The other Saturday, K and I decided to make the most of the warm weather in Ireland, and sailed to Killiney Bay, dropped the hook, and had lunch. As the tide turned, the movement became a bit uncomfortable, so engine on, anchor up, sails up, and we started heading back. Glorious wind and boat speed all the way up to the south/east end of the Dalkey Sound, but the wind there can be rather odd, and it became rather odd – swinging 30 – 60 degrees in a few seconds.
We opted to motor through the sound, and once through, sailed for the ship anchorage with the plan of making a single tack once we were high enough to make the entrance for Dun Laoghaire. We were going nicely, when out of the radio came “Mayday Relay, Mayday Relay. All stations, all stations. Report of someone in the water between Dalkey Island and Dillon’s Park.”
I knew that one of the tourist boats was in the area at the time, and waited for a little bit (and discussed with K) to see if anyone closer would respond; we were about 1 nautical mile away, so a good 10 minutes just to get to the start of the channel between the island and the mainland. With no response from anyone else, I raised the MRCC on 16, indicated I was a 10 metre sailing vessel, and where I was in relation to the potential casualty. MRCC confirmed they’d like me to respond as they were still raising the RNLI and the shore-based Coast Guard.
We swung Blue Opal around, started the steel donkey, and opened the throttle to full. Between the engine, the sails, and the ebb tide, we clocked 8 knots on the reach back to the start of the Sound. Part way there, we heard one of the Dun Laoghaire Safety boats (they escort the cruise ship tenders in and out of Dun Laoghaire) indicate they could respond, and shortly thereafter saw a large RIB heading for Dalkey Sound.
We actually beat the RNLI’s Inshore boat to the entrance of the area, but were stood down by the MRCC, as two RIBs had a better chance of doing the search than a 10 metre yacht – we certainly could have thrown a life saving device at a casualty, but there’s a lot of rocks off of Dillon’s Park that would put a good hole in Blue Opal if we got too close.
Casualty made it to shore, and last we heard on the radio was a negative response to whether medical assistance was required. We turned around, and sailed home. It’s probably on record somewhere now that Blue Opal responded to a Mayday call.