Like a lot of posters here, I'm really struggling to understand RB's immediate actions on awakening to an anchor alarm and finding Sarm missing.
To put this situation in context, RB is a charter captain. That means that he has to hold US Coastguard recognised qualifications to charter in VI territory. So he has been fully trained in pretty much every maritime emergency situation a boat will face and, moreover, is responsible for ensuring his crew/guests know the basic procedures. Most folks who have grown up round boats know how important emergency procedures are so I suppose my point is, as a captain, he'd be expected to be particularly competent.
In the situation RB faced, and with his level of knowledge, or just knowing basic protocol covered in training, I'd have expected him to:
- immediately investigate the source of the alarm on wakening (alarms on any type of boat are never a good thing!)
- on noticing Sharm was missing, immediately search the interior then cast light on the surrounding water to see if he could locate any sign of her
- call - if no response;
- protocol is to set up what's called a DSC, or Digital Selective Calling, distress signal over the radio. This can be done very quickly - most boats have a DSC button on their radio sets. It basically sends a distress signal to the Coastguard, with the added benefit of confirming the boat's exact position and sometimes even the nature of the emergency
- follow up with a Mayday radio call to notify US Coastguard and surrounding vessels of a potential man overboard.
These would be the absolute basics - from this I'd expect a full search and rescue operation to be launched in minutes, not just by Coastguard, but boats nearby. The maritime community would all be helping.
So why the delay in notifying Coastguard?
And why notify police when he would be fully aware (again, all part of the training he'd have to complete) that US Coastguard hold authority for maritime search and rescue in the VI?
None of this makes sense to me.
