Man Overboard !
NCI Watchkeepers looking out at the ‘View From The Harbour Entrance’ often see things that are, to put it carefully, less than ideal. Vessels which are not using the Small Boat Channel, are going too fast, appear to be overloaded, etc. Some of these things have been written up in this blog in the hope that eventually we will see them less often.
However, there is one thing that we see very seldom, and would actually like to see - or hear - much more often. And that’s vessels practicing man overboard drills.
You might well ask why we mention this now, during the winter, when boating activity is very much reduced as a result of the poorer weather, poorer visibility, and shorter daylight hours. Actually, it’s worth considering because of the poorer weather, visibility, and shorter daylight hours.
Poor weather, choppier seas, and more spray make for difficult movement on slippery spray-wet decks. Poor vis and less daylight makes the person in the water harder to find. And finally, the cold sea makes it much more important to get the casualty out of the water quickly, before hypothermia sets in. [We hope to publish an article about hypothermia in the New Year.]
What we cannot do in a written article is tell you exactly what to do if a passenger or crew member goes over the side; too much depends on the type of boat you are in, how many other people there are in the crew, and what equipment you have on board. Talk it over or practice it with an instructor.
There are two absolute imperatives though. 1) Immediately throw in a float, lifebuoy, Danbuoy, fender. The person overboard may be able to swim to it and use it for flotation; the float might be easier to see than a small dark head in a choppy sea; and it should mark the position of the casualty fairly well. 2) Have a crew member or passenger continuously keep their eyes on the casualty and point to him/her. This crew member should never under any circumstances look away from the casualty. This will be easier if the person overboard (and all the rest of the passengers and crew) has high-vis clothing on. If you cannot see the casualty, then keep eyes on the float you just threw in.
Remember that you will be moving away from the casualty, possibly at speed, and will keep doing so until you can turn the vessel back towards him/her, so the above two actions are vitally important. It’s also important of course that all crew should be wearing a lifejacket.
[Just an aside to those of you who are equipped with Danbuoys – a) good ! b) but don’t let the flag unfurl until you really need it. We do see yachts apparently flying a ‘man overboard’ flag while just having a normal sail… it causes some confusion].
Man overboard exercises and demonstrations often end by finding the float you flung in as a target and using a boathook to pick it up out of the water. But this is only doing half the job; in reality getting someone out of the water is far from easy. Is the casualty injured ? Is he/she unconscious ? Can you lift a 10 to 15 stone deadweight out of the water onto your boat ? Even in an RNLI or GAFIRS Inshore Rescue rib, with its low freeboard, it takes two people to lift someone on board. There are no easy answers.
There is one simple golden rule though….. if you are not in a position to attempt a rescue, or if your rescue attempt fails, do call for help. This is definitely time for a ‘Mayday’ call.
Lastly…
…please do practice man overboard recovery. If you are able to use a man-size dummy, so much the better… but it would be a good idea to let the coastguard know what you are doing. You don’t want to have someone else see what they think is a real overboard and call mayday for you. Oh, and please do find a good place to practice; the harbour itself, the Small Boat Channel and the Swashways are not the best choices for reasons that hopefully are obvious. Find a safe spot away from other vessels – Stokes Bay or around Osborne Bay might be best.
… looking at the topic from another perspective…. Although signal flags are not much used these days on smaller vessels, if you saw the ‘O’ flag (illustrated at the top of this article) being flown or on a Danbuoy, would you recognise its meaning ?
