Ever wondered what happens when you activate your PLB or EPIRB?

What follows is the true story of an accidental activation of a PLB belonging to one of our recent RYA Yachtmaster students on our professional fastrack programme.

Allow me to set the scene. Once members of our programme have achieved Yachtmaster Coastal we like to give them an opportunity to stretch, flex and build their sailing muscles and confidence. We do this by providing a sailing yacht without an instructor, skipper or expert onboard. They plan passages, skipper the yacht as they will in their professional career at the end of the programme.

A group of our aspiring Yachtmaster Offshore students were at anchor onboard the venerable yacht Jolly Parrot. This was their second night at anchor and even though it’s the 1st week of December some have been for a swim. The evening meal has been prepared, cooked and enjoyed and whilst the popcorn is being readied there is a discussion about which film to watch.

Suddenly Dave, for that is not his name, noticed his phone was ringing. It was a call from his parents. It was actually the second time they had called but Dave hadn’t noticed. His parents were a bit upset, on edge.

Why? Well, they had been phoned by the Spanish coastguard in MRSC (Maritime Rescue Sub-Centre) Cadiz because Dave was apparently in distress. His PLB had been activated and Dave being the good fellow that he is had correctly registered it with OFCOM and put his parents down as his emergency contact.

The Spanish coastguard wanted to verify if Dave was in fact at sea in Spanish waters. If we've got the timings correct the Spanish coastguard were calling Dave's emergency contact 1 minute after the PLB was activated.

HM Coastguard in the UK called Dave's parents 2 minutes after the activation.

So Dave’s parents were getting phone calls directly from the Spanish and UK coastguard in quick succession. Crumbs!

Dave immediately grabbed his salopettes to check his PLB and it had indeed been activated. Ten minutes had passed since his PLB was apparently activated. Dave started contacting, albeit somewhat stunned, MSRC Cadiz by VHF to confirm it was an accidental activation and he definitely didn’t need rescuing. A good thing too as outside of UK waters the emergency services can be eye-wateringly expensive.

So how did the activation happen? That’s a bit of a mystery. Dave’s PLB has a lift up antenna that’s wrapped around the case of the PLB. The antenna hinge covers up the activation button. Even though the antenna was tucked away with the hinge covering the activation button we guess that enough pressure was applied whilst he was wearing the salopettes. With the antenna folded away and the PLB not having an unobscured view of the sky it might have taken a while for the signal to reach the COSPAS-SARSAT constellation.

What should you do if you accidentally activate your PLB or EPIRB?

• Firstly, contact the coastguard you registered the beacon with as soon as possible. Having the HEX ID to hand will help. It's 15 or 23 digits long.
• Don’t switch the beacon off until the coastguard tells you to.