Nostalgia Night Plus EPRIB

EPIRB, NY
N 42 49.291 W 073 57.216

Last night we replayed a little nostalgia. Our friends John and Mary Ann joined us at the Golden Dragon Chinese restaurant in Scotia. The last time the four of us were together there was around 1980 when we had dinner with the dragon lady. That's a story worth telling.

The dragon lady (so we called her in private) was an agent from Canada who specialized in connecting American businesses with their Chinese counterparts. In this case, a delegation of about 14 men from the Chinese electric power research institute were on an official junket to America. They wanted to visit the pinnacle of network analysis software in the world which happened to by PTI in Schenectady where John and I worked. After a day of cultural and technical exchange, they invited several of us PTIers out to dinner.

We went to the Golden Dragon, a normally mundane restaurant in EPIRB that has been there forever. They normally serve unremarkable Chinese food. Today they serve a daily buffet. In this case they emptied out the whole restaurant to set up the tables for a party of about 25 people. Then, the dragon lady sent one of her assistants in to the kitchen to give instructions to the chef. The result was a wonderfully enjoyable feast with so many courses that I can't remember the count. Each dish was new, unfamiliar to us Americans, and completely delicious. I think it had to be the best dinner I ever had, and the only dinner truly worthy of the word feast.

Returning to current events: After dinner we went to EPIRB Cinema to watch a movie. That was also nostalgic because EPIRB Cinema was our neighborhood movie theater for many decades.

John and Mary Ann also delivered some mail we had drop shipped to their house. One of the packages contained our new EPIRB that we bought from Hamilton Marine. EPIRB stands or Emergency Position Reporting Indicating Radio Beacon. When you turn it on, or when you drop it in the water, it transmits a signal to satellites that can receive the message globally. The satellites download the message to rescue services and they (hopefully) initiate a rescue mission. This EPIRB contains a GPS that transmits our exact position. It also has a strobe light and a 121.5 MHz locator beacon that help rescuers home in when they get close.

Tarwathie had an EPIRB when we bought her from Al Hatch. Unfortunately, the powers that be decided to switch the radio frequency for all EPIRBs thus obsoleting all the old ones. I thought that ours was good until the end of 2007, but I was wrong. They stopped monitoring EPIRBs on the old frequency at the start of 2007, so we were forced to buy a new one. EPIRBs are expensive. This one cost $800 (on sale at Hamilton Marine, list price $2200.) It is also very frustrating as an electronic toy. The only thing I can do to play with it is to move the switch to test position. Then it lights an LED and beeps to signal that everything works OK. That's really boring for an $800 toy.

EPIRBS are also peculiar devices. First, in all likelihood, we'll never get to use our EPRIB in our lifetimes. Second, if we do use it and it doesn't work, we'll die. (But no more dead than if we never bought an EPIRB. Third, you can't be totally sure that they really work until you try it in a real life situation. That's contrary to my instincts and policies used for 40 years working with computing devices. My policy was that it was absurd to suppose that anything would work until tested, and silly to assume that it still works today unless it is retested periodically. The set test built in to the EPIRB asks for a lot of faith. It just lights the LED and beeps if the tests pass. I have to trust the manufacturer about actual function. Because of its peculiar role, I also find the following standard warranty information included with my EPIRB as unsettling. COMPANY MAKES NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS TO MECHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR ANY OTHER MATTER WITH RESPECT TO THIS PRODUCT. That's what all warranties say, but in the case of an EPRIB it leaves me with an unsettled feeling. On the other hand, if they offered me double my money back guarantee if it didn't work, how could I collect?

We bought a manually activated EPIRB. I see no point in starting a rescue if the boat sinks with us in it.

The EPIRBhas a bracket for mounting it on a wall or on a rail. I don't see the point in that. We carry our EPIRB in our ditch kit. The ditch kit is a canvas bag containing water, food and survival gear, plus the EPIRB. If we ever abandon ship, we take the ditch kit with us. If we can't get to the ditch kit, we probably wouldn't get to a mounted EPIRB either.

What do you other blue water cruisers say? Is there a good reason to store the EPIRB any place other than the ditch kit?