The effect of Helicopter downdraft..

So it was saturday, I'm home alone, bored, have failed in my appeal for a
three day free trial on either Russian or Estonian Brides.com so f**k it I'll
go for a sail thought I.

The local mackerel fishing fleet (lasers)were out in the benign conditions
as an onshore force two struggled to be three but failed and a deeply
troubled woman further down the coast wrestled with the thought of
public suicide by sea immersion in front of a crowded beach..

We'd played cat and mouse along the coast some three to four miles when
Steve said he'd arranged to meet his breadknife at three (it was four) and
set off back with Tony keeping him company. I thought I'd continue to
the Mermaid, a recently constructed inlet and harbour adjacent to the
Mermaid Cafe.

In the meanwhile someone had thoughtfully alerted just about every
emergency service short of the RSPCA to the plight of psycho-cry-for-
help-woman. Seriously love if you want to top yourself.. Dover Harbour
..late at night ...end of pier... jump off..

But the Grockles who by now were presumably enjoying the spectacle of
PCFH woman thrashing about and craning their collective necks whilst
steadfastly refusing to move to allow the Rescue chopper to land.

Enter me and Frank..

Its bad enough off here at the best of times, the mole rocks throw up a
cross chop as the water rebounds off the sea wall, compound that with
too little wind, a dead run, fannying about trying to run by the lee (I'll get
it right one day) then chuck in another chopper, this time the air
ambulance and who do they decide to circle round?

Moi..

Shift - Sheer, duck, dive, dodge feck me it was like dodgeball, the rig
swinging one way then the other as the twin copters circled whilst the
boys in blue tried in vain to move the rubbernecks so they could land..

How I got ashore without swimming I dont know, talk about a balancing
act.. Testament to the stability of Frank I guess but eventually I made it
into the harbour bruised by repeated boom bashing as I missed the
duck..

The moral of the tail.

Dont use kicker in the event of suicide attempts...


Edit..
News Article
No mention I note of gallant Blaze sailor battling against the odds..

Edited by G.R.F.

I have changed my mind

Grumpf was a read to avoid - sorry one too many rants and personal attacks (not on me it has to be said)

That was pure genius - A round of applause to you sir.  Now I have to explain my work time surfing to the boss after my out loud chuckling

 

Edited by Contender 541

Yah but the idiots on the beach didn`t get it did they " sherlock" !.

Mind you a rotor blade in the forehead will slow you up a bit & you won`t need reminding again about the dangers of rotors afterwards. Also the gene pool will have improved.

Could be a win win position

Hope injured party survives i wish her well.

And thats why our helicopters are better.   Firstly you'd have never stayed upright in a Sea King downdraft, less ducking more sitting on the side waiting for it all to end!

Secondly we have winches, no clear landing spot....no problem!

Shame their old and the government have some crazy plan.....PFi....do me a favour!

 

On the other hand..

I was out training in Weymouth Bay one day last year. There wasn't much wind and I had just decided to head in when the local rescue services consisting of a helicopter and RIB started doing a series of training runs. The RIB would head off at full speed and the chopper would follow his route and practise picking up someone from the RIB. Then they'd return to their starting point and do it again (and again).

It was relatively easy therefore to position the boat about 50 yards behind the RIB and get the full force of the helicopter downdraft. The result - a force 5 reach lasting about 20 seconds. Brilliant, and surreal.