Two and a half years ago we sold our previous boat P******n to fund in part the acquisition of Annabella. She was very comprehensively kitted out for coastal cruising and I reckon the chap that bought her got her for a song. One of the assets was a GPS EPIRB manufactured by Ocean Signal. Now read on:
1145 Zulu Time - somewhere in northern england: A mobile call is received from an undisclosed number:
"Hello, who's that?"
"This is the coastguard."
"The coastguard you say - I wonder why you are calling me ?"
"We've received an EPIRB alert registered to you for a boat called P******n. We're wondering if you're alright"
"On no, not again! I'm so sorry - I sold that boat about 2 years ago with the express instructions to re-register the EPIRB. Do you think the new owner is in any danger ?"
"Not as it's from G*****t marina, do you have his contact details"
I provide the contact details
"I'm so sorry you have been inconvenienced like this - I suppose it squats on the frequency as well..."
"He only needed to make one short phone call.to sort it out..."
The whole event is a bit embarrassing, because the first place the alert goes is Falmouth SRC centre, but it also seems rather selfish, because of all the resources taken up to respond to a false alarm all because this chap didn't have the wit to store the EPIRB in a dry location. All one can hope is that whilst the coastguard were busy sorting out this cockup no one who was in real danger ended up dead.
Names have been changed / omitted to protect the stupid.
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