Saltwater Boat Angling — December 2017

Saltwater Boat Angling 57

I went to them for advice for this

article, they were happy to assist.

PFBs and PLBs

Firstly, I asked about my safety gear.

My personal flotation device (PFD ) is

of good quality, designed for kayak

paddling and is the correct size, fit

and required flotation for my size and

weight. Fitted to my PFD is a

McMurdo Fast Find 220 personal

location beacon (PLB) a new

addition, this year, for me.

Along with the PLB, is my VHF radio

which is waterproof and floats if

dropped. Lastly, I carry a safety knife,

this is a small blunt-ended line cutter,

and that’s it, all too often I see people

looking like Swiss army knives they

have so much attached to their PFDs,

with even more gear stuffed into

pockets. Anything that will hinder

your re-entry, leave off and store in

the kayak.

I had decided on a PLB after talking

to the lifeboat crew about the

difficulty of trying to find a person in

the water and, the importance of

limiting the time it takes. The PLB,

once activated, sends your exact

location, with the aid of GPS, to the

nearest rescue coordination centre.

Once in the area, the inbuilt homing

transmitter pinpoints your exact

location. In other words, they aren’t

looking for the needle in the hay

stack. Secondly, as we spend a fair bit

of time in Scotland, pike fishing,

where mobile phone reception at

times is none existent, the PLB is

registered to me and will work

wherever I am in the world, how cool

is that?! And, as far as the RNLI

are concerned, it’s the gold standard

in personal safety equipment.

Cost-wise if you divide the purchase

price over the six-year battery life, it

equates to less than a penny a day.

VHF Radios

The minimum we should be on the

water with is a VHF radio. I have

carried mine since day one for

emergency use again, this should be

attached to you not the kayak. There

is a legal requirement to have an

operator’s certificate for a VHF radio

if you want it for general use but, as

long as it’s there for emergency use

only they would rather you had one

than not. We carry the VHF not only

for emergency use, but also if we’re

practicing self-rescue, snorkelling off

the kayaks, or if fishing and the

weather is a bit iffy, we’ll contact the

Coastguard on channel 16 to be

given a working channel.

Once they contact us on this channel

we give them our location, number

of kayaks and any other information

we feel they will need, ie if any of

us are going to be in the water and

an estimated time off the water.

Then, if they receive calls from

concerned people on the shore,

they’ll know it’s us.

Mobile phones

Even though I carry one, I have never,

nor will I ever, advocate the use of a

mobile phone as a form of safety

equipment to call for help. Not only

is coverage sketchy off the coast but,

in the event of an emergency, trying

to get a phone out of its case, whilst

possibly holding onto your kayak

bobbing about in the water, let alone

trying to use it with very cold wet

hands, is a recipe for disaster. I could

never trust my own, or anyone else’s

life, on one. I only carry a phone in

case I’m unable to land at our launch

site, ie if the surf has picked up and a

safer landing spot is needed, then I’m

Minimum essentials required to help ensure

your safety whilst at sea

A watertight container for your belongings is

essential for any trip

P56-58 - Safety at Sea.qxp_Layout 1 02/11/2017 14:58 Page 2