Just listening to the USCG respond to a call on Marine Ch-16... A Fishing Boat going out to fish, ran across an Older Fellow (Hoonah Native) passed out in his 18’ skiff, going in circles.... They corralled the boat, and shutdown his outboard, but Old Boy is to Drunk, to be of any self help...Now the USCG Command Center is trying to figure out who to call, to go collect the Old Boy... He is 20 miles from Hoonah, and they do not have any assetts closer than 6 hours to the location... They called Andy the State Trooper in Hoonah, and apparently he is not available, so maybe the Hoonah Police will get a call, to go scoop him up... The Fishing Boat Skipper suggested, since he can’t seem to get a real responce out of the Guy, he should throw a 5Gallon Bucket of Seawateron him... Fun & Games on. a nice Sunday Morning...
The government is always there to help, when you need it now, they may be able to respond in hours even when things are normal, if SHTF do you really expect them to help at all? Prep as your life may depend on it, it probably will if anything happens.
Turns out the skiff is almost out of Gas, so the Skipper of the Fishing Boat put his Deck Hand aborad, and the ste headed to Hoonah, and maybe some one from Hoonah will met them before the skiff runs out of gas...
Agreed. I was in a dead zone for internet and didn't see that last post. Leaving the drunk unable to get home once sober would be wrong.
In a previous life we'd save/rescue/guide all sorts of fools. It didn't matter how massively stupid or wasted they were: our charter mandated that we treat every single blithering idiot the same. Everyone was deserving of assistance. Boot camp drilled into us: "You have to go out, you don't have to come back". Stuck with me ever since. Some of the calls were pretty cool, some were just flat cretinous, some you want to forget. Best I can recall was a 30' sloop that had lost it's mast a hundred miles off of St. Augustine - crewed by 20-something year old college girls. Appreciative as heck too. The weirdest was some doctor, brand new to power boats. Had his nice, but used Sea Ray adrift after brushing a bar. Story was he had the boat inspected prior to purchase, and they mentioned the sinks need replacing. So he had a plumber look at the sinks. They were fine. It was the ZINCs that needed replacing. His prop had corroded away to sponge and a sand bar scrubbed it off. The worst was a small fishing boat adrift for days a couple hundred miles out. Reported a number of times but could never find it. Turns out the guy was alone, was doing something with his nets, got tangled and pulled overboard. A body in warm salt water for a week is something you never, ever want to behold. USCG is the most under appreciated service branch: until you need them.
Around Alaska, we really appreciate the Fly-Fly Boys.... They are the one that come get us when no-one else will in an Emergency... The BlueWater Boys are nothing but a PAIN IN THE ASS.... They live to sit out in Icy Straights and board every vessel they see, to conduct a Safety Inspection, and harass the poor fisherman, no end... Even when a Fisherman gets himself in trouble, the nearest CoastGuard Floating Asset is always 6 to 10 Hours away.... Most Fisherman would much rather get a buddy to come "pull their Fat out of the Fire" than wait around for the USCG to actually get a Blue Water mission authorized.... Where as the Fly-FLY Boys just need the Flight Surgeon to Authorize the Mission....
Been too many years since I served, and word with ex mates is that the service has changed much for the worse with the move from Treasury to DHS. Way back when the only ones we harassed were charter or cruise operators who were being paid money to endanger their passengers. And that was only if someone had made a report or complaint. Even then it was mainly life jacket counts, emer rations/H2O stocks, and accreditation of the CO and.or Nav guy. The vast majority of our time was pretty much sitting dockside waiting for business, or running training exercises. We would go out if the fly boys had noted unknown traffic from some of the more southerly Central American countries- in those missions it was flack jackets, and the armory opened for the -16s and Ma Deuce. Then again I spent all my time in the SE of the lower 48 where the recreational morons are as common as poison ivy along my hedge rows. Business might be different up your way. It's changed....
My Son is a Coasty Motor Life Boat crewmen on a 47 Boat, and they go out any time, any weather, any distance they have fuel for! I cannot speak to why Alaska would be different, other then the shear area to patrol vs the amount of assets available. Down here, the 47 Boats are always doing rescues of drunks, broken fish boats, and crab boats and such, the boarding and inspections are actually done by a whole different team using different boats, mainly bigger cutters with specialized teams! On top of that, they have the Air Search and Rescue teams who do almost as much as the Rescue boats! We have the highest number of Coast Guard Stations of any state, and they get a awful lot of use! My son gets called out at least once a day, and his boat has had to have it's engines, shafts and screws replaced 6 times since it was built and delivered! They just upgraded to a set of High Output Cat diesels and gearboxes and special bottom guards to keep from bangin the bottom on the rocks!
Sounds like the same business model as when I was in. I mostly rode rode a 44' MLB 'til I moved to the cutters. The smaller motor lifeboats are always ***** busy. You do learn to stop puking very quickly.....
