Issue 18: May/June 2001
Arecent issue of USAA magazine carried the story of a National Guard rescue attempt that occurred during “The Perfect Storm.” Not the Hollywood version; the real storm. The 106th Rescue Wing of the New York Air National Guard flew an H-60 helicopter into the storm in answer to a distress call. The conditions were so bad that the helicopter could not manage mid-air refueling, ran out of fuel, and ditched. A Coast Guard ship in the area was able to rescue four of the five crew. One crewmember got separated from the others and was not recovered. They lost the aircraft and one crewmember and were unable to provide assistance to the vessel in distress. A tragedy.
There are lots of ways to take hindsight shots at that mission if you want to. Don’t.
We got a little heat from an article we published in the January 2001 issue about a couple who used their EPIRB when the steering on their vessel failed. One reader said they used the EPIRB for a radiotelephone. Another reader, a two-time circumnavigator and a notable sailing personality said: “Don’t scare your readers with that kind of stuff.”
My understanding was that the motto of the Rescue Service, a forerunner of the Coast Guard, was: “You have to go out; you don’t have to come back.” Such a motto would have served notice to the crews who rowed and sailed those large open rescue boats that they were involved in a risky endeavor that might well try their courage. A Coast Guard historian set me straight on this. They had no such motto, and they were making the same tough calls then that they make now about whether to launch a rescue mission.
It is reasonable to take the position that sailing is normally a safe activity and should not be characterized in print by one over-dramatized story after another. It is also reasonable to assert that setting off an EPIRB is an extremely serious business. People may well risk their lives coming to your rescue.
The reality, as we see it, is that those events did, in fact, happen. The National Guard sent out a rescue mission that cost lives and equipment. An experienced sailing couple lost steering on a boat they were delivering and set off their EPIRB. These are tales of judgment calls sometimes made amidst fear and exhaustion.
Tales of fear and exhaustion will not attract rational people to sailing. My advice to those who find themselves frequently experiencing fear and exhaustion is “find another skipper.” On the other hand, if you sail enough, some of this will creep into your experiences unbidden, so it is worthwhile to discuss these issues.
A popular misconception is that courage is about not being frightened in threatening circumstances. Wrong. Such behavior betrays foolishness, inexperience, and immaturity. Courage is about what people do while they are frightened. There is no real courage without fear.
Fatigue is the natural enemy of good judgment. Fear acts against good judgment as well. Combined, they are formidable. What mortals can use against fear and fatigue is habit. Training and experience can allow a sailor to do the right thing at the right time under stress. Good performance without these is a fluke or perhaps entertaining fiction. Don’t expect it.
The Rescue Service sailors were not fair-weather boaters. They often did their work in the sort of foul weather that puts vessels in distress. Recreational sailors have more choice. They can pick their weather windows. They can go in a well-found and well-prepared craft. They can acquire the necessary training and skills and seek trained crew or train their own. By these actions, recreational sailors can make the vast majority of their experiences remarkably safe and enjoyable. In fact, the recreational sailor has a serious responsibility to do exactly that.
In this imperfect world, however, most sailors will eventually find themselves in threatening circumstances. In those moments, their performance and judgment will vary according to their training and experience. It will be extremely tempting to second-guess them after the fact. Go easy on that. Even if you have taken a similar test, and felt you did better, you can’t be sure it was exactly the same test.
What can we learn from all this? Authorities will launch rescue missions that can be hazardous to their crews. It is a judgment call they make all the time. Even experienced crews can get in trouble and call for assistance. It is a judgment call, too. All of us who sail should be prepared to do it thoughtfully, so that it is a safe and pleasant experience. It is a judgment call.
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