You dont have to make stuff up

[HankOnthewater]

From West Australia.
Approx 10 Nm West of Fremantle there is an island, Rottnest, very popular with tourists and boating people, because of its beautiful protected bays, white beaches, diving and snorkeling.
The next shore is Africa approx 4000 NM more to the West.

A guy buys a motorboat, sleek, fast and impressive. On the first weekend he loaded his boat with friends, and likely took some beverages on board as well, left for Rottnest for a daytrip, no problems. At sunset he returned back home to Fremantle, just over half an hour trip for such boat.

Just after sunset the volunteer sea rescue (like coast guard in some countries) hears a call: "I ran out of fuel, please help me". The radio operator tries to get a position, to no avail. After a long discussion finally the operator asked the boat: "When you left Rottnest, did you travel in the direction of sunset or the other way?" The answer was : "towards the sun".
Hmmm, was on its way to Africa.......
The boat was later found, and towed back to Fremantle.
I was told this story by a member of the Fremantle sea rescue group.

[Wotname]

^^ I can add to that story as a guy I worked with was out on the water on that day and overheard much of it.

One of the clues the operator picked up on was the signal from the motorboat was getting weaker and weaker as he was heading AWAY from the land. The operator was trying to get him to read his compass but it became clear the guy didn't know his N from his S or his E from his W. They tried asking him if his compass was reading the opposite way from his outbound morning heading etc but really the guy was clueless so in desperation they hit on the sunset question......

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by BistroMath

That's...horrifying. We were in a similar situation 150 miles offshore and actually happened upon the boat. They were able to save the boat, and we towed them until we could get in proper radio range to get help.

Worst overheard on the radio was a powerboat lost at sea in the Gulf Stream with 12 on board. We were out of range before we heard any resolution...

Heard one last winter passing key biscayne. Saying this would be last call as water was in the battery box

Vessel en route arrived on the scene. Their transmission to CG was “debris found”

Sobering

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by Franziska

Please everyone excuse the slightly off topic comment.
Maybe we should open a separate thread on this.

On a more serious note, I noticed that hardly anyone has the VHF switched on anymore at anchor.
While there are other more direct means of communication available, like various messengers like Whatsapp or Navily or others, I feel leaving the VHF on at 16 has definitely advantages.

Say everyone is asleep and one of them lies awake and sees bad weather rolling in (like the severe thunderstorm hitting Corsica this summer). She could pick up the mic and put out a sécurité message for everyone.

Say someone bathing just starts to go adrift in the current and there are other boats close by, call on VHF and they can assist.

I also feel VHF still has advantages over group communications via messager apps as you do not need to become a member first and you can reach a local community easily...

Anyway, maybe I am starting to get old fashioned?

I don't think it's old fashioned. Our VHFs are on at anchor unless we're sleeping. If anchored in an area with lots of traffic or bad weather expected, I'd put a handheld next to the bunk on 16 (so I'd only hear stuff close enough to us).

[skipgundlach]

Kettle Black
Kettle Black

Kettle Black, this is The Pot calling the Kettle Black...

[skipgundlach]

Do It!
Do It!
Do It!, Little Sparrow...

[mriley4955]

The best I heard was over the vhf weather net in Hope Town Bahamas. At the conclusion, Pete signed of with: “And remember, stretch pants are a privilege, not a right”

[Mirage35]

Ah, yes, boat names. I've mentioned this one before; two boats from our marina:

"Patience", this is "Knot Happening"

[timb7734]

On Lake Huron one afternoon we followed an “SOS, vessel taking on water” call to the CG on channel 16. The CG went through their standard requests for information such as: number of persons aboard, vessel description and name, to which the respondent seemed to ignore answering the request for the vessel name. After three or four requests they answered “they would have to check” and about five minutes later the vessel called the CG again and reported:” we decided to call the boat Holiday Farmer, but it is not marked.”

[Happ]

I remember many years ago I was in a port to port race on our final leg to our home port. The wind had died. One skipper got in the VHF and called for a ship to shore call to his home. Since the wind was dead and had been for hours we switched over to the new channel to listen. We were bored stiff. The skipper called to let his wife know that the wind had died and he would be really late. The wife’s response was classic. She started berating him that this was another one of his lies and he was with his latest slut! This went on for several minutes. Apparently we weren’t the only ones listening as in this dead calm sea we could hear boats near us break up laughing! There were over 80 boats in the race.

[Slovak]

Not on VHF, but fits the marine category.

We took a quick ferry trip on the Aquabus across False Creek in Vancouver, BC. The young chatty skipper was quick to tell us about how she started her career as a summer job in high school, and 7 years later this was now her full time job. I asked about the passenger capacity, frequency of trips, and such.



Then, pointing at the box on the floor of the little tub-like vessel with a center cockpit helmsman position from which all engine noises were coming I asked: "What's the size of the engine on this thing?"

Her: "About like this" motioning with her hands about 2 feet long and 1 foot high.

Things were quiet for the rest of the short ride.

[svfinlandia]

I was sailing on Chesapeake Bay a few years ago and heard the former owner of Active Captain (before he sold it to Garmin) talking to another boat. His boat name was redhead.
When their conversation finished, I tried hailing him - “Redhead, Redhead, Redhead this is Finlandia”. Over the next 10 minutes or so I tried two or three more times, but apparently he could not hear me.
A minute or two later, some smart Alec piped up on the radio with “Brunette, Brunette, Brunette” several times.
Of course, he did not give his boat name.

Al, S/V Finlandia

[paul2884]

Originally Posted by rslifkin

I don't think it's old fashioned. Our VHFs are on at anchor unless we're sleeping. If anchored in an area with lots of traffic or bad weather expected, I'd put a handheld next to the bunk on 16 (so I'd only hear stuff close enough to us).

Great unless you are in an area where everyone does radio checks in ch16. There are occasions when we have to switch to a different channel just to get some peace!

What's wrong with calling the marina or a friend for a radio check if you really need one.

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by paul2884

Great unless you are in an area where everyone does radio checks in ch16. There are occasions when we have to switch to a different channel just to get some peace!

What's wrong with calling the marina or a friend for a radio check if you really need one.

Around here the CG will tolerate an occasional radio check on 16, but if multiple people start doing it, they get told to knock it off.

[MikadoII]

Not at sea but on land in Oz. Disabled fire truck with approaching fire front to rescue truck. “


“If you don’t get here pretty quick someone is going to have a lot of paperwork”.


No paperwork. They got there in time.