When Mark Bernucho left his Louisiana home for a fishing trip, little did he know that the tiny Ocean Signal PLB1 personal locator beacon he always carries would be so useful.

When the fishing was proving unproductive he decided to move to a new site, but the engine on his 20 foot aluminium V-Hull boat generated nothing more than a clatter and refused to run. Without mobile phone signal and without other means to call for help Bernucho extended the antenna on his PLB1 and activated it.

Personal Locator Beacons send out an internationally recognised signal to the Cospas Sarsat satellite system. Each beacon is individual coded and Bernucho had made sure his was registered with NOAA. Within 36minutes of activation, a US Coastguard helicopter was nearby, following its normal search pattern. Bernucho set off a flare to indicate his exact position. Within minutes the helicopter was overhead and dropped a radio down to him on a line.

Using the contact details provided to NOAA when he registered his PLB, NOAA also contacted his wife and kept her fully informed of the situation and confirming that he was OK.

Using the radio, Bernucho was able to call up a tow back to port, grateful for the effectiveness of his Ocean Signal PLB1 and the efficiency of the Coastguard and NOAA. Bernucho said after his adventure with the PLB1, “I asked the Coastguard if there was anything I could do. And the simply said ‘Spread the Word’”

The US Coast Guard website described PLBs as “lightweight, compact and easy to use, can instantly summon help and provide rescuers with precise location information”

METSTRADE, 14th to 16th November, Stand 03.125

‘Within 25 minutes of the EPIRB being set off, we were in the airbase taking a shower’ – sailor Edward Harwood

Sailor Edward Harwood during the rescue from yacht Mistral

UK sailor Edward Harwood says his Ocean Signal SafeSea 100G EPIRB ‘proved worth its weight in gold’ after he and his crew were dramatically rescued from their sinking yacht, Mistral, off the Costa Del Morte, Northern Spain.

On passage back to the UK, sailing from Villa Nova de Arousa to France on-board the 1977 Dehler Optima 92, the sailors found themselves in a life-threatening situation after discovering the boat was taking on water near Biscay’s ‘Coast of Death’ following rough weather and Force 7 wind at the start of their voyage.

The life raft from yacht Mistral during the rescue

They immediately located the grab bag, prepared the life raft and activated the Ocean Signal EPIRB (Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon) as efforts to pump the vessel out to save her proved fruitless. With the boat now stationary and low down by the bow, they also sent out a Mayday on the handheld VHF but there was no response.
Just minutes after abandoning the yacht and climbing into the life raft, the sailors had received a radio message and were communicating with the rescue authorities who informed them they had seen the EPIRB alert and had been contacted by the UK coastguard.

Sailor Edward Harwood on-board Mistral

Edward said: “There is no doubt it was the EPIRB that did the trick. The flooded boat meant that putting out a Mayday using the VHF did not work. Within 7 minutes, we were receiving calls from family in the UK asking if we were okay. They had been contacted by the UK Coastguard and relayed to Vigo in Spain. In less than 10 minutes there was a rescue helicopter, Salvamento Marítimo helicopter PESCA 1 of Vigo air base, and fast boat on the scene. We were lifted to safety and I saw the boat up ended and going down. Within 25 minutes of the EPIRB being set off, we were in the airbase taking a shower and being given hot drinks.”

Used to alert search and rescue services in the event of an emergency at sea, the SafeSea E100G EPIRB has exceptional operational battery life with enough capacity to operate the EPIRB continuously, typically for four whole days, even using the E100G with GPS fix. It features intuitive operating controls and is very easy to use, even in a stressful environment. The E100G is fitted with a 50-channel, integral GPS which improves location accuracy and significantly reduces the time taken for the position to be transmitted to the rescue authorities. Certified for use on vessels registered in many countries across the world, the SafeSea E100G is a Cospas–Sarsat EPIRB operating in the 406MHz satellite band.

Edward added: “The Ocean Signal EPIRB is a truly outstanding product. It is easy to use in an emergency situation, fast and faultlessly reliable, plus it is by far the toughest and best quality. I will use one all my sailing life. I can think of no better and more necessary bit of safety equipment to have aboard.

“Over the past 10 years, we have always had an EPIRB on board and would not sail offshore without one. When the time came to replace it, the obvious choice was the Ocean Signal with the GPS built in. This was not only because of the fantastically practical battery arrangement, but also because the GPS feature made sense. If you are in trouble, you want to be located fast and it proved to be worth its weight in gold.”
James Hewitt, Sales and Marketing Manager, Ocean Signal, said: “It is never good to hear that a beacon has had to be activated, however it is great to hear that Edward and his crew are safe as a result of having an Ocean Signal EPIRB on board. It is really important that all vessels are equipped with an EPIRB device with GPS, such as the Ocean Signal E100G involved in this rescue, as it transmits an accurate location to the rescue authorities very quickly.”