NYCkayaker New tricks-USCG

[Erik Baard]

Glad to see rescue technology advancing. On the flip side, owing to 
poor technology and a vague call of danger, we had a HUGE emergency 
response on the East River last night. The Manhattan, Roosevelt Island, 
and a bit of the Queens shorelines were lined with emergency vehicles 
(literally dozens of them) scanning the waterline with search lights 
while a helicopter intensely examined the waterway with a spotlight.

The action began while we were still on the water, and we feared that 
we were the object of the search, though we were quite happily paddling 
and lazing with tricolor navigation lights (the ones recommended by the 
Wetteroth/Diaz/CG study) on and a marine radio to communicate with the 
single tug that passed in the hour or so of our voyage. Our loop was 
quite small, launching from Anable Basin, heading over to Roosevelt 
Island, drifting north on the weak flood to a point just south of the 
Queensboro Bridge and then crossing and drifting south with the 
reversing current back home.

Police and CG alike were using Channel 16, and the talk was about an 
upside-down buoy perhaps misleading a 911 caller at the end of 44th 
Drive in Queens. We hailed them after pulling ashore, confirming that 
indeed, a buoy was nearly flipped near a construction barge. But that 
had been the case all week, and (I didn't mention this) that buoy isn't 
visible from 44th Drive. But at least our hail 1) alerted the CG and 
police that the kayakers out there (we were under a Roosevelt Island 
patrol spotlight) were safely ashore and that we saw absolutely no 
vessel in distress. If one had been there, we would have certainly seen 
it. The area is small, the water was calm, traffic was one vessel/hour, 
visibility was good, and we were doing nothing but taking in our 
surroundings.

The officer who returned our hail seemed satisfied with that, but boy 
did the emergency response increase! I suppose things were already in 
motion.

On the one hand, the response was nerve wracking when we thought it was 
for us, but comforting afterwards, knowing how professional and through 
the procedures were.

All-in-all, one imagines a tipsy and panicky patron of Waters Edge 
Restaurant (the only occupied place at the end of 44th Drive) calling 
911 on a cell phone and ruining a calm and lovely evening!

Erik Baard


On Aug 8, 2006, at 9:42 AM, skimmer at enter.net wrote:

> To:               "Richard Hiscock" <rch at gmavt.net>
> Subject:          New Coast Guard radio system pinpoints trouble
> Date sent:        Tue, 8 Aug 2006 13:28:50 -0400
>
>  <http://www.sunherald.com/>  	
>   <http://www.sunherald.com/images/common/spacer.gif>
>
>   <http://www.sunherald.com/images/common/spacer.gif> 	
>
> Posted on Mon, Aug. 07, 2006
>
> <http://www.sunherald.com/images/common/spacer.gif> 	
>   <http://www.sunherald.com/images/common/spacer.gif> 	
>
> New Coast Guard radio system pinpoints trouble
>
> THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
>
>
> ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - In a final transmission before their
> 20-foot boat capsized off Ocean City, Md., George Strawn and his
> two fishing buddies sent Coast Guard rescuers three miles in the
> wrong direction.
>
> But Strawn, 74, and the others were saved when a Coast Guard
> officer tried Rescue 21, a prototype maritime 911 system that can
> pinpoint the source of a radio transmission to within a few feet.
> November's rescue was the first for the $730 million system, which
> is being installed at Coast Guard stations nationally.
>
> The official rollout of Rescue 21 began this summer after five
> years of delays and cost overruns. A Government Accounting Office
> report said poor management pushed the system's cost to almost
> three times the original estimate.
>
> Rescue 21 is a network of computers and powerful radio towers
> spread along coastal areas that can triangulate on a radio signal
> and pinpoint its source. The system is designed to zero in on a
> 1-watt radio two feet off the water at a range of 20 miles
> offshore, said Capt. Dan Abel, Rescue 21's project manager. He said
> a typical 5-watt radio extends the range up to 100 miles.
>
> Rescue 21 is now in use in New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and
> Virginia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. The Coast
> Guard plans to activate the first Pacific station in Seattle in
> September.
>
> C 2006 The Sun Herald and wire service sources.
> http://www.sunherald.com
>
> Forwarded by C. Sutherland
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