stranded at sea

jessijames 2 · July 21, 2008, 23:50:25 CET

What you guys think about the spot satellite messenger.

skip · July 22, 2008, 09:17:00 CET

The principle is good but the subscription is what kills you, low initial cost but then annual recurring charges for the service! ?99/year and an extra ?11 per year if you want additional SAR benefit.

Overall the concept is excellent, primarily because of the help and check in function which allows you to keep in touch with your friends and family or nominated SPOTeam so they know you're okay and your current location. It has an in built GPS receiver so that makes it functionally similar to the better PLBs. It also has a very good battery life, and I found this about the frequency it uses:

SPOT Service uses coordinates from the U.S. Government?s GPS Satellite Constellation and its onboard GPS chip to determine your position, the L-band uplink (1610-1621.35 MHz) of the Globalstar? Low-Earth Orbit Mobile Satellite System, which is owned and operated by Globalstar, Inc. ("Globalstar") and the SPOT enterprise systems, to transmit your messages (together, the "Satellite Systems").

Spot sells in Europe for a recommended price ?199, yet only $149 in the USA which I think is very unfair, that's around ?95 yet we are being asked to pay over double that. I'm not sure if you can buy the Spot in the USA and then activate it for use in Europe, one would have to try. Though I did find these guys http://www.prscomms.co.uk/easysubpage0013.html selling it for nearly the same price as the USA.

Even the service if bought in the USA is $99 yet it's ?99 over here!

busumark · July 22, 2008, 13:34:35 CET

like always in malta someone have to die so that maybe something is done. goog discusion yesterday on bondiplus. went this morning to speak with raymond bugeja (president of koperativa) to tell him about our story. the negligence of the afm is more clear in our case and nothing was done. till this day nobody from afm told me why at dawn they didnt make a search. but unoficially we were told that they tought that it was a joke. even when the brigadier spoke with the owner of the boat he told him that the staff tought that it was a joke. while i was there a journalist from malta today was coming to interview raymond and told him my experience and he is going to investigate. i phone were's everybody to speak with lou bondi but the girl who answered the phone told me that yesterday was the last program but left my number and he is suposed to phone me. if i was in the program yesterday i only had one question for the brigadier. WHY AT DAWN YOU DIDNT MAKE A SEARCH? i would loved to hear him say in front of all malta WE THOUGHT IT WAS A JOKE. after that answer he sould take off his uniform like that man said to him

fishfinder · July 22, 2008, 14:02:38 CET

Still can't understand why search from AFM started on Sunday after 1.00pm.and why they stop searching by night when they didn't knew if they where swimming or on the life raft?

they should keep searching even by night cause that's why we have 2 parachute flairs and 2 hand held flairs visible mostly by night only, so that when helicopter or ship lights are visible from far distance we can signal them our position. they knew that the victims where not on the liferaft only when Koperativa tas-sajd started recovering corps on thursday.

This issue must be urgently handled by the PM and Brigadier must give real answers not like he replied yesterday that he was not in the meetings etc etc. He is Fully responsible for what ever his Surgents etc acts cause that's his duty to answer for all AFM actions.

busumark · July 22, 2008, 16:25:18 CET

lou bondi phoned me and i told him the story. he said if they make a follow up program he will tell me.

fishfinder · July 22, 2008, 17:50:18 CET

Please read this article from DI-VE malta

PM has full confidence in AFM work
by Paul Cachia - pcachia@di-ve.com
Local News -- 22 July 2008 -- 16:45CEST

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi affirmed his full confidence in the work done by the Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) in its efforts to search for five fishermen. The Simshar's crew had set out on a fishing trip on July 7 and were due back by July 11. But when they failed to show up, the relatives raised the alarm on the evening of July 12.

Intensive searches led by the Armed Forces of Malta were launched as soon as a report was filed at the AFM headquarters.

As the story unfolded, the AFM was criticised for not having found the Simshar's crew sooner.

The Fisheries Cooperative is saying that the Simshar's VMS (vessel monitoring system) and satellite phone connection signals were terminated abruptly on Thursday but this had not been picked up the AFM.

They added that the AFM are ill-equipped for the search-and-rescue missions with damaged systems onboard the search-and-rescue helicopters.

However, the official spokesman for the Office of the Prime Minister confirmed that Dr Gonzi would not order an internal inquiry to look into the search and rescue mission of the AFM, which now falls within his
remit.

Dr Gonzi was fully confident in the magisterial inquiry which would ascertain the facts in this case, he added.
The recovery of lifeless body from the sea is always subject to a magisterial inquiry. Magistrate Joe Apap Bologna has appointed various experts to help him in the inquiry that will look into the Simshar
tragedy which resulted in the death of three men; Noel Carabott, 33, Carmelo Bugeja 61, and Somali man Abdalla Gedi 21.

The search is still ongoing for 11-year-old Theo Bugeja.

fishfinder · July 22, 2008, 17:55:02 CET

This is what Times of Malta reported today and by the way according to these funny people who really doesn't have a clue af what we 're equiped on our boats found a new method how we can catch fish.

this is with fire works

Simshar caught fire, rescuers report
Full-time fishermen, part-time rescuers
Matthew Xuereb

Mark Bugeja, captain of the Grecale, who gave details of the rescue mission to reporters at Marsaxlokk yesterday, indicates the floats the crew tried to survive on. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier.
Having seen his fishing boat engulfed in flames and holding on to dear life on a small makeshift raft for days, the first thing Simon Bugeja, the sole survivor of the Simshar tragedy, told his rescuers was that everyone on board had died, including his father and his son.

Mark Bugeja, 28, the master of the 20-metre long fishing boat Grecale, which rescued Simon and participated in the search for the other four people, was speaking to reporters when he arrived in Marsaxlokk at 7 a.m. yesterday.

The Simshar tragedy stole the lives of Simon Bugeja's father Karmenu, 61, Noel Carabott, 33, and Somali Abdulrahman Abdala Gedi, 21.

Simon Bugeja's 11-year-old son Teo is still missing although his father told his rescuers he had died.

Despite earlier reports that the fishing vessel was destroyed by an explosion, his rescuers yesterday recounted how Simon told them that a fire in the engine room had destroyed the boat.

Mr Bugeja explained the heart-breaking rescue mission which started last Monday when he left his expectant wife at home and joined fellow fisherman Malcolm Degabriele, 30, in a bid to find the missing vessel and the five people on board. Simon's uncle, Joe (Karmenu's brother), and his son Joseph joined them.

Pointing at the raft which Simon put together hastily, Mr Bugeja said he felt "uncontainable happiness" when he saw Simon waving as they were approaching him, having been spotted by Mr Degabriele.

He said Simon built the raft, made out of four blocks of polystyrene fishermen used to keep long lines afloat, and a net full of empty plastic bottles of water and empty detergent containers. He also held up the grey and green T-shirt Simon was wearing when they rescued him.

"Simon's first words were: 'The others are all dead'. He was frail and had barely enough energy to speak.

"We gave him some water and soon after he started relating what had happened. The patrol boat and the helicopter came to collect him in no time and rushed him to hospital," Mr Bugeja, who also looked extremely tired after a week out at sea, said. He recalled drinking coffee continuously in order to keep awake so the search could continue at night.

He said Simon related how in the afternoon of July 10, when they were just five hours away from Malta, Simon smelt something burning. He went to the engine room and found one of the engines on fire. He did not have time to get hold of the CO2 fire extinguisher and went back up and tried to open the life raft but this did not work. Simon told his rescuers the satellite phone did not work either and that the vessel started taking in water. His son, Mr Carabott and Mr Abdala Gedi were asleep at the time.

Simon got the floats and threw them overboard. All five of them then abandoned the vessel and for more than six hours watched the fibreglass Simshar sink slowly, engulfed in flames.

Mr Bugeja said Simon tied with rope the floats together and took it in turns to rest on the raft. Simon said he told the others not to drink seawater but they were dehydrated and drank it anyway.

Mr Bugeja said the vessel sank in the early hours the following day.

Mr Abdala Gedi died on Saturday. Last night the police said that an autopsy on the corpse recovered from the sea and identified as that of Mr Abdala Gedi, showed that he had died of asphyxia due to drowning and burns.

Simon related to his rescuers how Mr Carabott removed his clothes to cover little Teo who was freezing in the water. Mr Carabott succumbed on Sunday.

Karmenu was the next one to die, leaving father and son alone holding on to dear life.

Last Thursday, a day before he was rescued, Simon said his son started to get weaker and died before sunset that day. The father held on to his son all through the night but Teo started to slip off the raft until, at one point, Simon was holding on to him with one hand. Eventually, Teo slipped from his tired hand on Friday morning, a few hours before the rescue.

The search for Teo continues. Mr Bugeja said that during the rescue operation they were stopping every vessel they saw, informing them about the search so that they would keep a lookout for the vessel.

At the time they did not know that the Simshar had caught fire and sank. He said an Italian patrol boat they came across close to Lampedusa told them they had not received any calls for assistance to join the search.

Mr Bugeja said they too had their fair share of problems. The day after they left, one engine failed and they had to continue the rescue operation on one engine. He estimated they used about 8,000 litres of fuel during the rescue operation.

He said he was extremely happy that it was them who rescued the only survivor of this tragedy.

Comments
dorianne bugeja (1 hour ago)
Let us all praise Mr Mark Bugeja the master of fishing boat Grecale who participated in the search of these unfortunate people who lost their life. His determination and kind heart led to at least one man to survive. He surely should be honoured by our President for his bravery
act.
well done Mark, May God be with you.
Christian Caruana (1 hour, 24 minutes ago)
@ Daphe Caruana Galizia

Daphne I am sorry but you must get your facts right.
Every vessel is equipped with a VHF (radio), from a long distance or in bad weather it does not make contact with the ones at home. In the past messages by VHF were conveyed by relay (vessels closer to base would relay the messages) but nowadays vesels are equipped with satellite phones and fishermen use them when no radio contact is possible. That is why Simon called on satellite phone. On another note it is impossible to have a private conversation via VHF...

As for life-vests they are also present on every vessel, however, since there was a fire they were certainly made unaccessible or even destroyed , otherwise they would have put them on for sure. The raft waqs cobbled at sea and not on the boat from what floating material they managed to recover.

As for the life-raft, they are serviced as required by law every year at Manoel Island so it is not the fishemen or the owner who are to blame if the raft did not open.
J Pace (1 hour, 55 minutes ago)
I seem to recall that it was reported by Mr Bugeja that an explosion had actually ripped the boat apart.... inconsistencies....?

john fenech (2 hours, 50 minutes ago)
May I offer my deepest sympathy to the relatives of the departed and a speedy recovery to Simon. Although most of these men know what is required but like most of us they think that sometimes short cuts are the better way!
Life jackets; life rafts; Emergency Radio beacons; Costal flare pack; Fog horns; plus first aid kits and fire fighting equipment are a must.
These might never be required but when your job is permanently at sea you cannot afford to make assumptions. Remember your relatives and the loved ones who are waiting your arrival.
Life jackets like all safety harness are a nuisance at times but a life saver at all times. Life jackets come equipped with lifejacket lights and emergency locating flares. EPIRBs must be of the recommended type and automatically deployed, that is will automatically activate once free from the external mounted bracket.
The basic purpose of distress radio beacons is to send information to save the life of those in distress: therefore it will be in vain if our SAR section doesn?t have the equipment or sufficient knowhow to act within the first 24hours following a traumatic event to bring in the survivors.

Joanne Micallef (3 hours, 47 minutes ago)
My heart aches for the Bugeja family, may the lord help them with their grief.

There are many questions that need to be answered, unfortunately like always with this country only after a tragedy do we address the related faults. I hope that there will be a serious enquiry in how the whole operation was handled in order to avoid anything similar ever happening in the future.
maria galea (4 hours, 43 minutes ago)
Can you please stop judging these people, no one has an idea what they have been trough, only God knows what have been going on in their heads, you have to be in the situation to understand. Everyone saying they must have done this and that, common please lets dont be foolish! I feel terribly sorry for all of them, and feel angry cause maybe if they found them a day before they could have found young Theo alive aswell. A whole week waiting to be rescued in those conditions is no joke. Hope they're at piece now, and may God support their families and friends.
George Borg (5 hours, 39 minutes ago)
contd..

Sailors usually have a grab bag (water proof plastic container) which includes a mobile phone, waterproof Hand Held VHF, flares, torch and a watertight strobe light and finally a knife.

When abandoning a craft, the "Grab Bag " should be ready to be taken with you in the sea/life raft.

George Borg (5 hours, 43 minutes ago)
I simply cannot understand why the EPIRB was not activated. An EPIRB is an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon and is registered to a specific boat. Once this is activated, the AFM automatically receive a distress signal from the boat with it's exact position. Every boat that goes offshore MUST carry one. These are becoming so important that there are now various companies that now produce "Personal EPIRBS" the size of a mobile.... I expect the MMA to take action and investigate the safety of these fishing boats.. Take the life raft as an example.. When a life raft is over a certain age, these have to be serviced every 2 years, provisions in the raft renewed, flares & water replaced and the gas cylinder recharged for auto inflation.

On another point, I find it very offensive that Mr Bugejja and Mr Piscopo blamed the AFM on various occasions during Bondi+ yesterday... I say hats off to the AFM for their SAR. Ludicrous to think that the AFM would spot people and NOT pick them up.!!

contd..

Daphne Caruana Galizia (6 hours ago)
If you had read the reportage carefully since day one, you would know all the answers to these questions. There was no radio on the boat, which is why Mr Bugeja called his wife on the satellite phone to ask her for the weather forecast. There were no life-vests - otherwise, as Mr Sammut Dacoutrous points out here, they would have put them on in the time it took to cobble a raft together. And the sole life-raft available didn't inflate, presumably because it hadn't been checked or serviced in a long time.
N Palmer (6 hours ago)
Recent events including this tragic incident have certainly placed the spotlight on safety at sea and raised awareness amongst boaters and non-boaters alike just how quickly things can go horribly wrong. As the Captain of the vessel Simon Bugeja was probably trying to do everything he could to save the lives of his crew and get them off the burning boat and to safety, with minimal help as the majority of his crew were asleep.

There are lessons to be learnt from this tragedy and the recent sinking a month ago for all boaters to take note of and place greater importance on having life saving equipment handy. I wonder how many vessels have a proper ditch bag handy on deck ready to be thrown overboard, as a fellow boater I know I don't and plan to address this asap.

Given the costs of SAR missions and limited resources available, why doesn't the government offer an incentive for boaters to invest in emergency life saving equipment like PLBs, EPIRBs, ditch bags and life rafts with 0% VAT, or offer one-off special prices.

Mark Bugeja and crew have my utmost respect and admiration; I will happily contribute to their fuel costs
Ivan Tabone (6 hours, 6 minutes ago)
Whilst praising all the efforts of the fishermen and other rescuers, and whilst sympathising with all those who suffered losses, I still think that there is more to the story. Yesterday's Bondiplus showed a few uneasy moments and it seems that there are people who know more but cannot tell all. I cannot figure out why the "explosion" occured. Diesel engines do not explode and I have never heard of a coolant gas creating such havoc. I think that the authorities have to delve more into what caused the fire/explosion and what exactly was being carried on the Simshar.
M. Schembri (6 hours, 6 minutes ago)
Under the circumstances a serious inquiry is the proper thing to do. As Mr Sammut dacoutros remarked there are quite a few nebulous areas in this whole unfortunate tragedy.
Therese Vella (6 hours, 13 minutes ago)
I'm afraid I have to retract my comment in yesterday's blog (Young widow speaks of husband's premonition) when i said that the funeral should be paid by AFM. After the interview on TVM with Stefania Carabott, Noel's widow, there emerged some insinuations that should not go without being investigated. One was - why did the brand-new boat explode, was it really because of the freezer? My question is :Is there any other way in which fishermen catch fish: do they use fireworks (which are illegal)? If this was a fireworks explosion, then it would be the second fireworks tragedy this year. It's hard to tell, because no remnants of the boat were found. I hope the truth comes out - a very high price has been paid to catch fish.
Ian Sammut Dacoutros (6 hours, 31 minutes ago)
While my heart aches at the thought of what these poor sould must have gone through I would like to ask a couple of questions. Last night I saw a television programme on TVM discussing this story, and accusations went flying round especially towards the AFM, I would like to ask where the life jackets on the boat were? Were there any? Where was the life raft? Was there one? If Mr. Bugeja had the minutes required to build the raft could he not have gotten the life raft / jackets? Or sent someone to get them while he was building the raft? As far as I know, at least these 2 basic survival tools are required to be on a boat, where were they? If there was time to build the raft couldn't a distress signal be sent? 112 with a mobile or Satphone (i am sure there is something), or radio?

Just curious.

I offer thoughts and prayers up to the Lord for the souls of the lost and pray that young Theo will soon be found too.
Ramon Casha (7 hours, 9 minutes ago)
Despite the sadness of this occasion, now is the time to start asking some questions like... why is it that this vessel's life-raft did not work and neither did their satellite phone? If it took almost 6 hours for the vessel to sink, why didn't they use the VHF? Just a few seconds to send a distress signal might have made all the difference yet the article doesn't even mention it. Did the vessel even have one?

And the million dollar question... What about all the other Maltese fishing vessels? Would their liferafts have worked? Would they have been able to send out a distress signal?
R.Gauchi (7 hours, 35 minutes ago)
Thank you Simon. I sincerely hope that you will be well rewarded(and recompensed),although your greatest reward will always be the knowledge that when you were needed you were not found wanting.

shanook · July 22, 2008, 18:23:54 CET

Yes its true that one has to take care of his things to be as safe as possible. And also that we might have electronic equipment that we buy and use continuously and not buy an eprib as we feel its expensive and isnt used except in an emergency.
On the other hand when we registered a fishing vessel we had to have a VHF radio. Why not make it compulsory that once a boat is bought one has to have an Eprib...the government can help in this and lower the registration fee for those who buy one or else we pay it by installments or at a subsidized rate. I know I shouldnt be reasoning this way but its money well spent from both parts. The gov saves on rescue operations and the boaters feel safer........

skip · July 22, 2008, 20:12:45 CET

Tony, in fact this was one of my points in a comment I passed on the above article. Somehow people view all boaters as having loads of money so they should be able to afford these devices. But why is there 18% on emergency life saving equipment? Just like the government did a deal with Microsoft on IT software, perhaps they should do some deal with McMurdo or ACR to get special one-off pricing and launch a scheme.

We all know the AFM lack a decent budget and resourses to do their job effectively especially with the burden of illegal immigrants, so it would probably not only end up saving them money but provide a safer environment for all locally based boaters.

?300-?700 is quite a lot of money for an emergency device, though if going offshore and at night it's probably a worthy investment, but sadly and I speak for myself here, tends to get put on the 'wish list, would be nice to have if I have some extra money'. Locally Medcomms probably sell for the same price in Lm!

ramio · July 22, 2008, 20:48:54 CET

Blue skip, when you said stroblights, are they specially manufactured for life jackets, or are they similar to the ones we use for deep drop? I like the small flares idea as well.