Requesting assistance in arranging a transfer
During a long-distance crossing, a breakdown can thwart your plans and put your program in question. Need fuel? Lack of food? Transshipment of a corpse or a sick person?
Whether it is more or less serious, it can have several consequences, obliging you to ask for help from a MRCC (Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre). For France, this is the CROSS Gris-Nez, an international reference point.
"Each case is special. We sometimes have very complicated situations to manage, extreme cases like the death of a crew member. We have to manage the preservation of the body on board, especially when we are several hundred miles from the coast. Dismasting is not necessarily a situation of distress if you have the possibility of returning under jury rig, if you have enough food and if nobody on board is injured. Sometimes sailors have no choice but to leave their ship and board commercial vessels before being disembarked in a port. Some may stay on board for a long time, depending on the area where they have been recovered. In all cases, we can count on the solidarity of the seafarers. We will always find a boat ready to help out a yachtsman who needs it" begins Marc Bonnafous, director of CROSS Gris-Nez.
Rerouting of a professional or recreational vessel
Once the MRCC has been informed of your needs, it will contact vessels capable of diverting to provide assistance.
"We may have to divert commercial or fishing vessels. It depends on the area of intervention, whether it is a commercial ship route or a fishing area. We can also divert recreational vessels."
Satellite messages are transmitted on targeted zones - as close as possible to the intervention zone - to request assistance from boaters. As not all yachtsmen are equipped with satellite reception equipment, and as they are less likely to sail long distances, it is mainly cargo ships that are called upon. In this case, the rescue services also contact the shipping companies to request assistance.
"In the case of the death of a crew member in the middle of the Atlantic, a boat diverted to Cape Verde, a 750 mile sail. They sailed for 9 days on their catamaran, under motor. We organized three refuelings by commercial ships."
How to organize a transshipment at sea without leaving your ship?
"Transshipment at sea is a complicated situation. It is a dangerous maneuver to put two vessels of different sizes side by side. You have to take into account the sea state and the general conditions, which are left to the discretion of the captain. It is an agreement between the two captains. Sometimes the operation is postponed."
Once the freighter has been contacted and the yachtsman has been notified, the two captains will make contact directly via VHF, once they are in sufficient range to communicate. Remember to brush up on your English, this is the only way to make yourself understood. Together, they determine how to carry out the transshipment, the relative positioning of the boats in relation to the sea and the wind.
Then comes the maneuver, which requires a certain mastery and knowledge of the boat. Choose the side on which you will dock the freighter and place fenders accordingly. You will then have to get as close as possible to the cargo's hull and receive the hawsers that the sailors will send you, perched several meters above your head, before mooring them on the cleats. The transfer is then generally done by ropes in and out or via a crane.
To recover a passenger, or several if the ship has to be abandoned, ships can also launch a "rescue boat". The maneuver can also be done via ropes.
