That looks like fun. Somebody send you those pics?
There were two survivors: crewmen who took refuge in a lifeboat and were rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter. The two were taken to a hospital in Kodiak and were reported to be in stable condition, the Coast Guard said.
Headline is incorrect, Sutwick Island is south of the Alaskan Peninsula, not in the Bering Sea. The article itself correctly says the Gulf of Alaska.
Any word on the circumstances? Was the gear on board? What was the air temperature? Are there any details from the mayday call?
The 130-foot (40-meter) Scandies Rose, issued a mayday call at about 10 p.m. Tuesday, the Coast Guard said. Its last known location was about 170 miles (270 km) southwest of Kodiak, the Coast Guard said.
The Coast Guard described weather conditions during the search as challenging, with winds over 40 miles an hour (65 kph), 15 to 20 feet (4.5 to 6 meter) seas and one-mile (1.6-km) visibility. (Reporting by Yereth Rosen in Anchorage Editing by Frances Kerry)
These are from CG AIRSTA KODIAK.
Sad news , can’t wait to hear the survivors story though . Good job the cg crew in those conditions
I know it well. I’m assuming you weren’t on the flight since you identify as a BM. Just curious.
Always sad when we lose our fellow Mariners. Kudos for USCG for the job they do in these situations. Practices have improved greatly since Marine Electrician. And yes, waiting on the story from the two survivors. It happens quick fellows, when you least expect it.,no matter where you are at geographically. I mourn to this day some of my pals that are no longer with us that the sea decided she needed them more than the rest of us. Be safe guys
Capsize was likely the result of icing.
The coast they were on, just south of the Alaskan Peninsula, is notorious for icing. The polar air mass of the Bering Sea builds up pressure, dammed by the chain of volcanic mountains which are the spine of the Alaskan Peninsula. This super cold air jets south through the Peninsula’s fjord-like bays and passes, the Venturi effect increasing the wind speed, churning up freezing spray.
The irony is that the closer you get to land here, the more freezing spray you encounter. If the watch stander is not paying attention, a deadly phenomenon can occur in a few hours: tons of ice can accrete on the windward side of the hull, but go unnoticed because the weight of the ice is counterbalanced by the force of the howling wind propping up the vessel.
The rule of winter travel along the Peninsula is this: when icing conditions begin, head far up into one of the many coves and bays and wait for the winds to decrease. Or, alternatively, head south, the wind on your stern, and get to warmer air and water. Few skippers do the latter. It means days of delay.
But if you keep going, with, say, freezing spray accreting on your port side and the wind holding you up, once you turn you may find you have a terrifying list to port. Then you’re in big trouble. You’ve lost stability. Your options are limited. You either race toward the Peninsula to take refuge, which means driving right into more freezing spray. A gamble. Or you head due south and hope heavy seas don’t finish you off before the ice melts. Which could take days.
The kind of situation where you keep your gumby suit within arm’s reach.
Rollovers tend to be sudden and unexpected.
Having the survival suit nearby is not enough. You would need to have the suit on before you expected to need it. But the USCG suits found on American vessels are not practical to wear before abandoning ship
I’ll say it again, rollovers are often sudden and completely unexpected with no one being aware of the danger until the last minute. After the rollover, it’s too late to put your survival suit on dry.
The best thing about a BT class is that it demonstrates how difficult it is put your suit on in the water.
In winter, you must get your survival suit on dry, and get into the raft dry. If you go overboard and get wet, you are not going to survive more than a couple hours, even in your survival suit. If you start out warm and dry you have less than 1/2 a day of survival expectancy in the water Alaska. In the raft, if you start out warm and dry in your suit, you might last a couple of days in the winter.
This is true. Don’t get me wrong: survival suits are great 20th-century technology, but in freezing conditions they only buy you a few hours.
I’ve often thought the government should sponsor a competition to foster the development of a 21st century survival suit which provides a heat source, using modern battery technology, or chemical technology such as in Handwarmers. Something that would bring the interior warmth of the suit up in the seat area, or the back, or ideally in the forearm area, since you get a good surface area to blood perfusion ratio in the forearms.
Since the head is the largest heat loss area, and survival suits leave part of the face uncovered, an obvious improvement would be some sort of insulated helmet with a snorkel.
Battery powered heat, lights, AIS, and Epribs built into the suits would also be good ideas.
Only one brand of survival suits has an integral lifting harness. All survival suits should have it.
One thing that should be obvious that also makes a big difference in survival is wearing layers of high quality warm clothing before the need arises to get into the survival suit.
Existing survival suits are cheap, far too cheap, for what is expected of them.
I suspected icing, hence my questions about air temperature and stowed gear.
You have the ones that are designed to be stowed away in a bag until the need arises, and then you have the ones that are designed for everyday wear and tear. The former are about a million times better than nothing, but the latter are another order of magnitude better. I have one of the old Conoco Phillips “helicopter suits” from Helly Hansen, and it was far from cheap. I think I paid a couple of hundred USD equivalent for a factory refurb special price for you type of deal, and they told me a new one runs over a thousand.
It travels everywhere with me, has kept me snug as a bug through numerous Norwegian winters, including thousands of hours of sitting in a skiff. That kind of abuse would absolutely murder your garden variety survival suit, but mine still looks in good shape, if a bit sun bleached and dirty around the edges. It also comes with a sturdy belt for lifting. I strongly recommend getting one to anybody who expects to actually wear the thing, as opposed to keeping it onboard for regulatory compliance.
It’s called Hansen Protection now.
This is the kind of gumby suit I was referring to. Not practical to wear until it’s time to abandon ship.
Is that a Canadian made Imperial brand of survival suit with three fingered “gloves,” it is otherwise similar to the suits provided by the owners of most American vessels which meet bare MINIMUM USCG requirements.
No lifting harness on that suit. I have heard several stories rescuers coming alongside a lively man in a survival suit, but having time consuming difficult getting him aboard soon enough to prevent him from dying of hypothermia. A lifting harness seems like an essential feature of a good suit.
I have always heard that multifingered gloves are more prone to frostbite and loss of fingers than the “mitten” type suits. I wonder if there is any data to support that claim.
To my knowledge Kent is the only brand of USCG approved survival suit with a built in lifting harness.
The $1000 plus “Ice Rescue Suits” look pretty good and it’s possible to work in them.