You are right, this is all a bit confusing. The following picture is taken from the owner’s website which shows ‘steps to galley’. Both stairways, showers and bunk room, can be seen on the previous picture as indicated by red arrows.
It looks like shower room has two proper escapes, one to the outside. The sleeping quarters have two as well, although both to the same space. The “Inside the dive boat” drawing doesn’t show the second escape from the sleeping quarters.
I don’t know of any repeaters on any of the channel islands but its certainly possible.
If there was, the mayday transmission would have been as readable as the CG’s transmission.
Looking again more likely that drawing is wrong. They have the wrong escape hatch as being blocked.
As far as the blocked/locked thing blocked seems more likely, it’s likely to be resolved quickly by crew interviews.
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They have antennas along the coast with good coverage as they are on mountain tops. There is one on VAFB that is fairly close to where the Vessel sank. The Vessel was on the mainland side of the island, I assume at anchor since they were in an Anchorage.
My understanding is that the antenna only transmits. No amount of adjustment is going to overcome the limits of the incoming transmission. If the caller can only transmit out to 60 miles it will be too weak to capture clearly 80 miles away. How else do you explain that you can hear a conversation 80 miles away clearly on the CG side but nothing from the vessel they are communicating with. The distance at which a transmission can be picked up depends on the signal strength and height. In this case, the call may have been made on a portable VHF away from the burning boat from the height of the assisting vessel’s deck.
Yeah i know they have antennas on the mainland and at vandenberg. The original question was regarding to repeaters on the islands.
Vandenberg would be a direct line of sight which is good, but its still a nice jaunt as the crow flies. I don’t have a chart on me but i would guess around 40-50 miles.
For all we know the capt may have been on that yachts radio talking to the uscg…and who knows the integrity of that yachts vhf. Could have been on a handheld vhf too. Skies the limit here…back to the original point for some reason i’m suspecting coms weren’t as good as they could be and i think its bs that the media is indirectly trying to use that cryptic and incomplete radio transmission to add unnecessary drama and speculation to question the caliber of the crew.
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In the recording I heard the CG operator never once asked the Captain to repeat anything he said. This would be an indication that they had a 5x5 copy. Additionally; I just spent 6 years working in that area and communicated numerous times with CG LA/LB via VHF with no problem.
There seems to be only one egress from the sleeping quarters. Stairs to the kitchen.
The shower room seems to have one egress. Another stairs to the kitchen.
The ‘escape hatch’ is more likely a hatch between the forward compartment and the kitchen, possibly a stowage space.
There doesn’t seem to be a passage between the sleeping quarters, the shower room or the forward compartment. They are isolated and are accessed from the main deck.
They should have put an escape hatch in the aft end of the sleeping quarters to bypass the kitchen. The passengers had no escape.
(Edit: big edit because I saw the escape hatch was not an escape hatch)
The signal strength and height of a ship’s transmitter 60 feet above the surface of the water would likely reach that far. From a hand held at 10 feet elevation, not so much. In any case, your transmissions were likely repeated upon receipt from VAFB or another closer antenna.
Not 100% definitive of course but post 80 has a link to a photo of the sister boat, or near sister and the capt saying both boat have the same arrangement:
This is said to be the second escape.
Moran dispatch in Baltimore can talk to their tug boats in Philadelphia harbor on the VHF radio. That’s the kind of thing I’m thinking of, but I’m not sure of the correct term.
I have a plenty of time working in the santa barbara channel as well…and you make some valid points.
However the point i have been trying to make is the radio coms that we have heard, thru the media are incomplete. The big question is, why? If they are incomplete they shouldn’t be out there for any swinging dick to hear because its giving a lot of folks with less sense than us a bad presumption on the circumstances.
Repeated (from closer antennas).
In that case I think it goes through telephone lines at some point as well. You don’t hear anything in Baltimore when they talk to Philly.
Look at both sets of drawings. The ‘escape hatch’ is just the access to the forward compartment. The four compartments don’t connect to each other. There is a forward compartment (likely for storage), showers, sleeping, and engine.
A land person wouldn’t know that a scuttle isn’t always an ‘escape hatch’.
The coast guard maintains antennas along the coast. https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/images/marcomms/cgcomms/Rescue21/SECLALB.jpg
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Everything all the commentators who know the vessel are saying is that there was an escape hatch here:
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Here is the link:
Here is the text:
Higgins said any report that the passengers were locked in the ship is patently false. He said passengers are given safety briefings the morning after they get on the ship. In addition to the regular exit, there is an escape hatch that any human could get through, Higgins said.
Here is the photo that accompanies the text: