Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#1
posted to rec.boats
|
|||
|
|||
Mayday, Mayday...
After a lifetime of listening to marine radio frequencies I had never
heard a mayday call until yesterday. We were motoring north from the Florida Keys in the late afternoon headed for Little Shark River inlet in the Everglades Park wilderness area. It was a cool windy day with winds out of the north east at 25 knots. Suddenly the VHF sprang to life with the unmistakable words: Mayday, mayday, we are in distress and need help, mayday, mayday. It was absolutely electrifying to hear the words. With no one else responding, we returned their call and offered to relay their situation to the coast guard. It turns out that three people in a 17 ft Boston Whaler had become ensnared in a back country mangrove marsh and could not free up the boat. All three of them were on shore but they were cold, wet, and about 30 miles from the nearest civilization. Unfortunately there was nothing we could do to help them but pass on all of their information to USCG. The Coast Guard called the National Park Service ranger station at Flamingo for their help. We have no idea how it all turned out but hopefully someone was able to get them out of there quickly. Temperatures got down into the 40s last night and spending the night in cold wet clothing could have easily been life threatening. Other then getting in over their heads in the wilderness, their other mistake was not having a GPS. Without that the best we could do was approximate their position based on the description they gave. |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
Mayday message | General | |||
Mayday off coast of Mexico-rescued from catamaran | Cruising | |||
SOS, Mayday...HELP!!! | ASA | |||
Cool head on the Mayday call | General | |||
To MAYDAY or not to MAYDAY that is the question.... | General |