newfisherman wrote:Time to respond up here would be little different from down south
Thats what im really looking for.
I suppose that not many people on here have set one off. Thats a good thing
I remember watching a tv show about the terrible lack of response by the authorities to an epirb off cape York . Basically they had soooo many false alarms that they almost disregarded the alarm and people died
Good luck getting the coast guard to help out here - they sold the boat
I spent the extra money and bought the GPS model, like has been said before. 5km is a bl..dy big distance to be searching especially at night.
One thing that has not been mentioned is the currents, if you go overboard up hear, pull the cord on the EPIRB they get a 5km ping, the next pass of the satellite could be 10,20,30min away. How far do you think you would drift up here in half an hour. I'd say outside the 5km radius.
Those that scoff, just remember it was not that long ago that the Malu Sara customs patrol boat sunk and this exact same scenario played out. All on board died, one was spotted alive but by the time the rescue boat arrived they had been swept more than the 10km search radius they covered and was never seen again.
Custom Plate Boats
Boat modifications
Trailer and repairs
newfisherman wrote:Time to respond up here would be little different from down south
Thats what im really looking for.
I suppose that not many people on here have set one off. Thats a good thing
I remember watching a tv show about the terrible lack of response by the authorities to an epirb off cape York . Basically they had soooo many false alarms that they almost disregarded the alarm and people died
Good luck getting the coast guard to help out here - they sold the boat
And when offered another specced up Rescue vessel....they didn't return emails.
Thats the one. I couldnt recall the name but i remember the details. 4 corners program. They treated the emergency as a joke. bl..dy terrible. The boat wasnt up to spec, cheapest tender etc etc
dodgyone wrote:And when offered another specced up Rescue vessel....they didn't return emails.
That is typical. we as taxpayers put a lot of money into the set up. this should be followed up
Set one off in the south alligator about 10 year ago due crew having heart attack.
No response. When queried canberra said no response due up a river!!?
Qld authorities ran into trouble when they mandated epirbs on vessels going 2 miles out and then had no mechanism to back it up. Qld S&R authories simply could not find an activated epirb.
Boaties ended up with unrealistic expectations about what happens when they set one off due to the promotional rubbish the Qld Marine people put out.
Apart from the Water Police in the NT, Customs are picking up some skills in finding epirbs now.
At the end of the day, the response time will depend on how much on-the-ball the first-in response crew is ( which is the NT Police).
The alerting part of a S&R is covered pretty well. The next step is the one that can have some troubles.
The local CG needs about 5 years to come up to speed if they've got the right people involved and if they get funding support. Doesn't look like either of those 2 things are happening yet. But it will in time.
As some of you may recall, I worked with the CG from the south via this forum a couple of years ago. Basically laid out the marine VHF repeater network for the NT. Haven't heard from them for nearly 2 years now. Bucket of eggs and a big stick stuff.
A bloke i know got chased into the mangroves after being attacked by a couple of people. He set the EPIRB off and was recovered the next day in the middle of a mangrove forrest. Took a few hours but it was on dusk initially and he was hiding as best he could from the attackers so all in all the searchers didnt do a bad job tofind him. Lucky he was smart enough to take the epirb when he bailed out of the boat.
12 years earlier another bloke I know spent the night afloat on the FAD bouy at fentons after there boat split and sunk. They got rescued in the morning. Im pretty certain he said that the epirb had to be immerced in water to send a signal and he couldnt read the instructions untill the morning. Could be wrong but thats how the story went. All in all pretty reasonable time frames considering locations and times of both of these people.
People that I speak to seem to think that you will be picked up within an hour because ‘that’s what those rescue shows depict’.
Might be the case in the US but no chance up here
newfisherman wrote:Time to respond up here would be little different from down south
Thats what im really looking for.
I suppose that not many people on here have set one off. Thats a good thing
I remember watching a tv show about the terrible lack of response by the authorities to an epirb off cape York . Basically they had soooo many false alarms that they almost disregarded the alarm and people died
Good luck getting the coast guard to help out here - they sold the boat
Yeah there is a lot more to that story but your right. While I was posted there for 2 1/2 years there would have been on average 2 call outs per week due to people transiting between islands without enough fuel.
It was so common that EPIRBs were reclassified as Empty Petrol IRequire Boat
This I find amusing was the safety sticker handed out by MSQ.
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