Preparations for assisting others

[Jammer]

Yesterday, on the 12 hour passage home, the USCG made a pan-pan call regarding a stranded vessel on the unprotected side of York Island, a remote, uninhabited island on Lake Superior. We were passing by and adjusted our course. We arrived to find an open aluminum boat, about 18', that appeared to have taken a boarding wave and then beached as an emergency maneuver. Several people ashore, including some from other boats, were trying to push it further into the water, without results.

They declined our assistance in favor of a commercial tow, which was fine with us since we wanted to get home.

Had we tried to assist we would have ideally had a portable bilge pump and a long enough tow line to reach the shore, about 300' in this case. Noting that more calls to towing services are for jump starts than any other single cause, I believe that having some sort of jump starting ability would be important if intending to be prepared to help others.

I wonder whether other boaters think like this at all and what sort of equipment they carry if they do.

FWIW we were on the edge of the TowboatUS service area; 10 miles further towards home would have taken us outside of it. There is no Sea Tow or TowboatUS coverage in or around our home port.

[chris mac]

In well travelled areas we are happy to let the commercial guys do their job. We will still help any emergency of course.
When off the beaten path, offshore or Bahamas for example, we help anyone who needs. We carry a trash pump as well as spare bilge pumps. Lots of old halyards, dock lines and such that can be used for towing, and a portable power pack for boosting. I also have a couple large inflatable fenders that can be used (to a degree) as floatation bags, along with a 12v dual pressure pump.
And a fridge stocked with beer for those times patience and high tide are the only solution.
Cruisers are such a helpful and caring community and We had so many sailors help us out in our first year, we make a conscious effort to try to pay that forward when we can.

[Bill O]

We've towed in a jet ski with a father and young son. They were out several miles near a shipping channel and it was early evening when we spotted them. They had no communication devices and attempted to signal the only other passing boat a few hours before with their fire extinguisher. The father used the side mirror to signal us and even that was difficult to see with the setting sun trying to see a dark blue jet ski.
We got them onboard, gave them blankets and water. Put a tow line on the larger jet ski, but now had to tow them into someplace that we could get into w/our 6.5' draft. The tow took much longer than expected due to the large amount of drag from the jet ski. We arrived at a drop off well after dark into a creek we've never been into before.
The father and son were still a bit frazzled when we dropped them off. On the way in they told us they we going to just hunker down over night on the jet ski. Hearing that just gave me the chills thinking what may have happened to them as the the wind would have pushed them into the shipping channel after dark.

Bottom line, we were never expecting to provide emergency assistance at a moments notice, but it happened. Our boat is fairly well equipped and we had more than sufficient equipment to handle this situation. If it was a different situation and didn't have the proper equipment, we would have radioed for help and stayed on station until others arrived.

[sailingharry]

We don't specifically carry supplies targeted towards supporting a vessel in distress. But like Bill, we are a well-equipped cruising boat. We have a fairly large unmounted bilge pump with
wire and hose. We have several handheld bilge pumps of various sizes, a portable depth sounder, and a hard dinghy in the davits with the outboard mounted and ready at a moment's notice. We could piece together literally hundreds of feet of tow rope. We have a large Fortress stored below with 200' of line, a 20-foot set of jumper cables, a hand held radio.

A few things we don't have that might be very helpful specifically for helping out would be spare gasoline, a jump pack, a gasoline-powered portable generator, and some sort of self-powered large capacity pump.

[Kettlewell]

Like the others, we do not make special preparations to assist others, but since we are a well prepared cruising boat we have many redundant supplies, spare parts, etc. One time I was tied up on the bulkhead outside a lock in the Dismal Swamp canal with a just diagnosed diesel problem. A passing cruiser asked me what the problem was and I told him. He dove below and came up with the exact part I needed and tossed it across just as the lock gate opened and he shouted see you down the road without asking for my contact info. or anything. I later caught up with him and was able to return the part unused because I had been able to order one. I would say the most common assistance rendered is helping people who have gone aground. One time I helped someone retrieve an anchor that was fouled on a huge stump on the bottom. Last year I noticed someone struggling to untangle a dock line from their prop and I dove on it for them. I've towed another boat for several days, and another time a boat away from the rocks in Maine in the fog with no possibility of anchoring. I've talked to people on the radio who were lost in the fog. I've relayed messages to the Coast Guard when someone was out of range. I've rescued many dinghies. Pulled people from the water after their dinghy sank. Responded to flares only to find a small runabout out of gas. Lots of things you can do to help out there without special equipment.

[Kd9truck]

CPR,CFR-D, wilderness survival certifications, rescue swimmer, paramedic, are all certifications I have held and things I look for when recruiting crew for passage. Tools are good, practiced skills are invaluable.

There is a thing called “urgency to act” that puts the cognitive blinders on the would be rescuers.
A statistical example is 1/3rd of all drowning victims are would be rescuers. (Yes this is true)

As mariners we are compelled to respond:
The IMO explicitly states this requirement in its International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea:
“A master of a ship at sea, which is in a position to be able to provide assistance on receiving a signal from any source that persons are in distress at sea, is bound to proceed with all speed to their assistance.”

As the skipper it is your obligation to respond but remember…..
as the captain of a vessel it is your job to make sure your members come home.
Don’t let your crew become over committed. Put the needs of your crew ahead of the victims, simple to say very hard to do, especially when situations are dire.

Cheers