We all love sailing, but there are dangers inherent in many sports and ours is no exception.
Earlier this month a boating accident took the life of one individual off the coast of San Francisco and an additional four are lost at sea and presumed killed. Three individuals on the boat, named Slow Speed Chase, survived. This ABC news story gives a little of the background http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/san_francisco&id=8624864 and this account from Brian Chong, one of the three survivors on the boat, gives a detailed first hand account:
http://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/lectronicday.lasso?date=2012-04-24#.T5lbqKuvJ8F Our thoughts are with the sailors and their families and friends affected by this tragedy.
One thing I think we can do whenever we hear of such a tragedy is to try to learn from their experience. On the ocean and sometimes on the Chesapeake it is a good idea to wear a harness and a tether (on our part of the Potomac, hopefully we're headed to a safe port already if the weather's getting bad). Brian suggests in retrospect that tethers used properly may have saved some lives (another part of this is carrying a knife so you can also cut yourself free). He also emphasizes the helpfulness of regularly practicing crew overboard drills. It wouldn't hurt for us to do those more. Finally, I'd add that investing in a Personal Locater Beacon if you are sailing in large bodies of water may help. Here's one that I keep attached to my lifejacket when I'm sailing on large bodies of water: http://www.acrelectronics.com/products/b/marine/catalog/personal-locator-beacons/sarlink-406-gps
Chris
-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the General
mailing list for the Sailing Club of Washington, DC (also known as the
Google Groups "SCOW All" group).
To post to this group, send email to <scow-all@googlegroups.com>
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
<scow-all+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com>
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/scow-all
0 comments:
Post a Comment