I had the great pleasure to teach a Marine Radio course this weekend with my Kelowna Power Squadron friends Clark and Howard.
I lived on a ship for 6+ years in that time I did over 500,000 nautical miles (it’s a lot) and I have been lucky to sail quite a bit in the Caribbean and Gulf Islands. I even got to go to Antarctica by ship.
I can not count the number of fatalities I have seen in that time. Lots, and many were preventable.
The emergency’s generally happen very quickly. The set up for the emergency can take years of poor maintenance, bad luck and mostly not following safe boating practices.
The easiest thing in the world that would save lives this year is, WEAR YOUR LIFE JACKET!
I bought a super cool one so I like to wear it, I put a big rescue knife on it to make it look even cooler.
But I never go off the dock with out it on… any more.
Back when I was too cool for life jackets we were racing one night. It started as a drifter, no wind at all. As the race progressed it turned into a complete storm. Then the boat got hit by lightening.
Must say that was a moment of worry. We got off the water, three of us felt we had a burn, but upon close examination there where no marks.
Later the captain pulled the boat out of the water and we found it was completely destroyed by the lighting hit and a complete miracle did not sink when hit. If it had, it would have been a really bad event. The storm made it impossible for other boats to help us, our life saving gear was safely on shore (too heavy to have on the boat for racing, it looked calm at the start…)
I learned my lesson and I have all the rescue and life saving items correctly placed before we untie from the dock. I took a bunch of boating courses, which I now volunteer to teach for CPS and require others on the boat to follow safe boating. Don’t worry it is still fun and I can tell you getting back to the dock with a ambulance waiting for you is NOT a good time.
As the comedian said on the ship “Don’t worry about a fire on the ship, there is no were for it to spread to, we are surrounded by water.”
Be safe on the water this year. I had a lovely Sunday race day sail today and it was great, cold, but great.
Be Well,
Ward Willison
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