Safety at Sea clinic off Ventura coast

MOVIES/
It was a grand winter day to be on the water and we set out to take advantage of the moment to try out some safety gear. We loaded up with some out-of-date flares and headed to sea.

But first, before the FLAREX, we simulated a broken rudder cable and installed the manual tiller. It’s a little cumbersome, but in a pinch we figure we could make it home…if home weren’t too far.
We tried our new modified Quick-Stop Rescue maneuver cum engine maneuver and nailed each one. It seems nonsensical to eschew engine use in this sort of emergency, but everyone practices without it. We broke that trend and were very pleased with the results. Drop us a line and we’ll provide details.

Finally we broke out the flares. After making a Securite announcement (not monitored by everyone as one boat offered to rescue us in spite of the fact that the rest of the world – particularly the coast guard- knew that we were just practicing.They seemed most upset when they couldn’t help us out and then seemed angry, at least judging form their tone when they announced: “You’re making an emergency signal.”)

Anyhow, we fired our flares, ignited day and day/night signals.

Our view of the flares was that they are pretty lame. They’re very hard to see in the daytime, though the orange smoke flare is much, much better than the day/night flares we usually carry. If you really need help, your radio is your best signalling devide. At night, the flare could help pinpoint your position, but only after rescuers were in the immediate vicinity.
The link at the top will take you to a Quicktime movie that will give you an idea of how well the flares worked.

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Safety at Sea clinic off Ventura coast