Browsing Archive: July, 2009

Some Photos from Orca Day at Thieves Bay, Pender Island...

Posted by Mike Aston on Sunday, July 19, 2009, In : news

Unit 20 was out and about at the Orca Day event at Thieves Bay yesterday...

Getting onboard from a beach extraction... demonstration.

Taking the lines...

Pender Post Article - July 2009 - CCGA Unit 20 - Boat Dedication: 11 July

Posted by Mike Aston on Friday, July 3, 2009,

Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary Unit 20

In the January article we announced that Unit 20 had purchased a new high-speed response vessel. As a reminder the vessel, as shown in the photograph, is a Titan 249 XL tee top and provides significantly more rescue capability with its higher speed and larger size. We have utilized the new vessel for a number of rescue missions and it performs very much as we had expected. The Unit is proud of its new vessel and we want to let everyone share in th...

Pender Post Article: June 2009

Posted by Mike Aston on Friday, July 3, 2009,

Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary Unit 20

In last month’s article I described a vessel that went aground on a submerged reef near Georgeson Island. We were tasked to this incident and stood by for the rising tide to lift the vessel free. Why, you might ask, didn’t we tow the vessel off the reef? There are several answers to this question primary among them is that the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) did not authorize us to do so. All of our taskings are coordinated through th...

Pender Post Article - May 2009

Posted by Mike Aston on Friday, July 3, 2009,

Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary Unit 20

What a grand day thought the skipper. The weather was so clear that looking to the north across the rippled seas of Georgia Straits he could see the saw-toothed outline of the mountains north of Vancouver glistening whitely against the azure sky. He and his two buddies had left the lower mainland early that morning in his 30 foot sail boat and had spent that sunny April day sailing around Mayne Island heaving-to only to pull up the crab traps that ...

CCGA-P Unit 20: April 2009 Pender Post Article

Posted by Mike Aston on Friday, July 3, 2009, In : Pender Post

Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary Unit 20

Last month we provided and overview of the statistics for 2008. There was however some data that was not included.

When reports are input into the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary Search and Rescue system we categorize the missions by type, required actions and by causes.

In 2008 38% of the type of missions were for vessels that had either grounded or gone adrift. Neither circumstance is a happy one for mariners ...