egins with (yet again) ‘the boat’ which I've posted a photo of here to the left which bears the caption 'see ya in 3 or 4 days' being overdue from a winter fishing trip as they were expected in by this morning as (yet again) a winter storm advisory was out for the province. The shore captain was up and out early calling me from the plant to say that all schools were cancelled and the roads a mess so what were my plans? My plan, which I quickly put into place, was to change the voice mail on my office phone, reset the alarm and start enjoying my newly booked vacation day by sleeping in.I was awoken at 8 a.m. to be a computer consultant for the man who had forgotten he had instructed me to have a day off. He mentioned that the boys had been heard on the VHF saying that someone had set trawl across them last evening and they had stayed to get it back so were delayed. We had a lot of wind during the night and this morning and apparently the wind blew 45 + knots early this a.m. so they would be in this afternoon.
I puttered around doing online tasks, laundry, and getting the hacienda in order for the cleaning lady’s visit tomorrow. At 1 p.m. I had a call from the shore captain and when I asked if he’d heard from the boys he said “well…. not from them” so I correctly surmised the Coast Guard and then he filled me in. Apparently at about noon while steaming in and about 35 miles out they were hit by a large? rogue wave which had washed over the stern and had lost the hatch cover to the fish hole so were unable to steam as it was rough and they didn’t want to put anymore water over the deck with the open hatch. The coast guard cutter CGS Earl Grey was headed out to assist and was at least three hours away. They had gotten the life raft and EPIRB down off the roof, were in their survival suits and the three of them were in the wheelhouse. The Captain stated they were not going to abandon ship as they had things under control now. I told mister to let me know if things got worse and decided that scrapbooking might distract me as I waited.
The shore captain arrived home at about 3:30 p.m. saying that apparently the Captain had been injured when the wave struck as it had driven him out of the seat and across the wheelhouse as he was steering. Since there was bleeding, there had been some conversations with the QE II emergency room doctor but apparently the lads, having had marine first aid, were already ahead of all that he suggested. The secretary at the plant was monitoring the VHF radio as the Coast Guard radio was calling the boat every 30 minutes and the situation appeared stable. The phone calls continued with the flight surgeon advising that the pilot wasn’t keen on putting a helicopter in the air with the weather at present and conditions meant that a rescue would have to be made by putting the injured fisherman into the water and rescued from there. It was unanimous that no one chose this option, especially the injured party. The plan was to put a medic from the cutter aboard the boat to assess the medical situation and decide from there. The destination was the nearest community hospital, which fortunately (according to my research) was going to have a physician on call by 7 p.m. this evening.
I was delegated to call the Captain’s wife (who I had never spoken to before) with a reassuring version of the situation and she did quite well considering the circumstances. I was pleased that the call had been made when the Rescue Coordination Centre phoned shortly thereafter for details, asked for her contact number and did indeed call her.
The phones, both landline and cell, have been ringing non-stop with fishermen looking for news and/or offering assistance and two of the neighbours dropped in – both of whom have been involved with marine emergencies themselves – one of them having drifted in a life raft in the fog for over 20 hrs. almost two years ago. All agreed that the loss of the gear and equipment from deck was only money and meant nothing if everyone was going to be ok.
The latest update from the Rescue Coordination Centre is that the cutter Earl Grey is escorting them in, they’ve left the Captain aboard the boat and he’s resting, they should be in by 1 a.m. or so. Apparently the boy captain is steering and although both his grandmother and the plant secretary have expressed concern about his abilities (don’t they know he takes his turn on watch?) I have reassured them stating that he has a piece of paper proving he’s capable of doing just that as Transport Canada awarded him his Master Class IV certificate. As for him being upset, I reminded them that on the previous Coast Guard encounter the trip before last, he was the only one to crawl back into the bunk because “it was going to be an hour and a half until the helicopter came with the pump ma, why not?” Again as one of his sisters noted, more stories to regale us with.
One slightly amusing (now that the situation is settling) point was that I had called the prodigal son’s girlfriend to advise of the situation originally and told her that the Coast Guard Cutter Earl Grey was making it’s way out to assist. When I called with an update her mother answered and said “oh the Coast Guard ship Earl Grey, oh that makes sense as she said some Earl was going out to get them and I was trying to think who she meant, Earl Demolitor? Apparently she was a bit more flustered than I thought”. We both had a good chuckle at that one.
And to think that I was planning the only exciting news to post was that the local cable company was asking for permission to film the Mid Week Break presentations at the library so I was going to (again) be a movie star. I was able to consent saying that I’d been taped on the Grand Princess in July and it had gone well.
Well, off to a MRSA Roadshow tomorrow in the city – not nearly as exciting as the life I lead here I hope. I’m thinking it will be a quick trip down and back as the travel partner is now otherwise occupied.
I had a message from a friend saying that the brother of a local physican owns the accommodation we have booked for Barbados. As always it’s a small world.
