teritoots
06-Nov-07, 20:48
What's everyone's opinion on this?
Personally I believe he risked others peoples lives and should be made to pay towards the cost of the rescue for his stupidity.
Actual Video that went out in news last night
http://www.stv.tv/content/news/headlines/display.html?id=opencms:/news/Sailor_reprimanded_after_coastguard_rescue
Captain Calamity
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1762472007
Captain Clueless
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2007/11/06/rescued-sailor-i-was-minutes-from-death-86908-20067424/
Rescued Sailor: I Was Minutes From Death
Nov 6 2007 By Charlie Gall
A ROOKIE sailor has told how he was minutes away from certain death when he was rescued by coastguards.
Stanley Ross ended up adrift 100 miles off course, just 20 yards from rocks in one of the world's most treacherous shipping lanes.
And he was condemned for sparking a huge rescue operation when he got lost in his new boat.
The wayward captain left port with a broken radio, no sea charts, out-of-date distress flares, an unattached anchor and a mobile phone with a low battery.
He was branded "foolish" and "reckless" by the Coastguards who saved him in dreadful weather early yesterday.
But, speaking hours after the end of the ordeal, Stanley said: "I only planned to be at sea in daylight, in sight of the shore, so I felt I had all the equipment I needed.
"The weather conditions turned far worse than the forecast predicted."
The 36-year-old left Arbroath, Angus, on Saturday, bound for Wick in Caithness.
It was his maiden voyage on the Boy John, the 31ft boat he bought last week to start a new career as a fisherman after losing his job at a battery factory in Thurso.
On the final leg of his journey, he left Peterhead on Sunday morning before encountering high winds and heavy seas.
He set course for the sheltered waters of the Dornoch Firth but with no navigation equipment to show his position, he ended up travelling across the treacherous Pentland Firth towards the tiny island of Swona.
The sailor said: "The weather conditions were pretty drastic and I was blown far further north than I expected.
"At that time, I still thought I was off the Dornoch Firth but when the engine started playing up as well, I knew things were getting pretty dire."
Lost and starting to drift, he used his mobile phone to call his pregnant girlfriend, Jenna Simpson, to say he was in trouble.
He said: "She's expecting our baby in February and a late-night phone call like that left her pretty shaken up."
Jenna, 22, raised the alarm from Wick, triggering a massive search operation estimated to have cost £30,000.
Using a 15-mile wide location fix from his mobile phone, four lifeboats, a helicopter and eight Coastguard teams joined the hunt for the Boy John.
Eventually an Orkney coastguard team spotted the boat's lights off Swona, west of South Ronaldsay, around 2am yesterday.
They guided an RAF helicopter to the boat and within 10 minutes a lifeboat put a line on board to pull the boat away from the rocks before towing it to Longhope, Orkney.
Stanley was given a bed for the night before he returned to Thurso by ferry yesterday afternoon.
He said: "Another few minutes and the boat would have been match wood - and so would I.
"I'm so delighted to still be alive and so grateful to the lifeboat and helicopter crews and the Coastguards on shore.
"I was no more than minutes from the rocks and pretty certain death. They got there just in time."
But he was slated for sailing with a broken radio, no sea charts and out-of-date distress flares.
It emerged that he docked in Aberdeen on Saturday with engine trouble when Coastguards warned him about his lack of proper equipment on board.
Even the anchor on his opendecked vessel wasn't attached to the vessel by any rope or chain.
All he had was a mobile phone with a dwindling battery.
Aberdeen Coastguard watch officer Steve Quinn said: "He'd just bought the vessel without the proper equipment.
"He'd either not had time to buy the equipment - in which case he was incredibly foolish - or he didn't have the money to buy it.
"Either way, it was still silly to embark on such a voyage."
Furious Steve added: "It's an incredibly reckless thing to do.
"When he was found he was half an hour away from running aground. He was a lucky chap in the end."
Stanley's father, Stanley Ross snr, was relieved to learn his son was home.
The acting superintendent at the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen at Mallaig, Invernessshire, said: "He worked as a fisherman on a couple of boats when he was younger but he has no real skills in seamanship.
"I don't know what he's been up to but I'mjust glad he's safe."
His son intends to carry on with his new fishing career, once his boat's engine is repaired.
'It was silly to embark on such a voyage. It's a reckless thing to do."
Personally I believe he risked others peoples lives and should be made to pay towards the cost of the rescue for his stupidity.
Actual Video that went out in news last night
http://www.stv.tv/content/news/headlines/display.html?id=opencms:/news/Sailor_reprimanded_after_coastguard_rescue
Captain Calamity
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1762472007
Captain Clueless
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2007/11/06/rescued-sailor-i-was-minutes-from-death-86908-20067424/
Rescued Sailor: I Was Minutes From Death
Nov 6 2007 By Charlie Gall
A ROOKIE sailor has told how he was minutes away from certain death when he was rescued by coastguards.
Stanley Ross ended up adrift 100 miles off course, just 20 yards from rocks in one of the world's most treacherous shipping lanes.
And he was condemned for sparking a huge rescue operation when he got lost in his new boat.
The wayward captain left port with a broken radio, no sea charts, out-of-date distress flares, an unattached anchor and a mobile phone with a low battery.
He was branded "foolish" and "reckless" by the Coastguards who saved him in dreadful weather early yesterday.
But, speaking hours after the end of the ordeal, Stanley said: "I only planned to be at sea in daylight, in sight of the shore, so I felt I had all the equipment I needed.
"The weather conditions turned far worse than the forecast predicted."
The 36-year-old left Arbroath, Angus, on Saturday, bound for Wick in Caithness.
It was his maiden voyage on the Boy John, the 31ft boat he bought last week to start a new career as a fisherman after losing his job at a battery factory in Thurso.
On the final leg of his journey, he left Peterhead on Sunday morning before encountering high winds and heavy seas.
He set course for the sheltered waters of the Dornoch Firth but with no navigation equipment to show his position, he ended up travelling across the treacherous Pentland Firth towards the tiny island of Swona.
The sailor said: "The weather conditions were pretty drastic and I was blown far further north than I expected.
"At that time, I still thought I was off the Dornoch Firth but when the engine started playing up as well, I knew things were getting pretty dire."
Lost and starting to drift, he used his mobile phone to call his pregnant girlfriend, Jenna Simpson, to say he was in trouble.
He said: "She's expecting our baby in February and a late-night phone call like that left her pretty shaken up."
Jenna, 22, raised the alarm from Wick, triggering a massive search operation estimated to have cost £30,000.
Using a 15-mile wide location fix from his mobile phone, four lifeboats, a helicopter and eight Coastguard teams joined the hunt for the Boy John.
Eventually an Orkney coastguard team spotted the boat's lights off Swona, west of South Ronaldsay, around 2am yesterday.
They guided an RAF helicopter to the boat and within 10 minutes a lifeboat put a line on board to pull the boat away from the rocks before towing it to Longhope, Orkney.
Stanley was given a bed for the night before he returned to Thurso by ferry yesterday afternoon.
He said: "Another few minutes and the boat would have been match wood - and so would I.
"I'm so delighted to still be alive and so grateful to the lifeboat and helicopter crews and the Coastguards on shore.
"I was no more than minutes from the rocks and pretty certain death. They got there just in time."
But he was slated for sailing with a broken radio, no sea charts and out-of-date distress flares.
It emerged that he docked in Aberdeen on Saturday with engine trouble when Coastguards warned him about his lack of proper equipment on board.
Even the anchor on his opendecked vessel wasn't attached to the vessel by any rope or chain.
All he had was a mobile phone with a dwindling battery.
Aberdeen Coastguard watch officer Steve Quinn said: "He'd just bought the vessel without the proper equipment.
"He'd either not had time to buy the equipment - in which case he was incredibly foolish - or he didn't have the money to buy it.
"Either way, it was still silly to embark on such a voyage."
Furious Steve added: "It's an incredibly reckless thing to do.
"When he was found he was half an hour away from running aground. He was a lucky chap in the end."
Stanley's father, Stanley Ross snr, was relieved to learn his son was home.
The acting superintendent at the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen at Mallaig, Invernessshire, said: "He worked as a fisherman on a couple of boats when he was younger but he has no real skills in seamanship.
"I don't know what he's been up to but I'mjust glad he's safe."
His son intends to carry on with his new fishing career, once his boat's engine is repaired.
'It was silly to embark on such a voyage. It's a reckless thing to do."