No DSC VHF radio and no GPS: Now what?

[Bolonsky Adam]

A couple of forum members have discussed this before: how to make a mayday call on channel 16 if we don't have a DSC radio or a GPS. (I don't.) So we have to be able to describe where we are to a watchstander who may not necessarily know our waters. 

The captain of the commercial fishing boat Sandy M. sinking in Alaska has no problem relaying his position by way of local landmarks.

But the landmark names he gives are idiosyncratic: I could find neither Cape Benshaw nor Whidbey Island on NOAA charts of Washington State and Alaska. Closest I could find were Cape Fanshaw and Whidbey Island. Moreover the call gets stepped on by a Coast Guard cutter's radio operator.

So the Sandy M. captain resorts to lat. and long. coordinates which likely cleared up any possible confusion. 

So for example Salem Sound: are we in trouble off North or South Gooseberry? Or is it Pope's Head or is it Satan's Rock? Or, for that matter, is it Tinkers Island or is it Halfway Rock?

Once I'm east or south of Gales, House, and Bakers islands in Salem Sound, I have a tough time remembering the names of the various named ledges between them and  Marblehead Harbor.

Audio of Sandy M. Alaska mayday call transcript and related press releases

Edited November 5 by Bolonsky Adam
typos

[Jim Snyder]

I guess if one wants to paddle in places where you would have trouble identifying your position you're assuming that risk. Please don't lead innocent bystanders there in conditions. 

[alexsidles]

A few years ago, I capsized in breaking seas at the mouth of Grays Harbor, Washington. One of those deals where the outgoing ebb opposes the incoming swells and creates deep-water breakers.

I called in a mayday using a non-DSC, voice-only VHF handheld radio. A commercial fishing vessel responded to my call and plucked me out of the water after about forty minutes.

I experienced several difficulties in using a voice-only radio to summon assistance my location:

• I first tried describing my location to the Coast Guard and the responding civilian boats using nearby landmarks. This communication was not very successful. I described my location as the east end of the north jetty of Grays Harbor, which I thought was pretty unmistakable. But the boats seemed to be confused as to whether I was north or south of the north jetty. It is also possible they were confused by a second, underwater structure that protrudes eastward from the east end of the jetty and might also be thought of as an additional "jetty." What seemed like an unambiguous, easy-to-find set of landmarks to me seemed like a confusing, difficult set of landmarks to them.
• It was challenging to simultaneously hold the radio, and a handheld GPS unit, and my paddle, and my capsized kayak, all while swimming to keep my head above water in breaking seas. I did not have enough hands to do everything I needed to do.
• When I first read out my coordinates from my handheld GPS unit, my transmission was garbled and unreadable because waves were breaking over my head while I was transmitting, drowning out my voice.
• When I read out my coordinates a second time, I misread the coordinates because the text on the GPS unit was too small and difficult to read while clutching all of my other gear and attempting to swim. Besides the erroneous coordinates themselves, this second transmission was also difficult to understand, again because of the waves.
• When the responding boats relayed my coordinates to one another, they further garbled the coordinates, adding additional errors to the already erroneous position I had transmitted.
• After twenty or thirty minutes in the water, the microphone of the handheld radio became waterlogged. Once that occurred, none of my transmissions could be heard any longer by any of the responding boats, although I could still hear the responding boats' transmissions. It was not immediately apparent to me that I was no longer audible to anyone else.

All of these problems would have been fully mitigated by using the distress function of a DSC-equipped radio. No more futzing around with multiple devices and tiny text and confusing landmarks and bad relays and waterlogged microphones. Just push the big red button and wait.

Here is a recording of the VHF traffic during my rescue. I've edited the recording to remove dead air between transmissions, so the recording makes it sound like events evolved at a much faster pace than they actually did in real life. The real-life rescue took about forty minutes, not the thirteen minutes in the recording. The recording is pulled from the Coast Guard's Rescue 21 system. It is not a complete record of every transmission every station made or received. My first reading of my coordinates, for example, is not captured in the recording. I also distinctly remember holding several other conversations with responding boats that are not captured in the Rescue 21 recording. The Rescue 21 recording also captures several of my waterlogged voice calls that no other station received.

Alex

[Paul Sylvester]

Guess I am buying a DSC radio next...

That was very interesting to hear and of course there are questions we all may have.

Did you get your boat back quickly? How much water (and why) did the drysuit leak?

What are your thoughts on paddling there solo again? Did you know it was a nasty area or was it a surprise? Did you try a roll? 

thanks,

 

 

[alexsidles]

I only popped in for a little radio talk. Grays Harbor, Washington is a long way from the North Shore, but if you're interested in the trip itself, here is a write-up of the whole adventure:

https://alexsidles.com/trip-reports/grays-canyon-21-22-aug-2021

Alex

[Bolonsky Adam]

Thanks so much for posting the audio of your call, Alex. Harrowing, confusing, difficult, stressful. 

By the way, I very much enjoyed reading your feature articles in SeaKayaker magazine over the years. 

Edited November 9 by Bolonsky Adam

[Bolonsky Adam]

By the way, Alex - where did you retrieve your VHF audio from? I've found the Coast Guard's archive of VHF radio calls to be rather difficult to navigate. There are lots of dead audio archives there: 

https://www.dvidshub.net/search/?filter[type]=video&filter[branch]=Coast+Guard&filter[category]=B-Roll&filter[state]=Massachusetts&view=list&sort=publishdate&page=5 

Edited November 9 by Bolonsky Adam

[alexsidles]

Thanks, Adam, I appreciate the kind words. It was your posting of audio recordings that inspired me to post mine. I’ve also been beating the drum for DSC in handhelds, so I just couldn’t resist posting when I saw your topic here!

I got the audio by submitting a Freedom of Information Act request to the Coast Guard for all Rescue 21 recordings of VHF radio traffic related to a mayday call from a kayaker and all radio responses thereto beginning at such-and-such date and time in Grays Harbor, Washington.

It took them about seven months, and I had to nag them via both the FOIA portal and email, but they eventually sent me the recordings. Each radio transmission was recorded in a separate audio file with a date-time stamp in its filename, so there were dozens of files in all. I copy-pasted them all together into a single audio file for convenience, which had the additional benefit of eliminating dead air between transmissions.

I was surprised at how many transmissions I remember making and hearing that Rescue 21 didn’t capture, as well as how many transmissions I made that Rescue 21 captured but no other station heard. For example, Solstice and I had a longer conversation about the nearby sailboat than Rescue 21 captured. Rescue 21 also missed some traffic between the Coast Guard and Solstice that I remember overhearing. Western Edge told me they stopped being able to hear my transmissions once my mic got waterlogged, but some of my waterlogged transmissions after that point did get captured by Rescue 21.

It’s yet another reason to prefer DSC. Voice-only radio just isn’t as reliable as we wish.

Alex

[Bolonsky Adam]

Hi, Alex. Thanks for describing  your FOIA request. That must have been frustrating, to have to wait seven months. And that sounds like a lot of audio editing to do. 

I was truly intrigued to hear how your call evolved from a mayday to a Coast Guard pan-pan, then to a cancelled pan-pan, and then to a securite', plus the considerable amount of radio traffic on 22A. And then that watchstander at Tilamook Bay scolding listeners about boat size restrictions on crossing the bar in small vessels...ouch.

A lot of boats and personnel got involved in this one for sure! The original watchstander who remained so calm and cool throughout, the fishing vessel Western Edge, the powerboat Solstice, the radio operator on the Coast Guard 47' motorized lifeboat, and finally that peeved-sounding watchstander at Tilamook Bay. 

Were you able to retrieve your kayak from the boat that picked it up?

Quite some time ago three of us were crossing Woods Hole on Cape Cod here in Massachusetts. It has a fast tidal flow and sizeable standing waves. We got half way across the channel, to the spar with a large riprap, where we slid into the eddy for a few moments. One of our group became fearful of crossing the fastest part of the channel. We floated there in the eddy for about 20 minutes as her resolve hardened into flat out refusal. Finally we called the Coast Guard. I was taken aback when they refused to launch a boat and suggested we call SeaTow. 

Several men in a fishing from an open boat in the middle of the channel were nice enough to pull their anchor and ease their way over to us.They lifted our friend and her kayak onto their boat then dropped her off at the town landing. 

I imagine got into all sorts of trouble with your significant other once you arrived home! Or did you keep this one on the QT?

Edited November 10 by Bolonsky Adam
typos

[alexsidles]

It was a lot of action, for sure. Even the local fire department got involved. When I first capsized, I was close enough to the jetty I could hear tourists onshore screaming. They must have called 9-1-1, because a few minutes later while I was being swept out to sea, I saw a couple of fire trucks with their lights on pull up to the foot of the jetty. Not sure what those guys’ plan was, but their hearts were in the right place!

The fishing boat that rescued me tried to pull my kayak out of the water, but it was too rough. They gave up after they lost their own gaff. The kayak and all my gear got swept out to sea. I had just enough presence of mind to grab the little waterproof case containing my keys, wallet, and phone, but everything else was lost.

Early the next morning, the Coast Guard called me at home to tell me that a different fishing boat had discovered my kayak floating four miles out to sea. The Coast Guard rescues people, not boats, so they asked if I was planning to recover it. Chartering a fishing boat of my own would have cost nearly as much as the kayak was worth, plus it was now Monday morning and I needed to be back at work, not trawling the seas in hopes of finding my kayak. I told the Coast Guard I was just going to abandon it. The day after that, one of their motor lifeboats brought it in. I suspect they just got tired of receiving calls about a kayak adrift offshore, and hauling it in was the easiest way to stop the calls!

Tillamook Bay is ninety miles south of Grays Harbor and in a different state. I’m not sure why the bar closure announcement from Tillamook was captured by Rescue 21 at Grays Harbor, but the Grays Harbor bar was definitely not closed. Even sailboats were still crossing the bar during my rescue.

I’m glad you guys were able to get a lift through dangerous seas during your Woods Hole adventure. Kayakers and powerboaters sometimes clash with one another, but we’re all always there for each other in a tight spot. I once called in a rescue for a powerboat that I saw capsize in the Columbia River. Top-heavy boat got broadside to the wind and waves, and over she went!

Alex

[Bolonsky Adam]

Thanks for all the added info, Alex. Yikes! A story without end...

Travis, the fellow who delivers our mail, is also a member of the local Coast Guard Auxiliary. It's got to be fifteen years ago now, but one afternoon he noticed Yvonne and me loading our kayaks onto our car. He peeked inside the cockpits, talked to Yvonne a minute, and next day gave us four PaddleSmart ID stickers which we promptly affixed to the aft bulkheads of the cockpits. 

A few years later I towed in from a couple hundred yards offshore an empty plastic kayak rigged for striper fishing. I posted my find on a local kayak fishing forum. It took several weeks, but eventually the owner found my post and came to retrieve it - his kayak had broken free from the mooring he'd tied it to so he wouldn't lose his mooring to the local harbormaster for not being used. It would have been a whole lot easier if I had just been able to call him as soon as I found his boat... 

Anyhow, for anyone who cares, here's what the stickers look like.

Not that this is news but the sticker is as much for lost gear as for the harbormaster or other water safety org. to use to call the owner of a drifting empty kayak or canoe or stand-up paddleboard to make sure the owner hasn't fallen overboard and drowned. 

Old news for sure - but it sure is odd to see how many small watercraft here on Cape Ann don't have one these free waterproof stickers affixed somewhere. 

Besides: Yvonne and I always do what Travis says - he's a big fan of our cat Rocky who greets Travis every time he steps up on the front porch. 

 

 

Edited November 11 by Bolonsky Adam

[Jim Snyder]

I still have a stack of these that some harbormaster gave me years ago to distribute. Let me know if you'd like one.

[prudenceb]

1 hour ago, Jim Snyder said:

I still have a stack of these that some harbormaster gave me years ago to distribute. Let me know if you'd like one.

I'd like a couple, Jim.    Maybe hand off next time we paddle…this week?

[Jim Snyder]

I don't want to hijack Adam's thread. If you need these please contact me elsewhere. Prudence, the wind forecast is beyond my threshold for the foreseeable future... 

[Joseph Berkovitz]

@alexsidles I read your beautifully written (and witty) trip report which says so much about your paddling adventure besides the capsize/rescue part. I recommend that everyone else follow Alex’s link to read about this on his personal website. 

I shall be replacing my Standard Horizon HX 300 with a DSC radio forthwith.

[David M]

Agree!  

Thanks Alex, well worth the read!

I too will be replacing my otherwise well reviewed SH Horizon 300 with a DSC radio.

Any recommendations out there!

[Frederick Goodman]

I'm going to start another thread for DSC radio recommendations, so as not to take attention away from Alex's very important and fascinating  account.  Thanks, Alex, and thanks to Adam for opening the discussion.