T&T: Wife at the helm/emergencies

[Bob Austin]

Very few areas have EMT rescue boats (probably should be more, but the
economics enter in, and the costs and recovery of the billing would be a major
problem)  One of the better is the "Bay Watch" group of lifeguards in S.
Calif.  (yes they do really exist).

We kept laminated cards at the companion way with an outline for each type of
emergency--where thru hulls were, the life jackets, abandon ship proceedure,
fire fighting proceedure etc.   I think that Keith's idea of a set of
instructions for a novice to stop the boat, get on the radio and read the GPS
would be something to add--just type it up on the computer, and then laminate
it.  We keep a number of other items on laminated cards--like the common way
points, the international and US bouyage systems, whistle signals, VHF usage
(down to putting the name of the boat and the description typed out).

We also have the personal EPIRPs--GPS enabled.  I am not sure how many of the
CG stations or boats are DSC enabled. The program is far behind schedule.
However we do have ours enabled, registered, and it will plot the position of
the distress call, or any other DSC transmission on the chart plotter.  When
all boats have DSC, it will make finding much easier and faster.  Probably one
of the first things on the list of instructions would be to activate the DSC
call.  We also have two fixed and several hand held VHF radios so one could be
on DSC and another on a channel such as 22A if necessary.

Bob Austin