All I want for Christmas is an EPIRB…
December 14th, 2009 | Coast Guard | Posted by Susan Schept
Members of the Kodiak Officer's Spouses Association help bring gifts to the remote Kodiak Island villages. // PA1 Sara Francis / Coast Guard
If you haven’t already penned your must-haves for your Christmas list, the Coast Guard has done it for you with the release of its ideas for “12 nautical days of Christmas.”
Topping this list, of course, is a marine GPS navigation system. That’s right. Come Jan. 4, the Coast Guard is pulling the plug on LORAN-C.
As the Coast Guard’s chief of media relations — Lt. Cmdr. Chris O’Neil — put it:
“Nothing says ‘I love you’ to a mariner like the gift of a marine GPS navigation system, a Coast Guard approved life jacket, boating safety course or 406 MHz electronic position indicating radio beacon.”
Here is the rest of the gift list for those who want to cut and paste:
- A 406 MHz EPIRB (make sure you register it after purchase, or rescuers may be delayed in reaching you!)
- A Coast Guard-approved life jacket
- A handheld VHF-FM radio
- A Boating Safety Course
- Vessel Safety Check from the Coast Guard Auxiliary (it’s free!)
- A Coast Guard approved fire extinguisher
- A first aid kit in a watertight container
- A seamanship book
- Nautical charts for the areas your favorite mariner frequents
- A signaling kit
- A life raft with a survival kit