Jul 13 2009
Position: 000 – lost in the Channel Islands of Southern California
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Normally we don’t like to make light of other skippers’ misfortunes, but sometimes it’s just too hard to resist. Like yesterday for instance: A guy called “Mayday” and then reported his position (twice) as “000.” Now I don’t have a globe handy, but that would put him on the equator somewhere in the Atlantic several hundred miles south of Accra, Ghana.
I wonder what Boat-US charges for that tow?
Professor Erlich suggests that the captain involved may have had a cosmic message, to wit: he’s at the zero-zero point of the cosmos at time zero witnessing the Big Bang.
On the other hand, if he found his way to port, he should take any of the basic boating courses offered by the Coast Guard Auxiliary, the Power Squadron, US Sailing or ASA.
I wonder if this is the same guy who called the Channel Islands Harbor Patrol asking where he could find Anacapa Island.
On second thought, perhaps this guy should just buy some sort of boating video game and stay off the actual ocean.
I wonder what sort of power boat this gent was driving.
c/c/d
There was a time when I found this kind of radio traffic riveting…lately it’s just been annoying and frustrating.
I realize these people are scared but is it really that hard to state your emergency, name & description of your vessel, current position and how many on board? Not being able to get this basic information out only delays your own rescue.
I really hope that once these guys are safe and sound that somebody from the Coast Guard sits them down and does a little hide chewing…maybe just had them their sign so the rest of us can avoid them.
Yeah, situations such as this are astoundingly common. Pretty soon they won’t even garner a BLOG entry–just another clueless dolt who has no business being on the water.
Speaking of clueless dolts, anybody come into the harbor around 1700 yesterday? It was a gauntlet of PWC’s, kayaks, powerboats, and electric boats, very few of whom knew the basics of common courtesy, let alone the rules of the road. Hell, most of ‘em weren’t even aware of anybody but themselves. Reminds me of a song by Don Henley, “Nobody else in the world but you…”
Of course we sailors are so damn perfect