Safety at sea is a very personal opinion as to what is minimally necessary. Each skipper and sailor will have a different answerer as to what they believe the offshore boat requires to be safe. The simple sailor believes that they should not endanger the life of rescuers in their personal pursuits. Better to perish then to endanger another. Then there are those that take a brazen approach to going to sea and have no problem pushing the panic button. We see both sides of the argument and have had to come to grips with what we believe is our own personnel threshold for safety. There are companies that will sell you all the latest personnel safety gear but no one but your self can ensure your own safety. Always be prepared! The old adage one hand for your self and one hand for the boat still applies. If the person on watch fails at his or her duty to survey the horizon at least once carefully every 10 minutes then everyone on board is at risk. The best electronics out there are useless if not used by conscientious hands. Those people who go to sea for pleasure find life to be just as precious as those that go to sea for profit with that said if despite all our preparations, checking and re-checking, Murphy shows his ugly head I want the professional rescuers to KNOW where I am. I want them to fly direct and minimize the risk they assume in their chosen profession. I want to take the search out of search and rescue. I believe in properly registered 406 gps epirbs and radios with mmi numbers programmed and gps data hardwired.

            With these thoughts running through Debbie’s and my head we went to the Pacific Sail Expo trying to decide on SSB or Satellite phone. Budget prevented ownership of both. Debbie and I have limited funds and,” do it yourself”, is the only way anything gets done. The seminar we attended was very informative and the underling theme was radio first sat phone second. The thought process is that with new digital selective calling (DSC) you notify every ship in the vicinity before SARSAT even has a chance to respond to your epirb. Sometimes you need help in the form of advice or if a medical emergency arises you want the appropriate medical response. What about the one part you didn’t add to your spares list. SSB with email and no minutes used. In the end we decided on the SSB. Now it’s time to look into the licensing dance. Ships license check, restricted radio operators license check, and general HAM operator on the way. Any one want to talk propagation?