TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Pan Pan Pan at Cooper Island

We where out sailing this weekend for my wife's birthday. As we where sailing past Cooper on Saturday a boat called Pan Pan Pan hailing Cooper Island. They wanted a dinner reservation.

Just when I thought I had seen and heard everything in de Islands.

Jay

WOW. Who would use an international call for distress for a joke?!!!

not cool

Totally inappropriate.

Some people will abuse everything. I'm hoping the restaurant didn't provide a reservation.

I suppose it could be that they just didn't know what the hell they were doing.

Which still is not cool.

Dan

Well maybe they thought " hey they cook in pans right?"

Really hungry but not starving to death, perhaps they use the correct terms!

Same here. Were I running the radio at Cooper Island I probably would have responded with something like, "We have notified the authorities of your distress situation. They should be contacting you soon."

I doubt that anyone answering the radio at Cooper knows the ins and outs of mayday/pan-pan/securite.

CaptainJay - did you see the name "Pan Pan Pan" on a vessel in the vicinity? Assuming the boat was USCG documented, I'm a little surprised that the Coast Guard would allow a vessel that name. And if it was in charter, I would hope that the charter company would have a problem with the name as well.

Also, when you make a distress signal, be it, mayday, pan-pan or securite, you repeat it three times. So the correct usage in this case would be "pan-pan, pan-pan, pan-pan, this is the vessel..."

Maybe they were on a life raft and were starving. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

One night in Miami "Pan Pan, yes this is a Pan Pan" "I'm tied to the xx bridge and too drunk to go any further and need assistance" I am sure he received plenty of assistance.

Pan Pan is no call of distress. Only a note of urgency that may lead to distress. Pan Pan should mean I have an issue that may get worse; at this time I believe I have it under control on my boat. With clear details of the jeopardy. This skipper shared his situation. "Short one table at Cooper". Calling Pan Pan to eat soon during cocktail hour near Cooper Island is certainly rude and poor form. The same would be true with the bars and eateries encouraging the use of the Channel 16 for dinner and hospitality arrangement in the first place.

While we are throwing rocks here. The first sinner is Cooper who encourages Channel 16 for non maritime traffic. Abuse or poor use of Channel 16 for non maritime communications is the danger. If you ever use Channel 16 for dinner reservations you have no grounds to call anyone out here. Many just over the horizon are distracted and falsely alerted by those garbled dinner calls.

To be clear General calls, signals, or messages on channel 16 are never acceptable. The rule are montor 16 24/7 and only transmit on 16 when you have a maritime need that must me shared.

How many follow this rule on your charter?

"Maintain your watch. Whenever your boat is underway, the radio must be turned on and be tuned to Channel 16".

Friend of mine named his boat Hay Day...USCG told him to change it...He should call it Dumb A**!!

It always amazes me that ANYONE would prefer to conduct business on the VHF radio, when cell service is cheap, private and easy to use. I'm not sure why folks still hail restaurants, marinas, taxis and the like on VHF...when those same people wouldn't be caught dead without their smart phones. I'm thinkin' that this is really 'Barney Fife -ism'.

Seriously, kids, just use your phone.

I'm trying to think of my choice for silliest use of Channel 16...and I think that the winner goes to the folks hailing the 'Ginger Island Yacht Club'. Kudos, amigos.

The cel phone is fine if you have their number.
The VHF works fine otherwise.

They're in the various guidebooks, and charter company's have their three ring binder (or whatever) that generally lists phone numbers.

Not everyone's cell phone works every where in the BVI's.

Yes you could look up the numbers or just hail them on the VHF.
If the music is blaring the VHF is the ticket.

unlocked phones work with a Lime sim card, easiest way to call in BVI

All or at least most boats have a marine radio. It seems pretty simple to hail on 16 and converse on another channel. I don't know about the rest of you but when I go on vacation the last thing I want is a cell phone, and all the hassle of trying to find the right combination of getting it to work in the BVI.

unless you owned a business and travel for a month at a time <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

Wayne, I couldn't agree more.