Col. regs. Rule 33

Yesterday evening we went for a walk along the inner marina wall to get over the day and I noticed a masthead light flashing across on the other side of the marina. A jerk of recognition – something I’ve never seen for real, only in practice but a genuine SOS. We were standing next to the coastguard complex and Megan phoned the duty number, to be told that they did not have the resources to check and would we? They did give us their Seattle HQ number. Yay! We hurried round the 10 minute walk, working out what to do if…someone injured? Hostage situation? Boat on fire? Stupid joke? Silly mistake? We checked in with a man in another boat on the jetty as we approached and he said he’d seen the crew leaving 2 hours earlier. We discovered that it was another R2ak boat which we both knew about but we approached with some caution to find the boat open, lights on below and apparently nobody aboard. We left them a note and our phone number and Megan got a thank you text this morning. All’s well etc. but could have been a bit tricky. We weren’t a ship at sea but reg. 33 is a basic rule for us all.