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I have limited sailing experience with my family as a child and this story had my BS detectors on alert when I saw how happy/healthy they were, their story of a

I have limited sailing experience with my family as a child and this story had my BS detectors on alert when I saw how happy/healthy they were, their story of all the comms being disabled and the ridiculous story about having to huddle and be quiet because of sharks or something. Once I heard the account of the EPIRB (which I totally forgot about) I knew there it was more than just back luck and some hamming up the story for the camera. This article does a pretty thorough and entertaining job of breaking down all the inconsistencies from the perspective of an experienced sailor. My dad is going to thoroughly enjoy it.

sitharus 9y ago
All comms being disabled is a real red flag. My dad’s a master mariner so I’ve been around enough marine grade equipment to know that one radio breaking is rare, but 6 all at the same time is ridiculously unlikely. Either total incompetence or someone’s lying.
michaelcampbell 9y ago
I have zero experience but I was skeptical from the second I first read it too. I do have a good friend who sails, and we've been chatting about it. Seems most of the sailing forums are in agreement that something here Is Not Right(tm).
chx 9y ago
EPIRB is a fantastic technology, saving thousands of people at sea every year. A modern beacon will do a quarter second burst of digital information at 406 MHz at five watts (which is a helluva lot) then becomes silent for about 50 seconds. Today it is precise enough that only about two square kilometres needs to be searched. Fun fact: the 50 seconds is randomized so that two beacons don't become sync'd. A real lot of thought went into creating the protocol. As for the devices, the author was only half kidding about them surviving a nuclear war. Once deployed it's less tough but their brackets (which most autodeploy from if it gets four metres deep) definitely survives some real bad stuff although I can't find hard data on how they are tested.
- colanderman 9y ago
  I know I'm nitpicking, but... 5 watts isn't a "helluva lot". Consumer WiFi can transmit up to 1 watt. Entry-level ham radio operators can transmit up to 5 watts. If you put a 5 watt transmitter at 406 MHz inside your house, it's possible the signal might not even be strong enough to be received outside, depending on what the walls are made of. Now, consumer radio/television broadcasts... those run in the 10-100 kilowatt range. That's a "helluva lot".
  - burntrelish1273 9y ago
    I worked at Trimble Nav in the radio group. 5W for a consumer device is on the high end. UHF base stations often do around 25W-50W+ for wide-area coverage on top of a tower. If you did like a coworker did with a YAGI antenna and accidentally place a base-station onto high-power mode, nearby flesh (<10cm) will receive a significant radio burn.
    - mcguire 9y ago
      Speaking as a software guy, I love stories about hardware. :-)
  - Aloha 9y ago
    Unless you're living in a reinforce concrete bunker with no windows - like a bomb shelter - 5w is good for about a mile or so - considering that the beacons go skyward, its worth even more.
  - jlgaddis 9y ago
    From right here, in my office in my home in the middle of a town, I can easily communicate via a 440 MHz repeater about eight miles away with a handheld radio (with a little stubby antenna on it) that is putting out about one watt. You need to get much higher up in the spectrum before you have to worry about your signal not passing through walls. To illustrate, mobile phones typically operate in the 800-900 and/or 1800-1900 MHz range and typically put out ~0.6 watts. Most people have no problems whatsoever using their cell phones from inside their homes. 5 watts on 406 MHz out in the middle of an empty ocean is certainly more than enough to be picked up by a satellite passing overhead. Last, "entry-level ham radio operators" are permitted 1500 watts (on the frequency bands we're discussing; the limit is a very reasonable 100 watts on the lower/HF bands). (If you insist on "nitpicking", you should at least make sure you're accurate.)
pvaldes 9y ago
Elaborated lies often show a glimpse of truth shinning through. The sharks history is interesting if we take it as a metaphore. The history makes more sense if you change "sharks" for "Human sharks". Real sharks never train their sharklings, they'll try to eat them instead. "Sharks are training their kids with us" would be a revealing phrase in this sense about the women knowing the identity of their expected persecutor, probably young or middle aged, that could be closer of the ship and would scan for any electronic help emission (to reach the area and take drastic measures or even sink the ship before the arrival of other external help). Why to shut all electronic emissions if you are lost at open water?; maybe because you know that you are being hunted and try to hide at sea. Why to deliberately avoid nearest ports and inhabited areas?; because you know they are surveilled. You will be detected if try to approach to the nearest islands. They planned the travel with some months in antelation, maybe because you can't buy a huge amount of food in a single take without being suspicious and reported. Maybe for some places of the world, the quantity of food needed in a ship should be measured as: food needed to escape from the influence area of the local smuggler lord in charge and reach a safe airport or continent. The position of ships in the sea are continuously registered by electronic emissions. If authorities can take a look to this data in the first days after the ship quitting the port, could even have a list of hypothetical hunters.

sitharus 9y ago

All comms being disabled is a real red flag. My dad’s a master mariner so I’ve been around enough marine grade equipment to know that one radio breaking is rare, but 6 all at the same time is ridiculously unlikely. Either total incompetence or someone’s lying.

michaelcampbell 9y ago

I have zero experience but I was skeptical from the second I first read it too. I do have a good friend who sails, and we've been chatting about it. Seems most of the sailing forums are in agreement that something here Is Not Right(tm).

chx 9y ago

EPIRB is a fantastic technology, saving thousands of people at sea every year. A modern beacon will do a quarter second burst of digital information at 406 MHz at five watts (which is a helluva lot) then becomes silent for about 50 seconds. Today it is precise enough that only about two square kilometres needs to be searched. Fun fact: the 50 seconds is randomized so that two beacons don't become sync'd. A real lot of thought went into creating the protocol. As for the devices, the author was only half kidding about them surviving a nuclear war. Once deployed it's less tough but their brackets (which most autodeploy from if it gets four metres deep) definitely survives some real bad stuff although I can't find hard data on how they are tested.

colanderman 9y ago
I know I'm nitpicking, but... 5 watts isn't a "helluva lot". Consumer WiFi can transmit up to 1 watt. Entry-level ham radio operators can transmit up to 5 watts. If you put a 5 watt transmitter at 406 MHz inside your house, it's possible the signal might not even be strong enough to be received outside, depending on what the walls are made of. Now, consumer radio/television broadcasts... those run in the 10-100 kilowatt range. That's a "helluva lot".
- burntrelish1273 9y ago
  I worked at Trimble Nav in the radio group. 5W for a consumer device is on the high end. UHF base stations often do around 25W-50W+ for wide-area coverage on top of a tower. If you did like a coworker did with a YAGI antenna and accidentally place a base-station onto high-power mode, nearby flesh (<10cm) will receive a significant radio burn.
  - mcguire 9y ago
    Speaking as a software guy, I love stories about hardware. :-)
- Aloha 9y ago
  Unless you're living in a reinforce concrete bunker with no windows - like a bomb shelter - 5w is good for about a mile or so - considering that the beacons go skyward, its worth even more.
- jlgaddis 9y ago
  From right here, in my office in my home in the middle of a town, I can easily communicate via a 440 MHz repeater about eight miles away with a handheld radio (with a little stubby antenna on it) that is putting out about one watt. You need to get much higher up in the spectrum before you have to worry about your signal not passing through walls. To illustrate, mobile phones typically operate in the 800-900 and/or 1800-1900 MHz range and typically put out ~0.6 watts. Most people have no problems whatsoever using their cell phones from inside their homes. 5 watts on 406 MHz out in the middle of an empty ocean is certainly more than enough to be picked up by a satellite passing overhead. Last, "entry-level ham radio operators" are permitted 1500 watts (on the frequency bands we're discussing; the limit is a very reasonable 100 watts on the lower/HF bands). (If you insist on "nitpicking", you should at least make sure you're accurate.)

pvaldes 9y ago

Elaborated lies often show a glimpse of truth shinning through. The sharks history is interesting if we take it as a metaphore. The history makes more sense if you change "sharks" for "Human sharks". Real sharks never train their sharklings, they'll try to eat them instead. "Sharks are training their kids with us" would be a revealing phrase in this sense about the women knowing the identity of their expected persecutor, probably young or middle aged, that could be closer of the ship and would scan for any electronic help emission (to reach the area and take drastic measures or even sink the ship before the arrival of other external help). Why to shut all electronic emissions if you are lost at open water?; maybe because you know that you are being hunted and try to hide at sea. Why to deliberately avoid nearest ports and inhabited areas?; because you know they are surveilled. You will be detected if try to approach to the nearest islands. They planned the travel with some months in antelation, maybe because you can't buy a huge amount of food in a single take without being suspicious and reported. Maybe for some places of the world, the quantity of food needed in a ship should be measured as: food needed to escape from the influence area of the local smuggler lord in charge and reach a safe airport or continent. The position of ships in the sea are continuously registered by electronic emissions. If authorities can take a look to this data in the first days after the ship quitting the port, could even have a list of hypothetical hunters.