On a gloomy Sunday morning with a forecasted wind of 40 knots SE, I am met by Dave at the gate of the Canadian Forces Base in Esquimalt. I am to visit the Rescue Coordination Center (RCC) for the Western part of Canada and finally get the answers to my questions at the source.
Where do I start from there??
When you walk in the Center, it is just as you would imagine, high tech, quiet, dimed lights, rows of Computer screens at each work space, huge charts on the walls displaying the current position of the resources available (Boats, Coast Guard station, Helicopters…) and the possible Search and rescue missions on-going.
There are 4 main stations, responsible for Coordinating about 4000 rescues a year, involving 3 different bodies (Coast Guard, Air Force and occasionally the Navy) all within approximately 920,000 square kilometers of mainly mountainous terrain of Yukon and British Columbia and 560,000 square kilometers of the Pacific Ocean extending to approximately 600 nautical miles offshore including over 27,000 kilometers of rugged British Columbia coastline. Simply? It’s very Big!
The RCC is responsible for planning, coordinating, controlling and conducting aeronautical and maritime search and rescue (SAR) operations within 
Victoria’s Search and Rescue Region (SRR). So if a plane goes down or a boat is in distress, the phone rings and the mission starts. The staff is then responsible for collecting the information, deciding on the what resources to involve, and being the communication link between all the people involved in the field and the rescuees. The timeline is kept recorded from the first call to the end of the mission, which can take days.
RCC is not involved with searches on land, which is the responsibility of the RCMP, but sometimes help coordinate; or lend assistance and provide resources (such as helicopter…).
As we talked about the Center the atmosphere is relaxed, and I find out that 2 out of the 3 staffs present in the room sea kayak and have been on the water with me!
Then the phone ring.
And then you know this is not just an office because the phone ring only once and everybody is paying attention, there is electricity in the air and I notice alarms everywhere, red lights blinking, screens flashing, phone ringing… You can tell that Time is of the essence and those professional know it.
Stand down, no emergency, and back to talking.
So I wanted to know as a sea kayaker, what counts most? Communication, visual means of being seen, and common sense!
- Communication: If you can’t call for help when you are in distress….
The winner in that category is the VHF radio, and you know why: waterproof (I would hope so… we’re kayaking right), it allows you to talk directly to the Coast guard and any boat in the vicinity with their radio turned on. It can be relayed to the RCC if needed, you can use it to talk with the rest of your group, listen to the weather….
The second place goes to the PLB, or Personal Locator Beacon. RCC can access your info once you activate your PLB, getting info to call the person of your choice (you fill out this info when you register the device). From them they can get confirmation on the trip, float plan, group size, color of your boat, medical needs…. The PLB gives them your exact location (if you buy one with a GPS location) and the alarm will sound in a few different places, all instructed to call the RCC and launch a search. It’s not as flexible as a VHF because you can’t talk back and forth, but it’s bullet proof in term of reaction from the RCC.
If you have a cell phone, pack it and keep it dry, if you have reception it can come in handy on land, in the water it’s a different story.
There is also now a VHF hand held with DSC feature (Distress calling: the push of a button sends out a automatic Mayday call to all vessels and CG, with your info – pre-registered- and your GPS location). This sounds good but contrary to the PLB, the signal is carried by your radio and not sent to a satellite. Do some research or e-mail me for clarification about this.
There is also SPOT, and we have some articles on the site about that so use the Search box on the top- left corner. Here is an excellent review about it as well.
-I wanted to know what can be seen:
To professional Search and Rescue personnel, strobe light or glow sticks will be visible when they are wearing night vision goggles (night, low visibility). Can’t miss it! Sounds good to me. Reflective tape is good too. To regular boaters, strobes in most days with poor visibility, flares if you have them.
In good weather, as in sunny and bright, none of this will do you much good. So think smoke flares (pretty rare in sea kayak but an option) or apparently a large orange garbage bag inflated by you will do a great job. Visible from far away, searchers will come closer and inspect it. Since it’s dirt cheap, pack small, and could be used in a number of ways, it sounds pretty good.
Anything else you like is good but did not get brought up in the discussion.
- To finish, common sense is something you should take out with you every time you go kayaking. So I was told anyway!
Wear a PFD at all time, paddle in group, listen to the weather, go only when you feel it will be safe for you and your group, take a course, learn to self-rescue, practice your assisted rescues…..
Then here is a few things sometimes forgotten that are important to the RCC staff:
- If you are calling in an emergency, always start with your location. From there they can launch a search.
- Wear you VHF on you (if you need to land before you can use it it’s likely to work against you).
- If things go down hill, call early. It’s easy to call off a mission but you can’t win back the time that’s passed. RCC emphasize they don’t mind standing by as you give them updates, until you are safe and it’s over or until they send in somebody to help.
To finish this post, here is one thing we can do to help them help us! Write in some way your name and phone number on the inside of your boat, and contact the Coast Guard immediately if you realize your kayak as floated away during the night. RCC has to initiate a costly and unnecessary Search for any small vessel found floating by itself. If your phone number allows them to ensure nobody was in the boat, they can just return your kayak and forget about the Search.
Hope this post was helpful, contact us if you have any questions, and thanks to the RCC staff for having me over. For more info about the RESCUE COORDINATION CENTER, follow this link.
To contact Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre Victoria on a non-emergency search and rescue matter or question:
Telephone: 1+250-363-2339 (Monday to Friday 0800-1530)
Fax: 1+250-363-2944
Email: RCCVictoria@pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca
