MARIGOT--French-side sea rescue service SNSM recently experienced another false alarm after being alerted to a distress signal.
Regional Operational Centre for Surveillance and Rescue in the Antilles-Guyana CROSS-AG, based in Fort-de-France, Martinique, asked the SNSM station to locate an Emergency-Position-Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) that was transmitting a distress signal off the Bay of Grand Case, in the Anguilla Channel.
The Coast Guard in Dutch St. Maarten was also alerted, as well as the tender of a yacht anchored in Marigot. For this intervention, the choice was made to use lifeboat SNS 129, equipped with a goniometer to locate VHF and EPIRB signals. The rigid inflatable Rescue Star does not have one on board.
SNS 129 departed with skipper and four crew in the direction of the GPS position of the distress beacon, supposedly a black and blue monohull Blonde Dream registered in the USA. However, no trace of boat or debris was found on the spot.
CROSS then asked the SNSM to enter Grand Case Bay to see if this boat was at anchor or if there was another boat corresponding to its report or with an EPIRB transmitting, and to carry out the same search in Marigot Bay.
The SNSM crew records the name of each vessel at anchor in these two bays and monitors more than 25 boats. However, no Blonde Dream, no boat corresponding to the report, and no EPIRB beacon was found.
CROSS also notified the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC) in Miami, Florida, which finally managed to contact the former owner of the Blonde Dream. He confirmed having sold the boat in 2004, but had no information available as to the new owner. After more than an hour and a half of unsuccessful searches, CROSS gave SNS 129 permission to return to Fort Louis Marina.
SNSM would like to thank Association Française de Premier Secours de Saint-Martin (AFPS) and TILT for providing volunteer crew members with a dozen protective visors for any possible mobilisation.
In spite of the confinement, the National Maritime Rescue Society remains operational at the national level, on sea as well as on land. And the volunteer rescuers of the SNSM St. Martin station are mobilised 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To do this, they benefit from a dispensation to travel for professional activities signed by the CROSS-AG Director on March 19, 2020.
It should be noted, however, that SNSM station premises in Marigot are closed to the public, within the framework of the current containment instructions.
