Maritime Emergency Preparedness and Security Exercise

Phew! It’s always a little disconcerting to see fire or police action, so we were a bit worried about pulling into the yacht club behind a fire truck and thinking about the battery charger we have plugged in to resurrect some flat batteries. (That’s another story.) Then there were the men in fatigues carrying some rather serious-looking weapons, and the police boats at the dock. Yikes! What kind of maritime emergency was going on?

We quickly spoke with two soldiers putting on battle gear, who pleasantly explained this was all a drill. That was a quick relief. To learn more, we were directed down to the Angel Island Ferry dock, where we met Fire Marshall and Public Information Officer Michael Lantier. Lantier explained that the Golden Gate Bridge Authority had organized a drill allowing multiple agencies to coordinate a response to a variety of active, on-the-water or dockside emergency scenarios. It’s stuff we don’t like to think about, but we’re glad somebody does.

We recalled that one of the significant challenges for first responders during 9/11 was an inability to communicate and coordinate. That’s not good in the middle of an active emergency. Yesterday’s drills involved the Tiburon Fire Department, US Coast Guard, Marin County sheriff, Southern Marin Fire, FBI, Office of Emergency Management, Homeland Security, TSA, the military, and others. That’s a lot to coordinate.

There are a million scenarios we face when sailing that make sense to practice. Man overboard, racing maneuvers, spinnaker sets and takedowns, anchoring, radio communications, and numerous others we all wish we’d done before our most recent onboard “emergency.” We imagine endless “emergency scenarios” that have already appeared in terrible headlines somewhere in the world that responders must be ready to address. Though it’s a sad reminder in a usually happy place, we’re glad they take time to practice. Hopefully, it will never be needed.

Now we have to go back to figuring out why our boat batteries, with three battery switches, a starter battery and house bank, are all flat. Something may have shaken loose in the weather. But that’s a story we’ll have to save for when we better understand what’s going on. It’s rare, but occasionally, we understand a little bit.