CLEVELAND – U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City, Mich. rescued four males from two 19-foot personal crafts that ran aground offshore southern Green Bay, Wis., near the Frying Pan Shoal, Tuesday, at approximately 6:15 p.m.
“Fortunately, they were not injured, because they ran pretty hard aground,” said Lt.j.g. Ryan Crose, Ninth Coast Guard District Command Center.
An Air Station Traverse City HH-65C crew lowered a rescue swimmer down and hoisted two people from each boat safely.
One of the 19-footers ran aground, and the other craft following ran aground as well after both had been fishing.
An occupant of one of the boats called the Coast Guard on a cell phone, and Coast Guard Sector Lake Michigan initiated a search to locate the men.
A Coast Guard Station Sturgeon Bay 25-foot small boat (RB-S) response crew assisted the Traverse City air crew by vectoring them to the men’s location.
The Coast Guard recommends all mariners to invest in a VHF-FM radio as their primary means of distress alerting on the water. Communication via VHF-FM radio provides superior alerting capabilities over cellular phones.
When a MAYDAY is sent out via VHF-FM radio it is a broadcast, not just one party is receiving the distress call; any nearby boaters can hear the distress call and offer immediate assistance.
VHF-FM radios are manufactured today with Digital Selective Calling (DSC). This feature provides the mariner with an emergency feature that will send a distress with the vessel’s information and Global Positioning System (GPS) location at the press of a button. It is important to note that the DSC radio must be properly registered with an MMSI number through Boat US and the radio must be properly interfaced with the GPS in order to send an accurate position to assist emergency responders to respond to the distress.
Signaling Devices are another means of alerting the Coast Guard, local marine patrol or nearby boaters that you are in distress.
Day and night visible flares, a signal mirror, and/or a whistle, airhorn or sound producing device should be used to alert others that you are in distress.
