Our little rescue episode earlier in the year while racing in Geographe Bay (not on Zofia) is a reminder to never be casual on the water and always be ‘tooled up’ as we call it. This includes being appropriately attired when sailing. A couple of months being lazy around Great Keppel Island had us drop our guard. We took off for Masthead Island in the Bunker Group (south end of Great Barrier Reef) and traveled fully 10 minutes before we remembered our life jackets. Bad, bad, bad!
Anyway, getting back to safety upgrades we had the opportunity to buy some personal AIS beacons. Some Kiwi cruisers were selling up after completing a trip from the South Pacific to Bundaberg and we were able to get them 2nd hand. The battery life is good until 2023. Maybe they see us through!
We already have personal EPIRB’s with GPS but the reality is that in a Man Overboard (MOB) situation the vessels nearest you are the most likely ones to locate you. An AIS signal would be a great help. In our own earlier rescue we were not in heavy seas but relied on being visually spotted after notifying authorities an approximate location which was a square mile of potential search area.
While we hope never ever to need to rely on any of our gizmos, the personal AIS is attached to our life jackets just in case.
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