******** or what?

[Manxman]

Today a mate was giving us a lift from Peel Isle of Man over to Drummore in Southwest Scotland so I could bring my boat back home, I had to leave it there last weekend because of the weather.

The sea was flat calm but it was quite misty, visibility was down to 2 / 3 miles, no problem to navigate using the chartplotter.

Just as the Mull came into view we spotted a Rib heading straight for us on a collision course, taking avoiding action we couldn’t shake him off. We then realised he was waving to attract our attention.

After heaving to the Rib came along side and was occupied by six teenage lads and a girl, the conversation went like this.

 

Rib, can you tell us where we are?

Me, Why?

Rib, I think we’re lost

Me Where have you come from and are going too

Rib Portpatrick to Bangor NI

Me Yes your lost you’re 3 miles south of the Mull of Galloway and a long way off course for Bangor, your heading would have taken you to the I.o.M.,

 

After consulting our chart we gave him a heading for Bangor

 

Rib We haven’t got compass

Me I’ll give you the Lat & Long to the entrance to Bangor Marina to put into your GPS

Rib We haven’t got Gps

Me have you VHF

Rib No, I’ve got a mobile

Me I’ll bet it doesn’t work here

Rib (checks his phone)

Your right no signal here

 

Me do you have life jackets

Yes we have two

Me I think you’d better follow us to the Mull and coast hop back to Portpatrick and wait for better visibility

Rib Just point to Bangor and we’ll be on our way

Me Over there due west but you’ll only get lost again, follow us you won’t be able to navigate in this poor visibility

Rib I’ll use the sun

Me what sun?

 

After trying to convince him not to go until visibility greatly improved he took of a great rate of knots in the wrong direction, to the south-west.

 

We informed the coast guard of the situation.

 

Coming home an hour and a half later we heard the coastguards organising a search and rescue with lifeboats in the Irish sea

SeaCat Isle of Man eventually picked him up and the rib was recovered by a Lifeboat

 

Speaking with the Coastguard later he told us that the Rib ran out of petrol twenty minutes after leaving us

 

******** or not?

[jeepster]

you did your best mate, some people are determined to make things hard for themselves (and others!)

[chesters1]

outrageous a few miles offshore and no phone signal :mad:

[Vagabond]

One would hope they had the decency to make a substantial donation to the RNLI, and that once they were safe, that someone made it quite clear to them what p....s they'd been.

 

Probably not though.....

 

BTW Manxman, we will be in the IOM from 21st to 28th Sept and could pop over to Peel to say hello and perhaps have a jar.

[Kieran Hanrahan]

Crikey...

 

Is there not a law against abusing the emergency services in the UK? I know in the RoI they can make you pay for your rescue if they feel you have gone out ill-prepared.

 

If you call out the fire brigade or emergency services on land they charge you for it... I had to pay the call out charges some year back for the fire engine that attended a minor RTA and what galled me was that I had not even called them !!!

 

Frankly it sounds like cirminal charges of reckless endangerment should have been brought against the twit... they would not be allowed behave like that in a car, would they?

[bryan]

agree with that keiron, when someone goes out in a boat without any navigation equipment it smacks of stupidity and surely they should be prosecuted for something like that!!

[Spur-Hound]

Kieran-Is there not a law against abusing the emergency services in the UK?

 

hmm, How can you punish kids who if they never got help from the RNLI wouldhave died(i bet a couple on the rib innocent aswell)

 

I think that the answer is education, They shouldnt have been out in the 1st place if they clueless,

 

I dont see how the sea should be any diffrent from our roads, Some sortof test to show you are responsable enough and can be safe with your own life and others, Id say the sea is more dangerous than the roads...

[argyll]

'I dont see how the sea should be any diffrent from our roads'

 

Thats true, but if you act irresponsibly on the road then you get arrested and charged with dangerous driving, without due care, no MOT, car in unroadworthy condition etc. 'Kids' are just as liable. If they consider themselves old enough to take charge of a boat, then they should consider themselves responsible enough to take the flack for getting it wrong. If not then their parents should be made to pay. Either way I dont think I should (indirectly through donations, I do precisely that) If you want to instill a 'safety at sea' regime, you've got make to hard in those that ignore the basic rules.

[spanner]

"I think that the answer is education"

 

The trouble is they were given an education via the advice from Manxman, and they chose to ignore it.

 

I would love to know how they feel about their experience now. It should be a case of older and wiser, learning from your mistakes, but, given that they chose to ignore sound advice, I cant help thinking they will just blow it off as bit of a laugh.

 

Unfortunately you cannot legislate for stupidity, but I wish you could! I would certainly support a license for boating just like cars, and while it wont stop idiots choosing to ignore the rules at least they cant hide behind 'ignorance'.

 

Mind you it would still be difficult to hold them financially responsible for their actions as it would probably lead to higher insurance premiums for everybody.

[Scotty T]

What a bunch of thoughtless idiots, and an utter waste of emergency services cash, good for you for being so patient with them.

On a seperate note when out boat fishing recently the portland coastguard helicopter was scrambled to lift a diver from a boat after she missed a re-compression stop. They fly the diver to poole where they have a re-compression chamber each time it costs the NHS £1000 not to mention the cost for the helecopter which is something ridiculus per minute. We got talking on the boat and thought maybe some kind of contribution from the divers side. Any thoughts???By the way this happens quite often i'm told.

 

[ 06. September 2004, 02:08 PM: Message edited by: Scotty T ]