Call The Coastguard Earliest

[Humber Coastguard]

Alun has written about a recent dive when things didn't go exactly as planned

http://www.yorkshire-divers.co.uk/fo...988#post282988

It highlights the reason you should call the Coastguard early when things start to go wrong. In Alun's case, as things turned out, he didn't need assistance but if he had, due to the sensible actions of his diving party, it would have been there as soon as possible.

And as Alun says

From the point of view of someone who was reported missing, and the effort put into looking for me - it really is quite overwhelming. Not once did anyone say "You stupid bastard, why didn't you ..." even though I probably deserved to hear it.

If you call out the rescue services when you honestly believe someone could be in difficulty and they are not required then you will hear no more about it we simply call the incident a "False Alarm With Good Intent" (FAWGI).

You WILL know about it if you're making a HOAX call though.

So like Alun's team don't be afraid to call the Coastguard if you think something is going wrong.

[Alun]

It also helped that the skipper (Brian from Aquatrek) is also on the lifeboat crew. There was no way he was going to delay calling in assistance - he must deal with the consequences of delay too many times for it even to be a consideration.

His diving briefs *all* started and ended with "DSMB after 40 mins, on the surface after 50".