THINK ABOUT THE CASUALTY

For all the technology we have it’s still hard to pin down a life raft at sea. Jean Le Cam commented how in the wilderness of the sea, the night can be your friend as it allows for the pinpoint accuracy of light. Smoke is its opposite number during daylight and is very effective to aircraft, but as I found when the RAAF dropped huge smoke flares by Raphaël it quickly dissipates in strong winds and was useless from sea level. It was the idea, put forward by one of the rear observers, to fly low level towards Aqua Quorum in transit with Raphael that saved him. They flashed their landing lights above him from which I could get a bearing. Continued passes eventually walked me to Raphaël’s position. I wasn’t able to see him until we both popped up on the top of respective waves at the same time. He was shockingly close.

As a consequence we have a kite that is a radar reflector and carries an LED light. It is simple, not reliant on electronics and could make the difference when a rescue has boiled down to its close and dirty conclusion. For a similar one, visit www. landfallnavigation.com/sky-alertparafoil-kite.html

Plan how you’re going to tackle treating the casualty – Raphael was in a frightful state when I picked him up. Fortunately I had a comprehensive medical pack and lots of experience from the Royal Marines and other areas of life.

I had purposefully vacuum-packed an additional sleeping bag and thermals. We always carry a couple of ‘Yuyu’ hot water bottles which are just under a metre long and perfect for warming up a casualty.