@Mambo42 Curious your opinion what you felt were the things he setup correctly to mitigate the risk, and perhaps things he could have done in addition, or better.
What we saw in the time that I flew SAR is that people on boats did not take the sea serious. The one thing that we saw over and over again was not being prepared for something going wrong. No radios onboard or draining the batteries after they got into trouble. Having no clue where they were (read: poor navigational skills). Going out with a boat in conditions that the boat was not able to handle. Not knowing how to make simple repairs in case something went wrong.
We could understand that fishermen simply have to go out and face the dangers of the sea. Most of them did not have the money to buy a liferaft, to buy a radio, to buy flares, they would go out in boats that were in a bad condition and when the engine failed or the boat started to take on water, that was usually the end of it.
The pleasure boaters were 99 % of the time sailing vessels and also there we saw that the majority of them were totally unprepared for emergencies. They would not inform anyone when they would leave, which route they would take, when they planned to arrive or where they plannned to arrive, so when we got phone calls like: this boat left 2 months ago and has not arrived in A or in B'...........where are we going to search ?
We also saw that a lot of them did not have a simple handheld VHF with a spare battery. We never lost a single boat that had a radio, we found 100 % of them.
There are a couple of other things, but it basically boils down to bad preparation and not having any back up plans. They never asked themselves the question: 'what if'.
So when I saw the videos that Gus put out I was first of all impressed that he had actually thought of what he would do if something would happen. And if that would not work out...........what would he do then. In my time we never saw back up plans for back up plans.
Then his well thought of wake / sleep pattern with the radar/AIS + alarms displayed on his TV and speakers. He had actually calculated when the alarm should go off in order to give him ample time to react. That impressed me.
Of course there is his knowledge of engines and mechanics. He knows these engines inside out and he kept checking them continuously, carefully weighing the results of his inspections. How many people just open the hatch or the door, see if they see any water splashing around and leave it at that ? He did not do that.
Then came his weather calculation, his alternates and realisation he would be sleepy in a heavy traffic zone if he would continue. So he decided to switch off the engines, just float and go to sleep. He did that in an area where I know (because I have flown there as well) there is hardly any traffic. It is close to a military training zone, but Navy ships will have a much better look out than commercial ships. And he still had his alarms as back up in case something would come his way.
His decision to speed up in order to stay ahead of the weather was also well thought of and it showed me that he was still on top of everything, he was still making sound decisions.
From his earlier videos I know he has a lot of experience sailing in the dark, he is good at it, he can even easily dock the whole boat by himself in the dark, that is pretty impressive. It shows me he has total control over the boat.
The one thing I did not like, although the risk was minimal, is to go out on the bow. I know not a lot can happen, but if something would have happened to him at that moment, he could have gone overboard and that would have been the end of it. I know it is a 70' Broward, chances are minimal, but that was the one thing that I would not have done.
So based on what I have seen in my days finding and saving people on the water and comparing that with how Gus was prepared and how he did it, I can only say that he did a great job. I wish that all the people that we lost (read: never found) had taken his approach, a lot less people would have died.
