A very long time ago I spent a tour of duty in the USCG, aviation unit,
as a radio man. We would fly searches looking for boats. It is
incrediby difficult to see anything down on the water. As I reacall we
would change watch standers every 15 minutes. But even so, as a watch
stander you tire quickely and you mind wanders. You find yourself
daydreaming and not paying attention. Or when you do see something it
is a 300 foot freighter and you realize that you would have never picked
up on a 30 foot sailboat.

Radar? Forget it. It may work, it may not. A small boat does not
present much of a target, especially when you have any kind of chop.

A VHF is great so they can DF in on it. An EPIRB is great, but they
don't always work. And the Coast Guard is NOT in the salvage business.

I rember once we found a guy that fell off a freighter during the night
watch. Everyone at the base was astounded.

Hopefully things have improved in the ensuing decades but I doubt it. I
recently read of a couple of kids swept out to sea in a small sailboat
who were given up for dead and then, by chance, found by a fisherman.
And that was an easy search. The CG had multiple airbourn resources out,
and boats, and there were young lives at stake.

So is it difficult to find a 32' boat 50 miles offshore? Damn straight!

Howard

wrote:
wrote:

I'm waiting to hear if Eclipse is still going to be upright
when she's recovered.


Hasn't it already been about a week or more ?

Is it difficult to find a 32' boat about 50 miles offshore ?

Perhaps we should have a service using satellite cameras and
computer programs to find lost boats (and people) in the ocean.