what would happen if you fell overboard
i was actually disappearing
behind waves so they'd get a glimpse of
me a little bit up and down into sweat
what are the chances of retrieving your
boat the boat actually did over 130
miles on its own
and what lessons can we learn from this
experience
i'm still getting over it i'm not sure i
ever will i don't know it's going to
take a long time
this is part two in our man overboard
feature find out how nige was rescued
and more importantly what happened to
his boat with his cat stinky on board
keep watching to find out how you can
get your hands on a free
spinlock life jacket a free ocean signal
personal
locator beacon and 15 discount on
predict wind
[Music]
in part one we were talking to nige fox
about the time
he fell off his boat into two meter
swells in the dangerous seas
off northern australia we left him in
the water
as his boat disappeared over the horizon
with his cat stinky on board
so it was just him in the water two
meter swells and quite a few tiger
sharks hanging around
okay so before we look at the
practicalities of what saved nige
let's just have a quick reminder of his
state of mind at the time
nine tenths of the battle being out
there in the brine
is psychological as well as physical no
bad thoughts
no bad thoughts allowed going in the
water is only half of it
it's uh up here that's your main defense
that's what keeps you alive
that psychological defense mechanism is
absolutely crucial to your chance of
survival in a situation like this
and nige was really well prepared he was
wearing a spin lock
life vest with integral hood and that
meant he didn't have to worry too
much about any kind of problem from a
secondary drowning
and spray he also had other precautions
yeah i mean one of the main precautions
he took of course was to have his
iridium go
set up running the predict wind app that
was sending
his boat's location to his friends every
hour
and more importantly of course he had
his plb which was
given away his position in the water
from a search and rescue perspective
what was interesting
about this was the safety precautions
that the male took
that ultimately saved his life he was
tethered to his yacht
he was wearing a life jacket with a
personal locator beacon and this enabled
us to
to tailor a search and rescue response
and
ultimately save his life what's going to
happen they're going to call iana which
they did
they funny and fortunately because of
the tracker of the iridium
he actually gave him the latin along the
boat speed course bearing etc
they tried the sat phone anyway yet no
answer so they knew
where the boat was where it was going my
plb is registered as a separate item
he's doing two and a half knots this
direction so they knew i was in the
water
so in terms of search and rescue nige
was doing pretty well
they knew that his boat was going one
way and he was going the other way
of course that's all very well but he's
in the water and he's got other things
to worry about he doesn't
know if anyone has picked up those
signals
he's concentrating more on sculling in
shark infested waters
when i was chatting to him he mentioned
a funny thing he said he was glad that
he wasn't wearing a watch
every 30 seconds ought to be looking at
it and psychologically
that would have been a real downer and i
would say if you do end up in that
situation you've got to watch on
take it off put in the pocket but you
can't see it the single
most important thing in this whole
experience of course was
personal beacon on you tell us a bit
more about that and and how that was
important to you not just in
terms of actually being rescued but
also that must have had some kind of
psychological mental reassurance
knowing that that had been set off and
that people could track you as opposed
to the boat
what is packed into that little thing 66
channel gps
epub and one two one point five so the
one two one point five is your aircraft
that's
in that little bundle there i mean that
is absolutely amazing
keep watching because we're giving away
an ocean signal plb1
the same model that saved nige's life
such an amazing amount of technology
wrapped up in that
tiny little holder it really must have
given nige
quite a lot of self-confidence to know
that that was working hopefully
can you let us know exactly how it does
work and what's in it
well quite simply it's a personal epub
so everyone carries an epirb on their
boat
well this is a an epub for your your
person as opposed to the boat and it
works in the same way
now it is slightly different where it's
quite different to
a man overboard ais unit we will be
talking more about that in a little bit
but the epub and the personal locator
beacon
works on the 406 megahertz signal
which uses the global cospas sarsat
rescue system
so this is a standard for all 406
beacons all beacons that use the 406
megahertz
and it's supported by a network that
covers the globe and alerts emergency
services
in your local region they also transmit
on a secondary frequency
which i mentioned the one to 1.5
megahertz and this is used by rescue
lifeboats and by planes as well and
we don't have those do we god we really
have
have happened it's got to be it's got to
be top of our shopping list now
for sure with the plb now activated the
australian maritime safety authority or
amsa for short
could now start scrambling a plane for
his rescue
now amsa covers a huge area
10 of the world's surface believe it or
not
and i looked at the map of their
coverage that they even cover
us up here in borneo good old australia
yes so what was the time frame from
falling in the water to first seeing the
plane
four or five hours well considering how
remote
i actually was and i'm a lot when i was
a long way from anywhere and anything
not bad time actually went fairly
quickly for me before the airplane
arrived but if i had
the vhf jam lost the first time when
that jet
flew over i could like boom straight on
the radio called him up so i actually
did get
to meet the crew they said i was
actually disappearing behind waves
so they'd get a glimpse of me that's a
bit up and down in the swell but i mean
electronically they knew where i was but
it was actually getting a visual
you know eyes on and that for them was
actually quite difficult
that footage was taken from the plane
the actual plane that was looking for
nige at the time don't forget
it was doing 300 kilometers per hour so
it really was like looking for the
proverbial
needle in the haystack
we tasked our challenger rescue jet out
of cairns
that arrived on location a couple hours
later we also
tasked a northern territory marine unit
northern territory police marine unit
out of ams are commissioned six
challenger jets from cobham aviation
services
who have hubs that cover all over
australia each jet is fitted with a
search camera system called
vidar this visual detection technology
is specifically used to find life rafts
and people lost at sea it is the world's
first
optical radar developed in australia by
sentient vision
and detects different colours and shapes
against the background of the water
and it was thanks to nige's bright
jacket that they were able to locate him
even so they explained that he was a
single pixel
on the screen disappearing behind waves
as knives just mentioned
at this point he was already many miles
from his yacht and the closest town was
the remote port of nulumboy
off the gove peninsula 93 kilometers
away
things are now out of nige's hands all
he has to do
is concentrate on sculling in the water
avoiding tiger sharks and secondary
drowning
meanwhile the amsterjet did a series of
flybys from different angles
this was to build a map of prevailing
winds sea state
and the effects of the current in order
to drop a life raft
aboard the plane was aircraft mission
coordinator olly marin
who explained how difficult this part of
the mission was
a successful drop and an unsuccessful
drop is separated
only by a matter of three to four
seconds ollie
is at the back of the aircraft with
three screens in front of him
he's on comms to the girl at the back so
they've opened up the rest they opened
up a hatch to the
back of the airplane she hoofs out the
raft
and the line they've got to get all of
this timing absolutely down pat
they normally drop about 400 meters a
line and they try to make
you the target in roughly the middle of
it and you just see this line
coming out the back of the airplane and
that line landed within 2 meters off me
wow and it was like a couple of strokes
grabbed it it doesn't matter how big and
tough and strong you think your arms are
when you've pulled yourself through the
water from several hundred meters
but my arms are hacked if you are
familiar with our channel
you may remember a few years ago we
launched our old life raft
in a swimming pool donned our oilies and
practiced getting into it
it was surprisingly difficult even in a
flat swimming pool
and we weren't wearing life jackets so
you can imagine how much more difficult
this is
after a traumatic ordeal and in the open
sea
fortunately amsa's life rafts are
equipped with platforms
and with ladders but that wasn't a
problem in this case
nigel's having a problem with his life
jacket when you get to the raft
you can actually climb up get your knees
on it pull yourself in
but as i actually found when you get to
the raft
with the thickness of the fully inflated
life jacket
it's actually quite an impediment to
getting in i knew if i
deflated it had to have very little air
in it keep me afloat
so that was basically what i did i
deflated the life jacket
of course deflating his life jacket
meant that nige lost his flotation
so it must have been quite a big deal to
have made that decision
don't forget of course he was doing this
also with two broken ribs
now when we did our practice in the
swimming pool we weren't wearing life
jackets so it
wouldn't have occurred to us to deflate
it so this is why it's so good to chat
tonight little
tips little bits of information like
that are very useful
something else that he mentioned was he
was talking to a female sailor
and she said that busty women have even
more of a problem
they're like tyrannosaurus rex so
deflating the life jacket especially for
women is important
and what he recommended was if there are
more than one of you
the men should get on first and then
assist the women
okay well that is a very useful tip in
the
base of the life raft there was this
really thick yellow pvc
map that pouches in it fortunately with
big print
they said food water radio right i've
gone to the radio got the radio out
turn it on spoke to ollie in the
aircraft
told them i'm safe and in that they've
gone cool then
they can go off and actually get fuel
but i didn't realize this time they've
actually got to get fuel
and this other aircraft is circling me
to let me know that
somebody is actually knows i'm actually
there there was a police boat on his way
but he wasn't going to be
with me for another three to four hours
so i was like okay
lay down and never sleep and can you
believe it he did
actually get some sleep mind you he must
have been completely knackered by then
yeah nigel when i spoke to him has some
funny anecdotes about those four or five
hours he spent in the life raft
the first thing that he did was he found
a glow stick a fluorescent glow stick
accidentally knelt on it broke it and
covered himself
all over in fluorescent yellow paint and
in fact if you look at the body cam
footage
of his eventual rescue from the life
raft as he's being dragged over the side
you can see
he's covered in yellow the other funny
thing he did was he was looking for
something to eat
and he found a packet of granules and he
thought oh emergency rations and tucked
into them
before he realized it was actually sea
dye
oh no see sea dye is what you throw out
the back of the life raft which of
course leaves a great big fluorescent
trail
in the water so the aircraft can see it
he started eating this i could see his
teeth from a thousand miles
apparently when he again when he was
rescued by the police boat
he was covered in fluorescent paint
we went down the top of them afterwards
and after we had a few beers they
presented me with a um packet of seed
either chew on should i get the munchies
later
it took the boat five hours to reach him
and he had drifted more than 20 miles
from his man overboard location
it then took them seven hours to return
to nulumboi
and he was greeted by the ambulance
service and taken to hospital
fortunately his only injuries were two
broken ribs
i think at this point we should look at
some lessons learned
let's examine the gear that saved nige's
life
you'll find links in the description to
all the gear that we're going to discuss
now
[Music]
nigel is wearing a spinlock life jacket
we recommend the spinlock deck vest 60
which is a fully featured lightweight
front opening life jacket harness
with automatic inflation it also
includes a large
clear spray hood something that knives
benefited from
but even with the hood nige did ingest
quite a bit of salt water and in fact he
lost his voice for five days after the
experience
but he does say without that spray hood
he probably would have drowned
the vest also features a single wide leg
strap it has a light
and it can be fitted with spinlocks hrs
system
they've been working on it for some time
now and the idea is is that
it's something that you can easily
release yourself from the jack line
where you to go overboard
you'll also notice the d6 has a number
of loops for you to connect the other
gear we're going to discuss
in a moment
always carry a knife but make sure it's
safe by having one with a curved end
i think we might get some hook knives as
well they're quite useful little things
to have clipped onto
permanently onto your life vest
[Music]
try to have a handheld vhf with you
waterproof obviously
it's going to be really useful if an
aircraft or a vessel comes to your aid
perhaps the single most important piece
of equipment you're going to have
on you if you're in the water so that's
certainly the case from niger's
experience
we do recommend an article by yachting
monthly
they published one earlier this year and
they looked at the best plbs on the
market
as well as man overboard ais units as
well we've got a link
in the description to that article
these are different to a personal
locator beacon
they are using ais instead of the 406
megahertz frequency
of course this will allow you to be seen
by other vessels in the facility
in nige's case unfortunately he hadn't
seen a boat for days so they're only of
any use
if you are in a busy area
who knows what a heliograph is well
basically it's a mirror that's all it is
a reflective
surface for you to catch the attention
of a pilot of a boat
or of a plane have one on you
most of you are familiar with the
iridium go which we use for weather
forecasting when we're offshore as well
as simple communication with family and
friends
now predictwind offers the most
comprehensive weather package available
to mariners
from forecast tables wind wave gusts
cloud isobar air temperature sea
temperature maps
i mean the list is endless now the thing
with predict wind is if you buy a sim
card in a data package through them
they set up a free tracking service on a
map which you can embed in a website
and allows your family and friends to
monitor the movement of the boat and it
gets updated
every hour this was essential to
the recovery of nigel's boats which
we're about to find out about
in a moment
and now here's how you can grab a free
spinlock 6d life vest
and an ocean signal plb1 all you've got
to do is put a comment
below this video we will choose our two
favorite comments what you need to do is
add a hashtag to your comment
either hashtag oceansignal or hashtag
spinlockhq to make sure
that your comment counts there are no
rules we're just going to choose our
favorite too
don't forget to like this video and
subscribe to our channel
and predict wind is offering a fantastic
15
discount off any weather package
purchased through their website
predictwind.com
all you have to do is add the code
follow the boat to your purchase
details are in the description these
fantastic offers run until the 25th of
july
and they are exclusive to follow the
boat youtube viewers
so big big thanks to spinlock to ocean
signal
and to predict wind so what did happen
tonight's boat and more importantly
where and what happened to stinky
because i said earlier when i set the
bearing wrong
and the yacht went past truant you're
buggered off on its own and
friends of mine here are null and boy
because they had access to
the tracker and predict winds they could
see where the boat was going the boat
actually did over 130 miles on its own
and literally the contents of the boat
was on the floor
i don't know what the boat went through
on the way but it must have gone for
some fairly rough weather but when the
guys actually got to the boat
and they said it was dead flat and
they've stepped on board
and they could see the cut jack line
over the sides
they found the knife in the cockpit
where i chucked it in and then they
looked inside and they said the boat was
just trashed
everything was on the floor and they
literally had to use a boat hook to
lift stuff out of the way so they could
get in and then of course i've heard the
cat at the front
they've gone up giving her some water
some food she was not happy
but once they fed her and she had a
drink she kind of settled back down
and by the time they got back here and
on the anchor she was as good as gold
so stinky and bison lived to sail
another day hooray niage wanted us to
make sure that we do
let everyone know that it was andrew and
david his great friends
who rescued stinky found bison and
sailed her safely home to shore
so we should at this point just thank
nige very much for being so open
with us and allowing us to probe him
with lots of questions so that we can
draw some
lessons from from his experience i gotta
say i learned a lot from
your conversation with him it's been
really really interesting a lot of stuff
we need to buy
there certainly is here and also thank
you to amsa the australian maritime
safety authority and of course to the
northern territories police force
who eventually saved knight cheers guys
very important that people do
buy and register their plbs or their
e-perps etc
because if you are out there and
something goes wrong hey they need to
know who to call
if you're a reliable contact person like
it might be
mikey out in the boat but he's got his
mate john owen davo with him
then rescue authorities know they're not
just looking for one person they're
looking for
free get it in get it registered because
that makes your life so much easier for
the search and rescue crews