Preset Tasking

It is a bit unusual for us to know in advance of anything we might be tasked to to with the CCGA. Usually a page comes in and we are out the door in a matter of minutes with the adrenalin pumping. Today will be different. The on-call coxswain received a call yesterday from the RCMP asking if we could perform another shoreline search of Sechelt Inlet.

For the last 10 days in Sechelt many people have been preoccupied with the disappearance of an 80 year old woman Rhody Lake. She went walking from her home in Sandy Hook on Sunday Nov. 27th and effectively disappeared. There has already been a massive search effort - our CCGA unit was called to conduct shoreline searches off Sechelt, We relayed radio communications for others running shorelines in the inlet and with helicopters, and the land search and rescue crews from several regions have combed the area - yet nothing has been found.

Today we are going out again - this time to search the West shore of the Inlet. Up until now all the search has concentrated on the east shore of the inlet (where she went missing) - but a Drift study conducted by the Rescue Coordination centre has shown that if she had entered the water, she would have been taken by the Current to the West shore. Sechelt Inlet is only About a mile and a half wide at its widest point - so that could have been in under an hour.

I have mixed feelings as we prep for what will probably a long day in fairly cold conditions. We are constantly being asked by many members in the community if we know anything About the search because they know we are involved with the CCGA - but until now we really haven´t done much but relay radio coms. In an odd twist of fate - one of the family friends that is a major player in the search we first met when our second house burned down he was helping a friend out there as well (the one who had everything stored in the garage. They were going door-to-door last week looking for Rhody - so I hope we can bring them some news - any news.

We are bundling up pretty good for this one. The transit time to the inlet is About an hour from our base and we cruise at 35 knots. At a temperature of 4C that´s going to feel like -25C for the first hour of our trip (and again on the last hour) We wear Whites polar diving fleece and a SAR-dry-suite overtop so it´s not all that bad - but keeping warm is critical for what will probably be at least a five hour day on the water.

Apart from this - things remain much the same - we went to a Christmas part last night for the Sunshine Coast Bed and Breakfast and Cottage Owners Association (I do their web site) which was a hoot and we are Starting to decorate the house - albeit slowly.

That´s About it for now - I better get all my loose ends tied up so I´m ready to get suited at 0600h

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