The Emergency We Weren’t Ready For

Between the two of us, we’ve been sailing for a long time. We know the theory. We know what a MAYDAY call sounds like. We know where every piece of distress equipment on this boat lives. But when an emergency actually happened, none of that seemed to matter.

What we had was a pounding heart, a serious injury, and one very simple question: What do we do first? So we built something for that moment. It’s called Overboard, it’s free, and it’s available for anyone who wants it.

There are three buttons: red, amber, and green. Each one takes you through a short list of what to do next, in the right order and in plain language.

There’s a MAYDAY script you can read out loud, with your vessel name, call sign, and MMSI already filled in. There’s a PAN-PAN version, your position in the formats you’re likely to be asked for, a casualty log, and contact information for CIRM Rome, who provide free medical advice to vessels anywhere in the world.

And it works with no signal at all. There’s no login, no account, no signup, and nothing leaves your phone because there’s no server. Add it to your home screen on all of your devices so it’s actually there when you need it. If you’re on an iPhone, you’ll need to add it using Safari rather than Chrome. Then put your phone in airplane mode and open it once to make sure everything works offline.

You can find all of the details here: https://svsabado.com/free-offline-emergency-app-for-cruisers-built-after-our-own-medical-emergency-in-fiji/

We built this because we learned the hard way that knowing what to do in theory is very different from knowing what to do when someone is hurt. And if it helps even one boater in that moment, it will have been worth building.

Also in this episode: we’re back in Fiji, together, and finally get around to installing the bigger bilge pumps that have been on the list for a while. :)
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