Volunteers from the National Sea Rescue Society (SNSM) of Saint-Martin regularly participate in exercises to train. Their session was particularly intense last Friday.
13 SNSM crew members completed their training at sea at night. “After a presentation of the instruments necessary to start the boat to the new team members, the new skipper and his deputy boss present the scenario put in place which will evolve during the exercise: go to the rescue of a boat by failure to drift, "says the company.
Here is the detail of the exercise, communicated by the SNSM:
18h45: call on channel 16 to CROSSAG to inform them of our exercise. 10 SNSM crew members leave the Fort Louis marina aboard the “Rescue Star” in search of a boat;
Call of the boat in distress via VHF for more information: they give us their last GPS position, recorded before the failure about thirty minutes earlier. This is a 12m white open contender where 3 other team members are waiting for us. No injuries, but a technical problem: neither engine nor electronics in working order on board. Arrived in the area, all the team members get busy to distinguish the sinking boat;
19h17: boat in sight in position 18 ° 04 '83 "N & 063 ° 07' 70" W, near Baie Rouge;
19h20: approach the boat for a successful tow. The scenario evolves for the rest of the exercise: "The trailer breaks and the boat is beached";
Rescuers at sea put on their flippers quickly to rescue the passengers of the boat who threw themselves into the water.
In turn, victims then rescuers, the team members successfully pass the test of swimming in deep water in the middle of the night, while reassuring their panicked victims;
20h05: boats and crews return to the quayside with the additional difficulty of the completely out of service lighting at the entrance to the Marina Fort Louis. Debriefing to highlight the technical and material points to be improved for even safer, more precise and essential professional actions: a successful rescue mission.
Like the intervention, real this time, of the station for the recovery of the trimaran “Jolly Jumper”, out of mooring, in Marigot Bay on February 4.
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