarrassing to learn you've been reported overdue. Please give them more time before worrying.

Ann

[Jamesw]

********* arrived crew safe and well except for some problems with instruments. Thank you for responses to this post and to Ann. I took some comfort from your post and thanks for taking the time. I do accept the criticism but as a dad to a newbie cruiser I reasoned that my early action would hopefully lead to a quick response if they were ok and an early lookout if they were not. So it proved but you are correct and do raise valid points. Missing for 2 days for an overnight sail of ** nm was hard for me to ignore. Maybe I should have known better after 60,000 nm and 12 years on my own cat. We thankfully have a happy ending to this post.

[SteveG58]

Originally Posted by Jamesw

******* arrived crew safe and well except for some problems with instruments. Thank you for responses to this post and to Ann. I took some comfort from your post and thanks for taking the time. I do accept the criticism but as a dad to a newbie cruiser I reasoned that my early action would hopefully lead to a quick response if they were ok and an early lookout if they were not. So it proved but you are correct and do raise valid points. Missing for 2 days for an overnight sail of **nm was hard for me to ignore. Maybe I should have known better after 60,000 nm and 12 years on my own cat. We thankfully have a happy ending to this post.

Letting someone know your plans so they can raise an alarm is common and good practice. If something had gone wrong and you had not at least asked, you would have been criticized for that too. Most of all, you would always have blamed yourself for not asking earlier had something bad happened. Knowing the sat phone no would have been a good idea. Glad all ok..You did the right thing imo!

[JPA Cate]

James, I am glad they are safe and well. I am glad your decision worked out okay.

From my point of view, though, having been reported overdue when arrival was about 4 hrs late on a trip from the Societies to HI, I have pretty strong feelings about it. That was a long time ago, and communications were even worse.

On a boat, there are many innocuous events that can delay you and disrupt communications, even today, even with satphones. We have become really used to having marvelous electronic gadgets, and it is easy to forget they are only a splash away from a failure.



Ann

[Sojourner]

Originally Posted by Jamesw

******** arrived crew safe and well except for some problems with instruments. Thank you for responses to this post and to Ann. I took some comfort from your post and thanks for taking the time. I do accept the criticism but as a dad to a newbie cruiser I reasoned that my early action would hopefully lead to a quick response if they were ok and an early lookout if they were not. So it proved but you are correct and do raise valid points. Missing for 2 days for an overnight sail of **nm was hard for me to ignore. Maybe I should have known better after 60,000 nm and 12 years on my own cat. We thankfully have a happy ending to this post.

No worries... My dad would have done the exact same thing

[AZUS]

Very glad they're fine. And don't apologize. Better safe than sorry, and entirely your call to do so. No one was inconvenienced in the slightest by your diligence.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Jamesw

******* arrived crew safe and well except for some problems with instruments. Thank you for responses to this post and to Ann. I took some comfort from your post and thanks for taking the time. I do accept the criticism but as a dad to a newbie cruiser I reasoned that my early action would hopefully lead to a quick response if they were ok and an early lookout if they were not. So it proved but you are correct and do raise valid points. Missing for 2 days for an overnight sail of ** nm was hard for me to ignore. Maybe I should have known better after 60,000 nm and 12 years on my own cat. We thankfully have a happy ending to this post.

Glad to hear all is good.

I think for that short of a sail that your overdue concern/report was valid.

Suggestion: get their satt phone number so you can avoid not knowing in the future.

[Time2Go]

Glad all arrived safely
I crew on lots of boats, so never
really know what’s on board and what’s working,
So I always bring my InReach with me.
Family and friends like to follow along
and like the updates I send via short texts.
Might get flamed here and welcome other opinions
BUT I don’t consider AIS a tracking device
Nice little additional function but not really good
at it as it requires a subscription by the viewer
to see once a bit offshore.
Inreach basic plan is really cheap for the piece
of mind it offers. Back up GPS to boot
Cheers
Neil

[Kenmonty]

James W: You did the wise thing and it worked out. Barbados to ****** is a short hop but with lots of commercial shipping traffic - so - better to be safe. Good call.

[wyb2]

Originally Posted by Jamesw

...Missing for 2 days for an overnight sail of **nm was hard for me to ignore...

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

...From my point of view, though, having been reported overdue when arrival was about 4 hrs late on a trip from the Societies to HI, I have pretty strong feelings about it...

Any general consensus on when is appropriate? 4 hours over 2000ish miles, too soon. 2 days over ~100 miles, seems reasonable to me but maybe not.

If I was bobbing around in a disabled boat ( or worse a life jacket) I would sure hope the search was going to start sooner rather than later.

Originally Posted by Time2Go

Glad all arrived safely
I crew on lots of boats, so never
really know what’s on board and what’s working,
So I always bring my InReach with me.
Family and friends like to follow along
and like the updates I send via short texts.
Might get flamed here and welcome other opinions
BUT I don’t consider AIS a tracking device
Nice little additional function but not really good
at it as it requires a subscription by the viewer
to see once a bit offshore.
Inreach basic plan is really cheap for the piece
of mind it offers. Back up GPS to boot
Cheers
Neil

We carry a Spot for similar reasons. Plus, with an "SOS" button we can tell family " if it stops tracking, it's because it ran out of batteries, and we are fine. If we hit the SOS button, then you can worry."

[Chuck Hawley]

My understanding is that the Class B AIS transceivers are not strong enough to be detected by satellites, and virtually all of the vessels tracked when offshore are equipped with Class A AIS. It will be interesting to see if the new SO-TDMA Class B models that transmit at 5W will be satellite detectable.

Chuck Hawley

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by Chuck Hawley

My understanding is that the Class B AIS transceivers are not strong enough to be detected by satellites, and virtually all of the vessels tracked when offshore are equipped with Class A AIS. It will be interesting to see if the new SO-TDMA Class B models that transmit at 5W will be satellite detectable.

Chuck Hawley

Chuck, we've followed a friend's progress in and around Chile via Marine Traffic, and he is equipped with a class B AiS. The MT display does not identify the boat name, and if we did not have ham radio contact to get his general position, would not know it was him (BTW, it is El Pinguino of CF fame that I'm talking about). We occasionally see ourselves on MT when not in range of shore relays, once again only shown as an unnamed "pleasure craft". So, it seems that the satellites can indeed see class B signals, but perhaps with poor reliability.

If we had a paid subscription to MT, I believe that full ID would be available for those satellite based reports, but that would not provide any better reliability.

Jim