Captain Richard Rodriguez has an interesting tale to tell over at his BitterEnd blog. We've discussed Loran a lot recently, andRescue 21 periodically, as well. In this case, neither one was particularly effective!
The yellow line is the US - Canadian Boarder
An interesting set of circumstances made today's call a bit like the old childhood game of Marco Polo.
Fortunately the strand had a good handle on where he was in relation to buoys and his own situational awareness. Knowing that he'd passed over Alden Bank and was moving towards Cherry Point served him well.
Here's how the story went down. At about 09:45 the 28"² Uniflight in the call below contacted the Coast Guard requesting our services. He gave a Lat/Long, indicating that he was dead in the water, North of Patos Island. My ETA to his position, normally an hour, was extended by 15 minutes to do a 2-3"² sea.
Usually when I'm 3-4 miles out I can see the strand, but with the sea state and a small target, I figured it would take a bit longer. When I was about 1.5 miles out, there was still no boat, but his comms with both the CG and me were clear. I asked for an updated position and he offered it up. Still no boat, but he'd drifted a bit. When quired about his position, I asked if he was using a GPS and he said no. At first, I figured WOW, this guy can do a cross bearing fix. In reality he had an older LORAN C, which reads radio time differences between sets of stations. Loarn accuracy varies but not usually be this much, unless there's work being done on the system, and he had drifted.
I called CG Group Port Angeles to see if they could Direction Find him with the new Rescue 21 system, which has been up and running here for about 18 months. Group PA came back with a position some ten miles away, East of Point Roberts. For Rescue 21 to work properly at least two LOP's must be available. However in the Southern Strait of Georgia, only the Mt. Constitution high site on Orcas Island is usable for that stretch of water.
As a result the older technology and the newest technology did not work well.
The moral of the story. Always know where you are. Always have a backup plan.
