Survival at Sea Movie. “Adrift”

[Baxter]

True Story of Tammy Oldham while on boat delivery in the Pacific encounters a hurricane, is de-masted, she sails single handed, no communication, Self rescues to Hawaii. She also write a book and I believe now lives in Friday Harbor.
Well done story recently added to Netflix if your interested in blue water cruising and survival

 

[Foggy]

The original "Adrift" (circa 1986) is about Steve Callahan, a 6.5 meter boat lost and
his 76 day survival in a raft in the North Atlantic between Canary Islands at Antigua.

Luckily, I couldn't read it until after my crossing from Marseille (FR) to BWI
(Antiqua) in 1984 in a much larger 61' sloop.

That 61'er seems large but is very very small in the North Atlantic. Steve's 21'er
was minuscule.

So, eye balling your CD 22 looks huge on that trailer in your driveway. It's not.

Aye.
Grandpa used to say, "Perception can seem like reality. It's not."

 

[thataway]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Fantastic story. Here is a link to the story vs movie, which is an interesting read..

The hurricane happened in 1983. Apparently there were some changes, but the boat (Halberg Rassey 44) was the same, and general story and perseverance was the feature of the book and film. 1500 mils in 41 days under a jury rig, and probably only taking noon sites! Also the EPIRB was lost in the pitch pole. Certainly an epic story. She lost a 27 year old daughter to CO poisoning in 2017.

There are 2 books: "Red Sky in the Morning", in 1998/2002, and "Adrift" 2018.

Another interesting read is what happened to hurricane forecasting between the 1980's and now: There was only one model and they relied on WWV Hawaii for general information. Water Fax was available then, but I suspect the boat was not equipped.

I can understand the reason for the story change--and it makes a better film story, but the real story is the lady's perseverance and ability to navigate despite a very serious head and brain injury--also to jury rig the boat and make almost 40 miles a day toward Hawaii.

I'll have to watch the film...(We dealt with hurricane force winds and 40' + seas --but nowhere as severe in the Noth Atlantic that same year. But we had Weather Fax which helped some in our routing)

 

[thataway]

I checked Netflix, and it says "coming Tuesday".

 

[hardee]

I watched this a night ago. Interesting story with a surprise twist. Some sketchy moves, but it's a movie. Tough gal.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

 

[ssobol]

I watched this a night ago. Interesting story with a surprise twist. Some sketchy moves, but it's a movie. Tough gal.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

Wasn't that much of a surprise IMO.

 

[thataway]

I watched it a week ago. Lots of "Hollywood" liberties. Tough story--and the real story, where she did not find her partner probably was much tougher. Unrealistic to find the guy clinging to the dinghy...

At sea severe storms don't abate as quickly as portrayed in the movie. But again it was what it was, and interesting to watch...

One the biggest take aways, is always keep your EPRIB or PLB where it is safe and can be reached. When crossing oceans we had the EPRIB just inside the companionway, secured, but one pull of a pin and its free. The second EPRIB was packed in the emergency bag inside the inflatable. Today we carry 3 PLB. One for each of us, one in the ditch bag. Also the importance of a hand held VHF. Also in today's world having a SPOT or "inReach" tracking.

 

[hardee]

Agree, PLB's on each person on board is preferable, and for sure a handheld VHF on the PFD. If I was doing an ocean crossing, the PLB's would also have AIS transmit. Would be invaluable there.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

 

[thataway]

Interesting thought about having AIS. I suppose it would help an AMVER vessel find you. AMVER, or Automated Mutual-Assistance Vessel Rescue System, is run by the U S Coast Guard, and direct merchant vessels to the scene of persons needing assistance. In the usual case with a yacht, the vessel is abandoned and the crew off loaded to ride on the merchant vessel until they reach their next port. I know of cases of persons rescued a few hundred miles off the coast of Mexico, ending up I Japan...! Good reason to have the VHF and parachute SOLAS flares. (altitude of 1,000 feet, 30,000 candlepower, a burn time of 40 seconds,--cost about $40 each or more).

If you knew of other vessels in VHF range, and you could get off a "Mayday". Which you should do if possible before loss of the main ships radio. Our protocol was to also send off a Marine SSB Mayday on 2182KHz as well as 4125, 6215, 8291 and 12290 KHz. All Coast Guard watch frequencies, depending on propagation.--also on 14300 KHz a ham net frequency often monitored world wide....if there was time.

The problem is that probably when the battery runs out in 24 hours, the AIS would also be gone. It may take more than 24 hours for the merchant ship or private yacht to reach your life raft.

I can assure you that very few vessels are seen on most trans oceanic voyages. From the Canaries to Barbados, we "Saw" two vessels on Radar. One was a ketch probably from S. Africa (by its course), who must have thought we were pirates, and actually turned back on his track when we had visual contact, despite our calling on VHF radio. The second vessel was radar only and about 13 miles at closest point of approach. From the vessels' reduced speed, I figured it was a research vessel of some type. Bob Ballard was on the bridge and answered my radio call. I didn't know that he had found the Titanic at that time. (It was only a couple of months after the discovery) and he was on some secret Navy mission when I contacted. I wanted to know if my radar reflected showed on their radar--it did, and I learned a lot about the Titanic discovery first hand. Other crossings we have not seen any ships or recreational vessels.

 

[hardee]

Bob, My thoughts on the AIS/PLB combo is that if a person, (like on a night shift watch) went missing, the vessel could turn, and instead of retracing it's course, could home in on the AIS signal from the device. I know there are AIS emergency rescue devices, not sure if they are combined with PLB yet or not.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

 

[ssobol]

Bob, My thoughts on the AIS/PLB combo is that if a person, (like on a night shift watch) went missing, the vessel could turn, and instead of retracing it's course, could home in on the AIS signal from the device. I know there are AIS emergency rescue devices, not sure if they are combined with PLB yet or not.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

I would wonder how effective an AIS device on a PLB would be in a MOB situation. It would help if the MOB was noticed fairly quickly. But if the MOB was not noticed for awhile, the PLB/AIS antenna height from the MOB might make picking up a signal from a distance problematic. A better solution would be to have an onboard receiver that could read the position sent from the PLB either directly or from the satellite transmission to wherever that goes. The satellite that receives the PLB distress signal should rebroadcast that signal to blanket the area where it was detected so all local vessels and authorities would receive the location of the distress.

 

[hardee]

My Google search for AIS assisted rescue devices listed two that answer the dilemma of immediate notification to the MOB vessel. They have DSC transmission as well as AIS. For transiting in waters that have vessels using AIS, they can be alerted up to 5 miles away. The DSC transmission appears to be linked only to the boat’s MMSI as they appear to only notify on vessel on DSC.

From “Landfall” website:

OCEAN SIGNAL RESCUEME MOB1 DSC / AIS

PRICE $289.95

https://www.landfallnavigation.com/ocea ... OdEALw_wcB

The MOB1 is intended to be installed within the life-jacket and will activate automatically on inflation, sending the first alert within 15 seconds. The integrated strobe light ensures maximum visibility in low light conditions. The MOB1 communicates with the vessel you have been separated from and other vessels in the vicinity (up to 5 miles range dependent on conditions).

Ocean Signal rescueME MOB1 DSC/AISIn an emergency rescueME MOB1 provides 2 methods of rapidly communicating your position, accurate to a few meters, back to the vessel, plus providing visual indication via its built-in strobe light.

The best chance of rapid rescue if you fall overboard comes from your own vessel. Your crew needs to be immediately aware of the incident and keep track of your position whilst recovery is carried out. Even in the most moderate of seas it is alarming how quickly a visual sighting of a man overboard can be lost.

Once activated your MOB1 will transmit an alert to all AIS receivers and AIS enabled plotters in the vicinity. The integrated GPS ensures precise location is sent to your vessel* and any others that may be assisting.

An additional feature of the MOB1, is its ability to activate the DSC alarm on your vessels VHF, alerting your crew to the situation.

* NOTE: The Ocean Signal RescueME MOB1 only transmits the DSC Radio Alarm back to your vessels VHF radio and not to the radios in the general area! It does send the AIS warning to all the AIS monitoring hardware within range.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My Green Outdoors

ACR 2886 AISLink MOB Personal AIS Man Overboard Beacon [2886]
$308.00 ON Sale for $279.95— You save $28.05

The AISLink MOB automatically activates upon inflation of the lifejacket, sending an initial alert within 15 seconds to all AIS receivers and plotters in the vicinity. Both positioning and MOB emergency messages are transmitted alerting vessels up to 5 miles away of your emergency situation. AISLink sends an alert message within seconds to all local vessels with an AIS receiver and/or AIS-enabled plotter. The DSC alarm on your vessel's VHF can also be signaled. Unlike a personal locator beacon, which signals orbiting search and rescue satellites, AISLink sends an alert message within seconds to all local vessels with an AIS receiver and/or AIS-enabled plotter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Both devices have the DSC notification, (appearing to be linked to one vessel MMSI #) and both have AIS emergency transmit to all surrounding vessels.

Not exactly the same, but I did witness one case where a kayaker overturned in a tidal rapid, in very dense fog, and a passing tug was able to affect a rescue because the DSC signal with an GPS location alerted the tug, and the kayaker had a handheld VHF. The kayaker could hear the tug, and literally directed him in by sound, to his position in the water. If he had had an AIS device, that might have been faster, as the tug passed the swimmer, twice.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

 

[thataway]

This is why we carry VHF hand held with DSC. I think that is probably a better solution for near shore activities.

MOB in the round the world races--even with fully crewed yachts (if you are not doing the single handed bit) lost MOB and were not able to retrieve. The boats were moving at 10 to 20 knots. Now most of the around the World racers are going to foiling boats, so instead of 10 to knots boat speed, they are 20 to 40 knots boat speed. At 20 knots you are moving about 35 feet per second...it takes at least several minutes to stop the boat, get the sails aboard, and power on to get going back to windward. 5 minutes would be pretty good to just get the boat turned and going back--

In the 1951 Transpac race Los Angeles to Honolulu, Ted Sirks was lost overboard from "L'Apache" a 73 foot yawl. Despite 24 hours of searching "L'Apache" was not able to find him. A navy Destroyer found him about 30 hours after falling over board! Remember this was long before any electronic navigation--and it was truly a miracle. Also 85* water helped and he had been able to get to one of the life rings thrown overboard.