SEARCH AND RESCUE IS CRITICAL. NOW, WHAT ABOUT PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY?

Every few months the airwaves are filled with the chilling message of one or more persons in difficulty or lost at sea.  Inevitably and with a sense of foreboding, the public is informed of the dispatch of ‘first responders’, the members of the Search and Rescue (SAR). 

This article is not about the Burton Winters tragedy, though the mere mention, of his name, evokes a tiring sadness over the loss of one so young. Nor is it about the loss of the Ryan’s Commander or even the role, responsibility and response time demanded, by a sympathetic public, of SAR.

This article is about the role of each individual who goes out on the sea.  It is about personal responsibility.