I first want to thank the U.S. Coast Guard and the crew of the Fuji Bay freighter for their professionalism in the rescue of my crewmember and me from the Caribbean Sea under harsh and difficult conditions. I also want to thank everyone at ACR Electronics for their miraculous job in designing and constructing a flawless emergency locator beacon. The GlobalFix EPIRB did everything it was advertised to do. It kept on ticking even though the battery was near the end of its lifetime and the beacon floated away from our boat. It literally saved our lives.
As a boat deliverer, I was asked in Cartagena, Columbia S.A. to deliver a 52-foot sail boat, Blue Chip, to Montego Bay, Jamaica. After a thorough walk-through of the vessel with the captain I was replacing, I was informed that the boat had just completed a yard period and survey, and that all matters pertaining to certification were up to date. Upon completing the change of command, we were ready to depart.
On Dec. 25th, we were moving very well on rhumb line, and conditions were normal without any impending problems. Crewmate Dana "Rabbit" Ramsden was even able to cook our first hot meal for Christmas. It was 12:15 early morning on December 26th when Rabbit yelled that we had a problem. She was standing in water up to her ankles! We made sure all pumps were active. I went above to hand pump and Rabbit started inspecting through-hull fittings. I searched for the leakage source but could not find it. The water was up to our mid-calves! We pumped and used buckets when possible. At around 2 a.m., we activated the EPIRB -- an ACR GlobalFix model and secured in the cockpit. We continued sending VHF transmissions and firing flares. We moved the offshore, six-person life raft from the midship container to the aft swim platform. We inflated the raft in the water and commenced with loading stores, water, lights, personal items, ship's papers, two GPS units, the GlobalFix EPIRB, a VHF radio, etc.,and went back to work.
Rabbit shouted that our supplies from the raft were floating away! The raft's flooring was gone and the canopy was tearing off! The whole raft became un-glued and all our supplies were either sunk or adrift from it. We had no survival raft! We just said nothing for a moment. Then we decided to try and inflate the shore dinghy. Rabbit informed me that it was holed in the front and would not hold air! We inflated the side parts and half inflated the holed forward section. We launched it and secured it aft with the remaining life raft sections, the man-over-board-pole and a strobe light.
We went back into the boat to salvage what we could. The water inside was past my shoulders! I called for a break. Then we heard a plane! I had saved a VHF radio in a plastic bag and made contact with a USCG C-130 long-range search and rescue plane. I knew at that moment that the EPIRB had done its job! And, it had done so all while floating away...out there! The Coast Guard started doing their job of rescue and soon deployed two open life rafts with tethers for us to pick up. We were able to grasp the end of a tether!
The water in Blue Chip was up to the first step, going down into the boat! The Coast Guard asked a nearby merchant vessel, Fuji Bay, to change course for us. The Co
ast Guard and the master of Fuji Bay asked that we depart our vessel into the Coast Guard life raft for recovery and for our safety as the sea conditions that were building. It's hard to explain the feeling as we cut ourselves free from our boat and entered the life raft! We took a few breakers over us. The Coast Guard would not depart until we got aboard the freighter. By 11:34 a.m., we were on deck of the Fuji Bay!!! None of this could be written if we had not been plucked from the sea. All the things that took place in saving us came as the result of the ACR GlobalFix EPIRB operating flawlessly! PERIOD. The conditions became worst and I know that with what we had available, the odds were not with us in making it!
I thank the USCG and the Fuji Bay for their super job in our rescue. It makes me proud of having been in the Coast Guard for four years. But, the item, not person that we give our lives to, is the ACR GlobalFix EPIRB. A truly remarkable piece of needed equipment for every vessel. It saved us!!
Survivor Kirk Ezell
No comments:
Post a Comment