Amateur radio to the rescue at sea
Graham Griggs supporting the yachting communities on the heavy seas.
Amateur radio is known for its community support when communication needs arise; however, little is known about the valuable service radio amateurs provide to yachts that sail the world’s oceans.
Early every morning, Graham Griggs (ZS2ABK) in Bushman’s River, Eastern Cape, studies the synoptic weather charts supplied by the SA Weather Bureau and prepares a weather forecast for the yachts traversing the Atlantic and Indian oceans as well as the coastal waters of South Africa. At 8h30 he and a number of relay stations broadcast weather information and keep contact with many a lone yachtsman. He has been doing this for the past 13 years, seven days a week, 365 days a year. He is the main kingpin in the South African Maritime Mobile Net.
The network was started on 26 October 1979 by Alistair and Davina Campbell (ZS5GC and ZS5MU) operating from their farm in Umzumbe on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast.
In the late seventies, Alistair helped a friend build a yacht and would keep in touch with him using amateur radio, providing weather reports and other useful information. Soon, other vessels started checking in and the South African Maritime Mobile Net was born. At the time, Alistair obtained his information from Durban radio stations. Unlike today’s internet channels, information had to be laboriously copied down by hand. He also liaised with other nets, particularly the Travellers’ Net in Australia and a net run by the late Tony Britchford, (5Z4FZ) from Kilifi, Kenya.
A sturdy relationship of trust with the Marine Rescue Coordinating Centre in Cape Town (MRCC) meant that when there was a distress call from a yacht, MRCC knew that the information passed was current and accurate.
In 1982, the BOC Challenge/Around Alone Yacht Race was started. The South Africa Maritime Mobile Net assisted with communications. Three yachts were lost during that event. In November, between Cape Town and Sydney, Lady Pepperell was knocked down and rolled by a rogue wave. Weather and location positions were monitored and relayed between Alistair and radio amateurs in Portsmouth and New Zealand.
Graham Griggs took over after Alistair passed away, and is managing the network. He keeps in contact with yachts in “area seven” which covers the Atlantic Ocean from Brazil, and the Indian Ocean from South Africa to New Zealand.
Griggs manages two daily transmissions. At 6h30 (UTC) operating on 14,316 MHz he turns his beam antenna to cover the Indian Ocean and then slowly turns the antenna towards Brazil covering the Atlantic Ocean when he reads the weather report again. At 6h35 he manages the Coastal Net on 7120 kHz. The second daily transmission is at 11h30 transmitting firstly into the Indian Ocean area and then into the Atlantic Ocean area. The reports include a synopsis of the latest synoptic chart along with the “High Seas Weather Bulletin for metrological area 7” as supplied by the South Africa Weather Services. This transmission is flowed by a Coastal Net also with an overview of the latest synoptic chart and the weather forecast for coastal waters 50 nautical mile seaward.
Griggs is supported by a number of sub-controllers who provide relays as required. Radio propagation is subject to daily and seasonal changes when it may be necessary to use amateur radio stations in other parts of South Africa to ensure the best coverage possible. He is assisted by Peter Wolf (ZS1CH) in Hartenbos, Kelvin Killian (ZS5IW) in Umtentweni, William Hodges (ZS2ABZ) in Port Elizabeth, husband and wife team Henk and Greet Toxopeus in Cape Town, Rob Parkinson (ZS1RAP) in Vredenburg, Brian Burger (ZS5AZH) in Anerley, John Smith (ZS6WZ) in Middelburg and Woodliff Collet (ZS3WL) in Noupoort in the Karoo.
With modern satellite technology available today, Griggs and his team communicate with fewer yacht than a few years ago. Some of the yachties are not licenced radio amateurs and cannot communicate back to the net but only listen to the information broadcasts. The team does get some feedback by email. Despite the newer technology in heavy weather, things can go wrong and amateur radio remain a good back-up. It has been proven so many times that when all fails, amateur radio comes to the rescue.
The Maritime Mobile Net has been involved in several rescue operations keeping contact with the yacht, and acts as a relay between people on the yacht and the marine safety authorities. Griggs and his team were involved in the 2011 rescue of Spraydust sailing from Brazil to South Africa. Graham tells the story: “We made our first amateur radio contact on 3 February 2011. At that time they were to the south-east of Salvador. I then kept daily contact with them. All went well until the 22 February when the skipper of Spraydust, Tom, told me that they had a broken forestay and asked if I could phone Associated Rigging in Cape Town and ask them a whole list of questions; but due to the high wind conditions which was expected to continue for several days, they could not do repairs.
“On the morning of 24 February, I received an email from Andy, the chief radio officer on Tristan da Cunha, informing me that “Spraydust” had requested a rescue. When I called Tom at our usual time (13h40 SAST) Tom confirmed that they were needing an urgent rescue. I phoned the MRCC who confirmed that the request had been sent to the Brazilian MRCC who in turn had sent it on to the Argentina military for action, but they had passed it on to Uruguay military as Tom was in their area of responsibility. I called Tom and told him the status quo, and also give him an update on the weather: it did not look good. I kept contact with him and I arranged to call him again at 14h30 to give him an update.
“I contacted MRCC and told them when I would next call Tom and asked them to ask the Uruguay military to call at the same time on our amateur radio frequency so they could talk to Tom themselves. When I called Tom at 20h30 he sounded very tired, we called for the Uruguay military and back they came. I stayed in the background while Tom talked to them and explained his problem. When the Uruguay military called him at 21h30 I was on frequency and could hear Tom giving them his position and weather. Later that night I received an email from the MRCC informing me that Tom had drifted back in to Brazilian waters and that a ship, Jag Lakshita, is sailing from their position to rescue the Spraydust crew. Yet another successful rescue by Amateur Radio and the MRCC Cape Town.”
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