Is a well known book by Arthur Ransome about four children who when left alone on a friend’s boat at anchor at Pin Mill on the river Orwell, drag their anchor and drift out to sea. In a strengthening wind they decide it is better to keep sailing down wind rather than turn back, they next morning they arrive at Flushing on the Dutch coast. An exciting adventure! But they were lucky to have Holland so close on the other side of the North Sea.
Here in the Algarve we have the entire Atlantic Ocean in front of us and with a predominant north westerly wind we don’t stand much chance of survival if we drift out into the Atlantic. However, two very small boats recently survived such an experience. The first, a small boat from Olhão wakeboarding two miles off the coast ran out of fuel. They had no means of communication and were at sea for four days until they were finally rescued on November 1st by a merchant ship 45 miles from the coast. The second, a recreational boat just 5 metres in length with three men on board was rescued on November 6th in the evening by a ship 100 miles south of Sagres. They had left Olhão on October 30th, the Navy had been searching for them from November 1st, they were at sea for more than seven days before they were rescued.
If these two boats were in category 5 (‘must stay in calm water, near the coast or in inland waterways’) of Portuguese registration, they were not required to have any flares if they stayed within a harbour and only two hand held red flares if they were staying close to the coast.
Whilst this is an enormous improvement on British regulations which do not require us to carry any flares, in Britain this decision is left up to the Skipper to decide as to what is prudent. I wonder if it is prudent to go in a boat anywhere without flares? Even in my dinghy when using it just to carry me back to my boat when at anchor in a harbour I always carry a miniflare pack of 8 red flares. As the four children discovered in Arthur Ransome’s book, harbours have strong tidal currents and with strong spring ebb or a strong offshore wind you can very quickly get swept out to sea. Particularly if you break an oar as I did once in the Channel Islands, I only just prevented myself from getting blown out to sea by kneeling in the front of my dinghy and paddling, somewhat frantically back to my yacht with my one remaining oar.
A small boat perhaps fishing inside a harbour entrance can suffer an engine failure and quickly be swept out to sea, and whilst the skipper might have had no intention of leaving the harbour, in a strong tide or wind he will have no choice. In a matter of minutes his situation changes from a boat that is not required to have any flares to one that is required to have two red flares. If he has no flares, no VHF radio and not even a mobile telephone his next stop will be Brazil! Once about five miles offshore it is unlikely that a ship will pass as close as 3 miles, in which case he won’t be seen.
For a boat in category 5 that is intending to go to sea but stay close to the coast, are just two flares sufficient? A few years ago I was involved in the rescue of a Spanish fishing boat (see my website ‘Stories’ and then go to ‘Octopussy’), their only problem was an engine that would not start, and it was their third flare that finally convinced us that they were in distress and that the bright light was saw was neither the setting sun shining off a window or a bright deck light. When we first saw them, we were just two miles from them and they were just three miles from the coast. If they had had just two flares it is possible that we would not have realised that they had a problem, they would have drifted further from the coast and not been rescued for several days or even worse, not at all.
Portuguese registered vessels in category 4 who are allowed to go 6 miles from the coast and 20 miles from a port of refuge (this is the one that most small pleasure boats are registered under) are required to carry two parachute rockets, two red flares and one orange smoke signal. They are also required to have a VHF radio and a radar reflector.
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