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.

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.

We do have a system for people. The system depends on you have a 406
EPIRB onboard and deploying it in the event of an emergency. Its
position is triangulated by SARSAT (or sometimes given by an onboard
GPS) and the SAR guys come out and look for you where the EPIRB is (if
there is anyone around). The system is not infallible and many times
you may be too remote for anyone to get to. Basically, prepare like you
are on your own.

Not many folks care about lost empty boats.

Gaz

On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 02:46:44 GMT, Gary wrote:

Not many folks care about lost empty boats.

That's true and the boat was abandoned in an area without a lot of sea
traffic or civilization. It will probably wash up somewhere sooner or
later. Lack of planning and preparation gets another one in my
opinion.

Wayne.B wrote in
:

It will probably wash up somewhere sooner or
later.

A couple of years ago, I read a new article somewhere where a big cruiser
that was abandoned in a big storm off the West Coast of USA was found by
some fishermen and towed to port in Hawaii....years later....in good
condition as I remember.

Anyone know a source for that story on the net?

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


50 miles? Shucks, ten miles out is as good as infinity if
you're lost. You have no idea how big the ocean is.

DSK

DSK wrote:
wrote:

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


50 miles? Shucks, ten miles out is as good as infinity if you're lost.
You have no idea how big the ocean is.

DSK


Thank God the Search & Rescue people have helicopters and airplanes. Can
you imagine being lost/shipwrecked in the 1800s?

In article ,
says...


DSK wrote:
wrote:

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


50 miles? Shucks, ten miles out is as good as infinity if you're lost.
You have no idea how big the ocean is.

DSK


Thank God the Search & Rescue people have helicopters and airplanes. Can
you imagine being lost/shipwrecked in the 1800s?

1800s? Things haven't improved all that much if you read some of the not
so old literature about survival at sea. Does anyone recall the large
cruise ship that was hijacked by pirates in the Caribbean, taken out to
the Atlantic and disappeared for a whole week with the entire US Navy
looking for it? I doubt so large a ship could disappear these days but
your 32-footer isn't even a blip on a high resolution satellite picture if
you don't know where it is to begin with.

If you're off the west coast of the US, head east. You'll hit land
eventually. :-)

In fog, you could be lost within a couple of miles. Happens all the
time out here.

In article ,
DSK wrote:
wrote:
Is it difficult to find a 32' boat about 50 miles offshore ?


50 miles? Shucks, ten miles out is as good as infinity if
you're lost. You have no idea how big the ocean is.

DSK



--
Capt. JG @@
www.sailnow.com

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.