[PUP] What if your EPIRB goes off and nobody cares?

[Scott E. Bulger]

Steve observed:  It is a scary, sobering tread about a sailboat whose EPIRB
went off 
as designed, yet which yielded practically no response from the local 
Indonesian search and rescue people.  

Scott thinks:  Reading the postings, I'm surprised so many people think the
system didn't work as advertised.  All the EPIRB service does is exactly
what it did in this case, notify the emergency contact of record and contact
the nearest official office to take ownership of SAR activities.  What more
do people expect?  An EPIRB is a key link to establish SAR, but that's about
all it is.  A satphone, HF radio or even VHF radio are all critical
resources to have in addition to the EPIRB.  As far as I could tell reading
the postings, everything worked as advertised, again, what more do people
expect?  This is Indonesia after all.  It's hard to determine exactly what
the officials did in the search, based on reading the postings.  As far as
I'm concerned the sailboat guy involved should have done more to communicate
back home, and to officials when he reached land after setting his EPIRB
off.  What was HE thinking?  

 Scott Bulger, Alanui, N40II, Seattle WA