Wednesday, December 23, 2009

CHRISTMAS and the NEW YEAR

To all the fine RCC people throughout the North Atlantic, South Atlantic and the rest of the world, RCC Norfolk wishes you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Monday, December 14, 2009

AMVER TO THE RESCUE - 600NM EAST OF BERMUDA

Simply a good case to share. Thanks to Stavanger for forwarding the INM-C distress alert and Gris Nez for forwarding the SARSAT report. The case summary;

RCC Norfolk received an undesignated INM-C distress alert from RCC Stavanger on the 40FT S/Y F ET MER, a French flagged vessel. RCC Gris Nez called and reported that they had received an unlocated 406 EPIRB from this same vessel. an Air Station Elizabeth City C-130 was immediately launched and had a four hour transit to the scene. The AMVER vessel WELLINGTON STAR was diverted to the scene as well. The C-130 arrived on scene and located the F ET MER disabled and adrift in high winds and seas (+6 meters!). The F ET MER crew reported they had been capsized by the huge seas. They also reported they had donned their survival suits. The WELLINGTON STAR arrived on scene an hour after the C-130. All three persons were safely recovered by the WELLINGTON STAR. The F ET MER was abandoned, and an EGC was released concerning Hazard to Navigation. Case closed.

Monday, November 30, 2009

S/V MON PAYS - OVERDUE - HALIFAX TO BERMUDA

SAR Partners, As my college from JRCC Halifax has stated, the case that we worked jointly was an excellant example of our continued and desired close working relationship with partner RCC's. The case mentioned was huge. It encompassed, lots of resources, lots of detective work and most importantly lots of coordination between units. As a result of the close contact we maintained throughout the mission and the empahsis we placed on prioritized alignment with regard to next of kin briefings and when to suspend the case, quite frankly I am amazed. I salute my colleges from JRCC Halifax! Excellent work!! And thanks for posting this article for all to see.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Good to see the RCCNet is up and running. Thanks, Geoff! I think this will prove to be valuable tool should we continue to use it. I hope everyone will use this tool to advise of upcoming conferences and SAR exercises etc. I am sure that many of you are in the same boat as me in that I have to budget for conferences and exercises several months to a year in advance. The earlier I know about exercises etc, the earlier I can start the ball roling for funding approval.

I would like to thank RCC Norfolk and RCC Bermuda for their cooperation during the recent SAR case of the S/V Mon Pays. For those who are unfamiliar with the case. It was a 45ft sail vessel that departed Halifax bound for Bermuda. The S/V filed a sail plan with CG radio in Halifax and when she failed to report arrival in Bermuda, JRCC Halifax started a search. The case was an great example of international cooperation. Many resources and information was shared freely and there was a smooth transition of SMC from JRCC Halifax to RCC Norfolk. The SAR system worked as it should, unfortunately the S/V was never located.

Cheers to all,
Harvey - JRCC Halifax

Saturday, November 21, 2009

MRCC Reykjavik, just joined.

Hello all.

Just accepted your invitation Geoff, thanks.
This looks easy enough to use, hope this will become the helpful tool and think tank we all need at times.

Regards from windy Iceland, Björgólfur.

Friday, November 20, 2009

RCC NOROLK - DATA COLLECTION

Responding to RSC QUEBEC's question: Hello Stacy! Here at RCC Norfolk we use a data collection tool called MISLE. It is a "in house" USCG tool that is used for data collection across all mission areas for the CG, i.e. law enforcement, marine safety as well as for SAR. It includes information such as our mission check sheets (QRC's), contacts, attachments (SAROPS files), resource sortie records to name a few items of importance. Like SAR Master (which I pro-typed for the CG 15+ years ago) MISLE is getting "long in the tooth" as well and needs a top to bottom update. Our programmers are doing that work now. That said, I believe you will find other commercial tools on the market that may meet your needs.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Salutations de Québec

Hello everyone,

good to see things are rolling with the blog. Well done Geoff. I will pass the link on to my folks. Congrats to all the boys in Bermudas for such a tremendous job on the 13th conference. Nothing major to report from Quebec these days. We've had the canadian rescue centers OICs meeting last week in Ottawa and we all agreed that SARMaster (the incident manager commercialized by EMS Satcom that we use in Canada) is getting old in it's design and architecture and decided to look for other options. A working group of SAR controller will meet for it's annual meeting in january and they have received the mandate to conduct a collective brain storming on what the next SAR incident manager should be. It will be interesting to see what will come out of this meeting. Question to everyone: Which SAR incident manager are you guys using? Does it integrate a maritime search planning tool?

Stacy

ACCESSING THIS BLOG

Folks, A couple of issues;
1. I believe before you can start posting to "our" Blog you probably will have to create a Google account. It is easy to do and only takes a few minutes.
2. If you have additonal personnel at your respective units that you think should follow along on the "RCCNET" please provide me with a listing of e-mail addresses and I will enter them in.
3. Again, why are we doing this? The idea is to share lessons learned, best practices, SAR Tools from your SAR Tool Kit and interesting cases.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

sharing information

hoi guys,

the idea from geoff to share our knowledge, experience etc. and to discuss SAR problems
was a good idea. this blog is completely new for me but i will try to follow it as good as
possible.
almost all the members at the conference have told it before but also we of
the netherlands coastguard would like to express our thanks to the bermudian cg for
there hospitality.
we are looking forward to the conference by our spanish friends julian and paco

nlcg
AS I welcome this fine initiative by Geoff, I will also take the opportunity to thank Denis, Tom and Scott for hosting us in Bermuda. You guys have indeed put an effort into it. I recon that it will difficult to match your level of hospitality in the future ;O)
Now, back again in Greenland, I fully agree that this blog could be a good media to share information as well as networking. Looking forward receiving the DVD with briefing material.

Best of all

Jørgen

Welcome!

With the help of our friend Denis who provided a list of e-mail addresses, I have added you all in so that you too can post to this Blog. Let's get this RCCNET up and running! Share and share alike for the benefit of all!!

Monday, November 2, 2009

RCC Conference

The 13th North Atlantic RCC Conference has wrapped up in fine fashion. Scott, Denis, Tom and the rest of the guys were all fantastic hosts! Although some reservations were made regarding this "blog spot" as a vehicle with which we can start sharing info, I believe it can be of some mutual use. I think others have the same feeling. So, let's start sharing! Once I get peoples e-mail addresses I will add them systematically.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Welcome to our SAR network!

Hello!

Now it is time for us to start sharing data, common experiences, lessons learned, new exciting technology and general SAR information across the board. The point is....lets work together for the common good of what we know is the most important goal of all which is saving lives at sea.