By Jacqueline Carpenter, From RCIPS

Just after 4PM yesterday, 19 September, the 9-1-1 Communications Centre received notice of a SOS activation that had been received by the International Emergency Response Coordination Center by a boat southwest of Grand Cayman.  The SOS signal had been sent by a locator beacon on the boat, but no other communication had been received or could be made with the vessel.

 The police helicopter and Joint Marine vessel, NivenD, quickly responded to the area indicated by the beacon coordinates.  Although the boat had drifted somewhat since its initial SOS, the helicopter spotted the vessel at 5:10PM about 30 miles southwest.  A red flag was waved at the helicopter by crew members on the vessel to indicate distress.  Four men, all from Honduras, were on board the boat, and were in good health.  The boat, a 40’ white fishing boat, had left Honduras last Saturday, 17 September, but had suffered an engine failure.  Both the boat and the men were brought to Grand Cayman.

 Aside from the locator beacon which had activated an electronic SOS signal, the men had no other communication capabilities, since their phone card on their satellite phone had expired and the batteries for their VHF and long-range radios were drained.

 “Fortunately the owner of this vessel had the foresight to install an added safety measure, in this case, an Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB), or this incident could have ended very differently,” said Inspector Leo Anglin, Commander of the Joint Marine Unit, “it would have been very difficult to pinpoint where the vessel was located without any kind of information about their route or when they encountered difficulties. Their failure to arrive also may not have been noted for some period of time.”

 The JMU would like to remind all boat owners of the necessity to maintain as many communication capabilities on their vessels as possible, including satellite phones and a VHF radio, and also to consider additional safety measures, such as the EPIRB.

 “An EPIRB has a different power source and is therefore the failsafe when other communication devices fail,” added Inspector Anglin, “boat owners travelling long distances in particular should strongly consider this safety measure.

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