Category: Blog

The satellite phone Joe Stutler carries during fire season rang on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, and “scared the living bejesus” out of him.

His elite Type 1 Incident Management Team had just come off a fire and the Bend, Ore., resident was elk hunting in the mountains of central Oregon, secure in the assumption that he would have a few days off before being called back to duty. He didn’t know two planes had flown into and brought down the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, another had slammed into the Pentagon and a fourth had crashed in rural Pennsylvania in coordinated terrorist attacks.

The voice on the other end told him his team was on alert, meaning it was in line to be mobilized. Two other teams had already been called up and were on their way east.

Read Full Story Here……

 “…the rescued men weren’t carrying a satellite phone, an essential backup tool for contacting rescue officials”.

Friday September 30th, 2016

Two men rescued from a sailboat in the Gulf of Alaska Wednesday may owe their lives to a mariner off Hawaii, who heard an initial distress call when Alaska-based U.S. Coast Guard members couldn’t.

Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Meredith Manning said in a statement Wednesday that the 35-foot Rafiki was sinking Tuesday night in 6-foot seas about 230 miles south of Cold Bay.

Manning said the Rafiki had previously put into Dutch Harbor after reporting problems with its sails to the Coast Guard. The vessel was en route from Dutch Harbor to Victoria, British Columbia, when the men saw water pouring into the hull near the engine.

“They were trying to contact the Coast Guard in Alaska, but it was coming through staticky,” Manning said. “They also didn’t have any kind of survival suits — they had life jackets.”

Read Full Story Here…..

Nov 18th, 2016

Most people opt to make a transatlantic sea voyage on a cruise ship.

Matt Kent, the U.S. Brig Niagara’s fourth mate, plans to sail the Atlantic Ocean in 2017 in a boat measuring just 3 feet, 6 inches by 3 feet, 6 inches. If successful, Kent would set a world record for the smallest sailboat ever to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

Kent, a native of Portland, Oregon and 33 years old, has spent the past five years designing and building his boat named The Undaunted. Kent, who has been on the Niagara’s crew for eight years, is attempting to raise money for science-based education programs at The Bioreserve, a nonprofit in Glenmont, New York.

See Full Story Here….

Usage of the satellite phone would automatically signal the end of the contestant’s participation in the challenge”

Nov 30th, 2016

Lopez, Washington native Callie “Blue Heron” North, tackled the untamed wild of Patagonia Argentina for History Channel’s survivalist television show “Alone.” The series’ season premiere will air on Thursday, Dec. 8.

“I had this overwhelming intuitive feeling like ‘I’m going to do that,’” said North, who owns Pachamama Apothecary in the Lopez Village.

Now in its third season, the show features participants who enter the wilderness carrying only what they can fit in a backpack (see page 3 for what North had with her). They are alone in harsh, unforgiving terrain with a single mission: to survive as long as they can.

They must hunt, build shelters and fend off predators as they endure extreme isolation and psychological distress while plunging into the unknown. They document the experience themselves. There are no camera crews or producers. It is the ultimate test of human will as contestants hope to win a cash prize of $500,000.

Read full article here….

“We spent all this money on guns, but we didn’t have a VHF, a satellite phone, a flare in the boat. We had our priorities completely wrong”

A boater rescued from Atchafalaya Bay Saturday is now telling his story.

Jonathan Sully and two friends left before the sun came up Saturday morning. They followed the coastline, heading toward a duck blind. But then, the boat’s motor shut off.

Sully said, “Anything that we had was just soaking wet, so it was just weighing the boat down. We threw everything overboard.”

To make matters worse, the boat’s pump died. Sully remembered, “We’re taking turns, and we’re paddling this water out.”

Helicopters flew by, but there was no luck. The wind picked up and the tide got rougher. The boat started to drift further toward the gulf.

The boater said, “We took the orange life vest, and we tied it to a six-foot bow pole. We tied it, and we’re waving it, and we’re waving it. We can’t get anybody to notice us.”

Read Full Story Here…..

South African-born Bertish set his sights on being the first person to cross the Atlantic, unassisted, on a stand-up paddleboard

While you were sitting back on the sofa, nursing a food baby after Christmas dinner, Chris Bertish was paddling across the Atlantic ocean on his stand-up paddleboard (SUP).

South African-born Bertish set his sights on being the first person to cross the Atlantic, unassisted, on a stand-up paddleboard. And he’s making an impressive stab at it.

According to his live tracker, Chris is nearing the halfway mark, with his GPS coordinates showing his location at somewhere to the west of Cabo Verde.

Having spent almost two months at sea with nothing other than his state-of-the-art paddle board and some basic provisions, it’s already an amazing achievement.

Starting out on December 6, 2016, from the northwest coast of Africa in Morocco, Chris began what he hoped would be a 120-day voyage.

That voyage would take him over 4,500 miles across the Atlantic, ending in the Caribbean Leeward Island of Antigua. Every day, Chris is forced to paddle the equivalent of a marathon in order to ensure his provisions don’t run out before he reaches that far-off Caribbean destination.

Check out the full story here…..

WARNING – Inspiring Story….

23 February 2017:

Explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes has announced he will continue his Global Reach Challenge, despite being forced to abandon his attempt to scale Mount Aconcagua in South America last month because of a back injury.

The 72-year-old is determined to become the first person to cross both polar ice caps and climb the seven highest mountains on each continent, to raise money for the terminal illness charity Marie Curie.

Sir Ranulph was just hours from the top of the 6,962m (22,838 ft) peak when back pain forced him to stop. His support team used their IsatPhone 2 satellite phone to call for help and he was airlifted off the mountain, leaving the future of the whole challenge uncertain.

Read Full Story Here…..

Irma Rapidly Intensifying in Eastern Atlantic

Here comes trouble. Hurricane Irma built an eyewall over the warm waters of the Eastern Atlantic on Thursday morning, and is now rapidly intensifying, becoming a Category 2 hurricane with 100 mph winds.

Irma is the fourth hurricane of this active Atlantic hurricane season, and comes three weeks before the usual September 21 date for the season’s fourth hurricane. Irma appears destined to become a dangerous long-track major hurricane that could potentially impact the islands of the Caribbean as well as the mainland U.S. next week and the following week.

Satellite images on Thursday morning showed a well-organized storm with plenty of heavy thunderstorms which were increasing in intensity, and a prominent eye had appeared in both visible and infrared imagery.

Read Full Story About Irma Here….

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