Skipper tells of medivac from Jersey Clipper

by Fast Track on 10 May 2006 Overnight Jersey Clipper continued her lonesome journey to Victoria, Canada to complete the fleet in the picturesque Canadian city. With 261 miles left to go at 04.00 GMT this morning, the anticipated time of arrival is some this evening local time.

Meanwhile, Jersey Skipper Simon Rowell gave the race team a thorough account of the medical evacuation of Hugh Gregory to the USCG Icebreaker Healy on Friday 5th May.

'Once we had decided that we should get him to proper medical treatment as soon as possible the emergency services swung into action very quickly. I had been speaking to the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) at Falmouth already, as they have a 24 hour medical helpline that patches you through to a doctor at Portsmouth Naval Hospital. I had been talking to them since we had discovered that Hugh's injuries were more than just bumps and bruises. MRCC Falmouth contacted the Royal Navy, the US Navy, the Canadian Navy and the US Coastguard, and determined that the US Coastguard was best placed to help. Control of the operation now moved to RCC Juneau in Alaska, who emailed us with contact details. I called them up, and after they worked out where we were in relation to their assets, determined that USCG Cutter Healy was the closest vessel, about 400 miles to the north of us. She turned south, we turned as northwards as we could given the weather, and we met about 16 hours later.

'On board Jersey, Hugh's condition was getting more painful, and Peter Le Coyte was turned into the boat's surgeon general, with Kate, Rick and me as his nursing staff (no comments about uniforms, please). After a couple of last minute calls to the shore-side doctor, the necessary procedure was performed, and though not entirely successful did relieve the majority of poor Hugh's pain until he could be evacuated.

Jersey Clipper and USCG Cutter Healy swapped position information via email and from the plots it could be seen were on a direct interception course. As she got closer we made contact via first medium and then short range radio, and the Operations Officer on board talked us through how they were planning on doing the transfer. I also spoke to their Medical Officer to brief him on Hugh's injury and the treatment we had given him s far. She loomed out of the fog when about 3 miles away - all 128m of her! What we didn't realise is that rather than being one of the usual coastal patrol vessels, she's actually an icebreaker/research ship. At this point I had to forcibly restrain some of the crew who were looking to quickly inflict any minor injury that would get them off too!

'Once we were within a mile or so, the Healy instructed us to turn so that we were effectively hove to, moving along at about 2 knots with our bows pointing at about 60 degrees from the wind. This makes us the most stable we can be. The Healy came as close as was safe, and lowered her 6.4 m rigid inflatable boat (RIB) Healy 1 down to the water. This was about a 15m drop. The 4 man crew of Healy 1 took a few minutes to get used to the sea state (it was, of course, blowing a nice steady force 7, gusting regularly up to gale force 8) and then made their approach. As we had discussed over the radio previously, they came on to our starboard (downwind) side, which was significantly lower than the upwind side of the yacht due to the wind pressure on the sail.

'It may seem strange not to drop all sail for something like this, but actually having a very small amount of sail up means that the yacht is held leaning in one direction by the wind and is more stable, rather than flopping from side to side. We had a mooring line ready for them, which they quickly lashed to the bow of Healy 1 (great throw by Mark from Jersey, the line hit them in the right place at the right time), the teabags were thrown on board by the Healy 1 bowman (more on that later) Hugh was thrown on board Healy 1 by Kate and Bernie (not literally, but it wasn't delicate) where he was caught by 2 crewmen, the mooring line was cut (quickest way) and the Healy 1 coxswain powered her away from us and into open water. It was all very quick and very professional, with both crews working really well together.

'Healy 1 then made her way back towards the Healy, getting completely airborne over one particularly sharp wave, and we turned around to take station just aft and downwind of the Healy in case anyone fell in during the recovery of Healy 1 on to the Healy. This operation was very good to watch - the crew of the Healy has obviously done this before. Healy 1 came alongside the Healy (which was making an excellent shelter from the wind and some of the waves), and she was scooped out of the water with all the crew and Hugh still in, lifted up 15m to the main deck and then secured. At this point the operation was complete, and the Healy disappeared off into the fog with much waving, and we set about making our way to Victoria.

'There was much superb work done here. The USCG Healy cannot be thanked enough, and Captain Dan Oliver and his crew are a very professional, competent and generous group of people. The four man RIB crew were all superb, and could not have managed the transfer or the conditions any better. The crew of Jersey Clipper worked just as professionally, and with any transfer at sea in rough weather the crew work on both vessels has to be spot on. Everyone had an individual role to play - mooring line, winch, mainsheet, preventer, crew transfer, baggage transfer, and communications - and it all went as planned due to a mixture of intelligence, courage and plain hard work. Well done to all.

'For Hugh, the journey was just beginning. The Healy's Medical Officer decided to try and evacuate him the following morning by helicopter (probably due to the fact he hadn't had a shower for 3 weeks), and so the next morning an HH-65 chopper came out from Dutch Harbour in the Aleutian Islands (the nearest point of inhabited land and the Healy's initial destination) to pick Hugh up. It was too rough to land, so he was winched off and flown (squall-dodging all the way at about 500 feet, according to Hugh) to Dutch Harbour, where the clinic there decided that even though he was clean, his clothes weren't so they needed to transfer him to Anchorage.

'This required another helicopter trip to a nearby Air Force Base, where a Lear Jet had been mobilised to take Hugh on to hospital (and an industrial laundry) in Anchorage, Alaska. Here he has been well looked after and diagnosed, and is hopefully going to be back in the UK on Sunday or Monday. All these arrangements were overseen by the RCC Juneau - thanks very much to the US Coast Guard, a fantastic performance all round.

'Now, on to the tea. Quite embarrassingly for a Jersey flagged and registered vessel we had run out of teabags (we had some flowery stuff left, but that doesn't count) and sugar. I asked the Healy if we could swap real coffee for tea, and Bosun's Mate Ed Traver, who is apparently the only tea drinker on board the Healy, managed to get us a box of RNLI Lifeboatmen's Teabags, a packet of Hobnobs, a packet of Ginger Nuts and loads of sugar - how's that for putting the icing on the cake of a proper rescue operation!'

Jersey Clipper will be hoping for a slightly less eventful final 261 miles in to Victoria.