Amateur Radio on the High Seas
[Submitted by Daniel Nye, and first published in the Colorado ARES D24 Newsletter.]
On the morning of Saturday, October 10th I received an email to my D24 EC email address from a woman who said that she had just moved to Castle Rock and that she and her husband had be cruising the Sea of Cortez in their sailboat the Allure for the last two years. Her husband was still in Baja and was docked at Bahia de Los Angeles and they had been faithfully communicating every day via Skype. However, she hadn’t heard from him in four days and she was really worried; he was an experienced and reliable Captain. She also said that although she and her husband weren’t hams, they listened to the 75 meter Sonrisa net each morning to hear the latest weather conditions and information about the Baja area. She asked if us “hamsters” (evidently that’s what sailboaters call ham radio operators) could provide any assistance in contacting her husband. In her email she provided a Castle Rock phone number and I was able to confirm her story and collect additional information. I also gain a real sense of the level of concern that she had for her husband.
I knew that HF propagation wouldn’t be cooperative and that the chances of being able to check-in to the Sonrisa net were slim to none. I did some quick web searching to find other Pacific amateur radio maritime nets (there are many) and also decided to call an old Navy man for a few suggestions; that would be D24’s Rob, K0RAR. Rob suggested that we send a message via Airmail/Winlink knowing that HF Winlink was originally created to provide sailboaters and email option while on the high seas. I shared the information I collected from the worried wife with Rob and he sent the Airmail message. The next day I received a phone call from the worried wife saying she had just talked with her husband; he had been contacted by a sailing couple who heard about the Allure on the Amigo Net (a Marine HF net). Her husband had told her the problem had been bad weather that had made his satellite based Internet connection unusable. Once again when all else fails… Amateur Radio!