Snip > > I was lead to believe that a light blue was the most visible > > color at sea. > > > > I was recently involved with a rescue on a large inland lake > > in northern > > Alberta. The helicopter, police boat and plane spotted the > > light blue 18 > > foot CLC WR 180 before it spotted the bright yellow 21 foot > > double Tred > > Avon. The conditions were cloudy, 5 - 6 foot whitecapping > > waves, 40 knot > > winds and light rain. > > We have a former SAR pilot on the list - how 'bout it Jack - any opinions? Snip As a current SAR pilot, I'll add my own two cents. The biggest thing that will get you noticed is the old "one of these things is not like the other" factor. Things that seem out of place get noticed. In other words, light blue would probably work well over a darker gray-green sea, but is very difficult to see in shallower waters such as off the coast of Pensacola (I speak from experience on this one). I recommend a couple of things- Mostly common sense- First, don't rely on just one signalling device. If you do it will be ineffective or broken when you need it most. Figure out what kind of paddling you'll be doing, then gear up accordingly. A light blue or green boat in the Bahamas will be much less likely to be seen than on Lake Superior. Strobes are of NO value during the day. Second, know how to use your gear! Practice when safe so you can do it when you need to. Lighting off flares, tuning VHF radios, etc. can be challenging when you are shocky, cold, wet, etc. Third, keep it simple. VHF radios are great, flares are good, etc, but in reality one of the best signalling devices (during the day) is a simple $3 plastic mirror available at lots of places. I've seen the flash from these as far as 15 miles on a decent day. I'll take a breath powered whistle over a compressed air horn any day. At night a strobe can be seen for over 10 miles if the SAR pilots are using NVG's (which we all do), but even a flashlight waved vigorously is very easy to see at night. Color wise I still don't think you can beat International Orange. Almost nothing on the water is naturally that color. I have the blades of my paddle spray painted this color for just this reason Lastly, don't lose hope if a SAR platform passes you by and doesn't see you. Most of our patterns have us revisiting an area numerous times to increase the Pd (probability of detection). If we miss you on the first pass, think about what you can do next time to make yourself more visible. It could be something as simple as splashing vigorously when we get nearer. In calm seas this is actually a pretty good technique. Regards, Kevin *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Aug 02 2000 - 16:32:55 PDT
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