The Spirit of Tortola II — a 28-foot rescue boat — skipped across the calm water between Guana and Great Camanoe islands off the northeast tip of Tortola on a recent Saturday morning. A rooster-tail shot up from between the boat’s 225-horsepower engines as eight Virgin Islands Search and Rescue volunteers, wearing dark blue VISAR suits and white helmets, stood by aboard the vessel.
Less than 30 feet above, a United States Coast Guard helicopter angled its blades toward Great Camanoe, keeping pace with boat, and began to lower a rescue basket that stretched down from the right side of the aircraft.
“Not a bad view from up there,” USCG winch operator Zachary Bowers later said.
Another VISAR boat — Gorda Peak, based on Virgin Gorda — trailed behind, as the basket reached two volunteers on the bow of Spirit.
It was only a simulation, but the fast-paced exercise brought smiles to the faces of crewmembers, who slapped five after the basket was successfully lowered on to the boat, held for a short time, and raised back to the helicopter, carrying an imaginary victim out of harm’s way.
Last week, VISAR completed another training exercise, this time with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Wave Knight, which is currently on a six-month deployment in the Caribbean to conduct anti-narcotic operations and provide humanitarian aid.
The March 6 training with VISAR simulated a rescue from a “very high-sided vessel,” said VISAR President Phil Aspinall.
“It was just a scenario to get us thinking outside of the box,” he said. The training exercise involved lowering a mock victim down the side of the RFA ship to a VISAR boat.
See the March 14, 2013 edition for full coverage.
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