It's all training
So, really, they are doing the rescue authorities in the UK a great service by giving them lots of hands-on practice. These rescue agencies ought to be thankful that these two are not sending them a bill for the privilege. :headb:
When we visit the LaPush harbor, home of a USCG station, they go out twice a day, all year. Practice, practice, and more practice. If visiting their site, there are pix of their boat in horrendous seas. That's how they maintain readiness.
And then I recall the critiques in the non-boating press about the long distance rescue coordination by aircraft for racing yachts in the Southern Ocean, and the Aussies stated that it (mostly) was rolled into their training budget.
These agencies have a mission to assist (as the old hymn sez) "those in peril on the seas."
Locally here in PDX a good friend of mine was the commander of the 304th Rescue Wing, stationed at our airport for decades. He started the procedures of working with local mountain rescue teams to bring down stranded climbers and skiers from Mt Hood. He figured that they spent XX amount of budget for training exercises and they might as well save real lives while solving the problems and difficulties of real flying and retrieval of people in rough terrain. Their mission was/is to chopper in and rescue downed pilots in war zones.
The AF got a lot of "real world" training, a lot of lives were saved, and civilians understood and appreciated their presence here.
The local sheriffs in several counties and the mountain rescue teams were delighted as well.
So while I appreciated your humorous take on this, my experience is that, within bounds, the sea rescue folks do need the constant practice and go out all the time, whether there is an actual victim or not.
Sidebar, that commander was also a Ranger 20 sailor in our same local one-design fleet. We raced and cruised those boats often throughout the late 70's and into the 80's. Good Old Days! Indeed.
We have a retired Coastie in our little YC, and he sez that they do indeed tell them: "you have to go out, you do not have to come back!"
:0
Regards,
Loren
ps: some interesting photos at this link:
http://www.uscg.mil/d13/staQuillayuteRiver/
