USCG Training Exercise Initiated (Rescue Aborted)

With the HUGE wx window hanging over the Carolinas we took off from Charleston at 0700 Saturday 29 Nov. Bright and sunny, 32*, flat seas, little to no wind.  We started motoring (driving the condo) to St. Augustine, FL on 212* heading.  Sara and Ken on s/v Tintean got underway with us but made their heading 189* for Cape Canaveral.

S/V Tintean departing Charleston.

Ft. Sumter

We completed the usual off-shore preparations: topped off fuel and water, jacklines rigged, underway meals prepared, PFDs and tethers out, ditch-bag at the helm, lifeslings and other throwables ready, hatches dogged, unnecessary through hulls closed, float plan filed, paper charts on the chart table, fully charged handheld VHF added to ditch-bag. Shove off!

 

Yesterday, CK’s girlfriend, a USCG rescue pilot was on duty and did a low pass fly while we were in the marina. Waaaay kewl! When she got off duty, Kelly drove up to Charleston and joined us onboard. Her OP area extends as far south as Daytona so there was much joking about another fly-by when we were off FL and she was on duty on Sunday.

At 1345 Saturday we were hailed by USCG Charleston. Mark and I thought it was Kelly contacting us. No such luck.   

The USCG wanted to know if we were in distress as our EPIRB had gone off!

We switched to 22a and the discussion began. We checked our EPIRB at the helm and it was sitting there minding its own business. I explained we also had a PLB in our ditch-bag. Gave them the id#s for each and it WAS the PLB going off!!!

Opened the ditch-bag and pulled out the PLB – in its own case – and checked the onoff tab. Taped down in the off position. So strange.

EPIRB in white case attached to helm seat. Ditchbag - ready to go.

The evil PLB- in its case, in the ditchbag...

Instead of voiding the warranty and removing the battery, we agreed that the USCG would wait for the next satellite pass and contact us again if it was still pinging. 1500 nothing. 1600 nothing. All through the night no call from the USCG. That’s the good news.

The bad news is we don’t know what set it off. Do we need to contact the manufacturer? We still don’t know how the tab could have been flipped up while in its case and in the ditch-bag.  One thing is for sure, as soon as we get a phone signal we need to call USCG Charleston on the non-emergency line to apologize and thank them for their professional response.

Whew!