A bad day at work for these guys.

RiverRat232

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gaZhnNlutuQ

Willhound

Wow! Wondering if she bottomed on a shoal. Seen bulk carriers in much rougher water with no issues. Looks like she held together long enough to get the crew off at least.

RiverRat232

I read that some of the crew didn't make it.

Liberty44140

I read that too but with how long it took to go down that is surprising. Very sad. 

RiverRat232

Here is video from another ship.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm1orzzWD_Y

randy56

Metal fatigue ? 

MarkB

With those other 2 boats (and possibly more) so close by, how did they lose anybody?

TonyG13

MarkB said:

With those other 2 boats (and possibly more) so close by, how did they lose anybody?

I'm guessing trapped below deck when the hull ruptured? One report I read said the ship failed a structural inspection in Georgia (the country, not state) - but still was put back into service. Sad.

Handymans342

Its sad, so many avoidable deaths

LaRea

Sucks, but let's salvage some good here:  How many of you guys have practiced giving a mayday call?  In his time of need, all this captain could say was "mayday, mayday, my vessel broken."  (And the name of the vessel, but not much else.)

Learn the parts of the call.  Practice it in your head.  Could you do an effective mayday call under duress?

TonyG13

The worst I've had to do was a "pan-pan" when our engine overheated - we think a plastic bag blocked the intake - after exiting the locks and then quickly shut down the engine and drifted in the channel while trying to figure out what was going on. Did a quick restart of the engine, shot over to a wall and tied up in a no docking area, then sent out a "securite" to let the Coasties know we weren't terrorists trying to blow up a building while waiting for a BoatUS tow. But as @LaRea stated, I gave the pan-pan, my boat name, type of boat, location, heading, and my intentions. Now if we were on fire or taking on water I hope I'd still have presence of mind to also do it all correctly.

LaRea

I also plan for the possibility of making the call with a handheld, which means a weak signal.  "This is La Rea, La Rea, La Rea.  I spell:  lima, alpha, romeo, echo, alpha."

Dream_Inn

Well, I remember when I had a fire on board, I may have actually stayed too calm.  I got everyone off the boat, except myself.  Shut down all electronics after putting anchor down.  Then heard the auto fire extinguisher go off and new things would be fine.  I then got directly ahold of Boatus for tow.  Well, my mistake was I did not listen on my handheld backup VHF.  I guess other boats, that did not help, put a call out for me and said people in water (which they were, but did make it onto a fishing charter boat).  Anyhow, my point is, I did not make any call out on VHF until I physically saw the police, which was not on VHF and went right by, and then I spoke with coast guard.  At that point a SAR helicopter was overhead.  I learned my lesson that I should've used my handheld earlier to communicate because someone else could've reported it.  I guess I didn't want everyone to show up when I thought things were ok.  Well, the police, coast guard, SAR helicopter, tow boat, and fire hose boat all showed up, so my "not hailing" didn't work.  I had even thought about hitting the little red button (DSC) on my VHF, which is connect to my GPS, but thought nah, I'm not sinking.

Willhound

Could start a whole new thread on proper radio use. One of my biggest pet peeves on the water. Learning proper technique and the NATO phonetic alphabet are a must. Marine VHF here requires a license (rarely properly enforced, another pet peeve), which means taking a 12 hour course and the first thing required is learning the alphabet. I've never had to personally call for anything other than a radio check but I did get involved once in a situation where a bunch of yahoos in a go fast/cigarette boat ran into engine trouble and called a Mayday. It should have been a PanPan call as they were in no immediate danger. It was easy to tell that whoever was on the radio had no clue. And the radio/antenna wasn't set up properly so when they called the Coast Guard caught the initial call but then lost the signal so asked any other craft in the area to act as relay. That was me. The caller couldn't adequately give their position, and their radio kept cutting out, and finally stopped responding all together after almost an hour. By this time I was on a 3 way call with both the Coast Guard and local Police Marine units. Finally we went to a 3 way cell call so as to avoid tying up the radio channel.
A search didn't turn up anything and there never was a report of anyone missing. As near as we could all figure, there was likely booze involved and when the yahoos figured out that their "Mayday" was triggering an official response they clammed up and either got the motor going or someone else towed them in. But they never cleared the call or reported in safe. Complete Jackholes...
But the best part was being thanked by the Coast Guard for trying to help and also on the proper use of my radio.

LaRea

Willhound said:

Could start a whole new thread on proper radio use.

Well that's not a terrible idea.

Another lesson:  know when to send a Pan Pan.  Maybe the captain of MV Arvin had already sent one.  He must have known his ship was in danger.  That's why he was already recording video.  If he had already issued a Pan Pan, he wouldn't need to waste time including that same information in the Mayday.  Just confirm that the vessel was broken.  

LaRea

I've made one Mayday.  A guy near us dove into shallow water and suffered what turned out to be fatal injuries.  We were in the middle of 1000 boats after a fireworks show, so vectoring in the first responders by VHF was a real clusterf#ck.  Coast Guard, fire and rescue, County Marine Patrol and more.

That day, with so many voices on the channel, I learned the importance of starting every single transmission by saying who is calling whom.  As in "Coast Guard, La Rea, my position is ..."

And then, when I fired a flare to show them my position, a bunch of other drunk jackholes started firing flares.  Sheesh.

Dream_Inn

LaRea said:

And then, when I fired a flare to show them my position, a bunch of other drunk jackholes started firing flares.  Sheesh.

There you go!  One of the main reasons I will not drive my boat on the night of the 4th!  I am usually in my marina with one of the best views of fireworks, safely having many drinks!

mattie

My daughter who is at University - during the summer drives a ferry on the St. Clair River. She completed her VHF Radio Operator Cert last week.
 
So she & I reviewed all the material for about 2 weeks beforehand.
Good refresher for me, got my license in 2008. I forgot a LOT of stuff. Holy!

Agree, be a good idea for a pinned thread on VHF operation. Add some youtube vids etc.

randy56

Hey I would benefit from it. I'm sure some Rinker brothers are ashamed to admit it.
I vote yes.

RiverRat232

We could start a thread that incorporates all aspects of boating saftey including radio use. I know I would benefit.

aero3113

They probably did this one too many times....😳

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CKoWhWrAYEU/?igshid=1dfi50uordq8f