In the video, Destin from Smarter Every Day explores the operations of the US Coast Guard, focusing on their mission to ensure safety on one of the busiest boating days at Crab Island, Destin, Florida. The narrative includes a tour of the Coast Guard station, insights into the team's daily routine, and their collaborative risk assessment process essential for handling maritime safety challenges. The video also includes a firsthand look at how the Coast Guard operates during Memorial Day weekend with a highlight on their efforts to patrol and manage safety in crowded waters.

The video depicts an informative and eye-opening scenario about the Coast Guard's critical roles, including surprising aspects such as their authority to board vessels without permission to ensure compliance with safety laws. It also illustrates the teamwork involved in responding to emergencies, such as a situation on Crab Island where a boater had no pulse and another involving a capsized vessel with multiple people in the water.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. intracoastal [ˌɪntrəˈkəʊstəl] - (adjective) - Relating to or existing between two coasts or shorelines. - Synonyms: (shoreline, coastal, littoral)

It's a barely submerged intracoastal island where the masses love to come and hang out together.

2. maneuverability [məˌnuː.vər.əˈbɪl·ə.ti] - (noun) - The ability to move easily and quickly. - Synonyms: (agility, flexibility, adaptability)

...the response boat medium, with its fascinating control system and remarkable maneuverability.

3. peril [ˈper.əl] - (noun) - Serious and immediate danger. - Synonyms: (danger, risk, hazard)

...how they accomplish their mission of saving people in peril and protecting the nation from maritime threats.

4. bolted [boʊltɪd] - (verb) - To move or run away suddenly. - Synonyms: (dash, run, flee)

We took off out to sea, and I quickly began to appreciate why they usually use the larger response boat...

5. patrols [pəˈtroʊlz] - (noun) - The activity of regularly checking a particular area for security purposes. - Synonyms: (patrol duty, monitoring, guard)

...or is it more like a police station where they're like, going on patrols?

6. reassurance [ˌriːəˈʃʊərəns] - (noun) - The action of removing someone's doubts or fears. - Synonyms: (comfort, solace, certainty)

They kind of get that false sense of reassurance, like, hey, we're just going to be in three feet of water.

7. exaggerating [ɪɡˈzædʒəreɪtɪŋ] - (verb) - To make something seem greater or more important than it really is. - Synonyms: (overstate, embellish, amplify)

So senior chief wasn't exaggerating. As you can see in this time lapse...

8. vigilance [ˈvɪdʒɪləns] - (noun) - The action or state of keeping careful watch for possible danger or difficulties. - Synonyms: (watchfulness, attentiveness, alertness)

Hence, preparedness and vigilance are critical.

9. apparent [əˈpær.ənt] - (adjective) - Clearly visible or understood; obvious. - Synonyms: (evident, obvious, clear)

It became very apparent that there were a lot of inexperienced people operating boats in close quarters.

10. sober [ˈsoʊbər] - (adjective) - Not affected by alcohol; not drunk. - Synonyms: (abstinent, clear-headed, straight)

The captain is sober the whole time, and they just do their thing.

Responding to a Capsized Boat with the U.S. Coast Guard - Smarter Every Day 277

This is out of line. I've got a cat sized vessel with eight people in the water. I'm fixing to pick them up. Hey, it's me, Destin. Welcome back to Smarter Every Day. Today on Smarter Every Day, we're going to continue our deep dive with the US Coast Guard and we're going to see how they accomplish their mission of saving people in peril and protecting the nation from maritime threats. In previous videos, we've learned about command centers and the command structures and we've learned about search patterns in the rbm, the response boat medium, with its fascinating control system and remarkable maneuverability.

There's still a ton to cover with this series of videos. And today we're going to spend a Memorial Day weekend with a Coast Guard station in Destin, Florida and see how the coasties go about keeping the boating public safe on one of the busiest boating days of the year, particularly at a place called Crab Island. If you've ever been to Destin, Florida, you have heard about Crab Island. It's a barely submerged intracoastal island where the masses love to come and hang out together. So today, let's go visit the Coast Guard station in Destin, Florida and get smarter every day.

So how do Coast Guard stations actually work? We know the boats are there and that's the part that does the people saving. So are they more like a fire station where they're waiting on things to happen, or is it more like a police station where they're like, going on patrols? If you've ever been to Destin, Florida, you've heard about Crab island again. It's known as the local party spot. But what I didn't know is right beside Crab island is Coast Guard Station Destin. I pulled up to the station and met BM1, Seth Pritt, who introduced me to the man in charge, Senior Chief Corey Palmer.

I'm Destin Senior Chief Corey Palmer. Good to meet you. Yeah, pleasure. It was pretty early in the morning, so we just had a few moments to show me around the station before the team on duty was gathering for the risk assessment meeting for the day. So this first building kind of walked into, this is our administration building. And then over here we have our communications room. Hey, I'm Destin. So we have a computer program that picks up. We're working with four different towers here, Channel 16, international hailing and distress. And then this is, these two are Coast Guard channels. So this is how we talk to our boats while they're underway.

So this is the international hailing in distress. Yeah, these are. These are Coast Guard. Yeah, these two are Coast Guard. And then this is for more detailed marine information. Oh, really? So you can like switch to 2, 2 alpha. That's a coast Guard working frequency. We got some flippers here. That's awesome. They're the real deal. Yeah, they tend to break less often. And this is the. I learned not to call this a map. This is the chart, right? Yep, that's correct. It's our chart. There's or one of the charts we use. Okay. So this here was just kind of our general. You call it like a bullpen or something, but just general office space for the folks that come in need to get on a computer, they can hop in here. Back there, that's our operations. Petty Officer BM1 Seth Pritt here. That's right. You get it done, right? Yes, that's right. He's probably the busiest guy. Busiest guy at the station, I'd say. Awesome. And then back behind you, we got our armory. And just. This is the Army. Oh, this is the armory. Yep. Okay.

So after this, the Senior Chief showed me the mess hall and the crew quarters, the downstairs garage, which serves as the headquarters for all the maintenance they do on their boats. He also walked me out to the boathouse where they pull the boats in and work on them. And at that time, it was being used as a temporary gym while they remodeled the permanent one. So we have four Coast Guard boats that are here. The rest of these boats are our partners in the area that we all kind of work together to get the job done. Senior Chief Palmer then showed me the three boats they used. The big one being the 45 foot response boat medium, and the other two boats are the 29 foot response boat small, and the 24 foot boat special purpose craft, shallow water, which we'll be out on later.

We headed back to the station for a gar, or general assessment of risk, where the team meets and goes through the various risk factors they're facing for their mission today. It's a really interesting collaborative effort to establish what they should be looking out for in terms of risk. After this, Senior Chief filled me in a little bit more on this whole Crab island phenomena. All right, Senior Chief, I have set up a. A camera here, and Crab island is starting to bake off. How does it. How does it go down? Like they're. They're standing up out there, right? Yeah. So most of that people are standing there pretty shallow. They can just kind of stand next to their boat, hang out, enjoy themselves. But as kind of the day progresses.

So many boats will be on there that you're not able to get to that. You'll be right on the edge where the deep spot is. And that that's where the current will be kind of pushing through there as the tide changes. And it can be pushing as much as 3 or 4 knots. What's the most common injury out there? It's hard to say. There's really a wide range of stuff that can happen, but some of the more severe ones are drowning. It happens here? Yeah. Yeah. You think it'll happen today? I hope not. I really hope not. But that's terrifying. Where some people come to visit, they're not necessarily a swimmer. They don't know how to swim. They kind of get that false sense of reassurance, like, hey, we're just going to be in three feet of water. You can just be standing the whole time. As the day goes on, they work their way closer to that deeper that drop off the edge of the sandbar and the current gets them. And then they start quickly start drifting away, and that's when they get in trouble. Oh, man, that's awful.

So senior chief wasn't exaggerating. As you can see in this time lapse, over the course of the day, Crab island kind of builds up and gets crazier and crazier. A little later in the day, we loaded up in the 24 foot special purpose craft and headed out on patrol. All right, so what are we about to do? Pretty much we're doing recreational boating, safety patrol. So we're going out looking for anyone that is doing anything that is not safe, looking for buis, anything that may be not legal. We are making sure everyone is safe. We are going to check safety gear, make sure everyone is good to drive their boats. Today, if I don't have a mustache, can I still hang out with you guys or what? Well, I don't have one. I noticed the guy that doesn't have the mustache is the one that has to drive. So you guys just sit around and look cool on the deck. He barely has one. I barely have one. I count it. It's better than I can grow.

It's all a facade. You know, safety's the priority. Every time we get it away for any evolution, you know, if we see something that looks like that's not right, you know, we'll stop a boat, potentially run some field sobriety tests if it, you know, it comes down to that. So what on earth is that? Those are the tiki boats. They're just Floating pallets out of 60 hors horsepower engine on the back. They just scoot around. You can book them out. So I think it's byob and you got a captain that drives you around all day. The captain is sober the whole time, and they just do their thing. Yep. That is bizarre. It's really. It's really smart, huh? That's great.

Very quickly as we got out to Crab island, it became very apparent that there were a lot of inexperienced people operating boats in close quarters, which wasn't necessarily the safest thing. Within a few minutes, we had helped somebody whose rented jet ski wasn't working or they didn't know how to operate it. I saw the anchor line in one boat get caught around the anchor of a big yacht. Despite the mustaches for the two guys on the front of the boat. This is not the TV show Cops, so I want to make a couple of points. I recorded things from that patrol boat that I don't want to put on the Internet. And it's because people were out there enjoying time with their families in different states of mental awareness because of choices they had made. It's not a great look for a lot of people, and I want to respect people's privacy, so I'm not going to put that out there. But I will tell you this. I learned things I didn't know. For example, I didn't know the Coast Guard can just board your vessel and they can inspect everything you have on board to make sure you have the proper safety equipment, the stuff required by law, like fire extinguishers, flotation devices. I had no idea that they can board whether you want them to or not.

One thing I just want to make abundantly clear. If you're going to be in control of a vessel on the water, it's in everybody's best interest, especially yours. Just don't consume alcohol. Just don't do it. A little later on, we were doing a boarding out on the outer edges of Crab island. And then things got serious. There was a report that a woman out in Crab island didn't have a pulse. Come over here. 10:18 on the east side of Crab Island. There's a subject on a boat up in the middle of Crab island that apparently doesn't have a pulse and is not breathing. Hey, drop it. Drop it. Drop it. See ya. Back at the station, the paramedics were called. Some of the local law enforcement officers had jet skis and they could get out into the center of Crab Island. And when they got to her, suddenly she had Revived on her own, and she had refused medical attention. She's awake, she's conscious, she's talking, she's fine. So it was kind of an odd but a good outcome.

At the end of the day, some folks on a boat got our attention and pointed out another boat that was in distress. It ended up that some ladies had rented a pontoon boat and it had gotten pushed by the current against the bridge and they were pinned there. So we went over to help them get free and get them back underway. And afterwards, Machachi, who's a mechanic, made sure that there was no damage to their engine and that they could operate properly. Back at the station, my buddy George was filming in the comms room when an important call came in. Vessel handling, coaster station Destiny. Roger. What is your location? 30 degrees, 29, 25, 86 degrees, 311 3. Captain, this is Coastal Station Destin. Roger. Can you confirm you have all the personnel, all the walk over, cast off?

So as that was happening, we could hear the radio calls going back and forth and quickly got ready to head that way accounted for. All personnel, they're still in the water. You are working at this moment to get them on your vessel. 9252 miles south of the pass. You're gonna wanna hang on, Justin. Yes, sir. We took off out to sea, and I quickly began to appreciate why they usually use the larger response boat, medium when they head out of the harbor out into the ocean. It was a heck of a ride. And even with the built in shock absorption, man, it was. It was a lot. We heard over the radio that everyone was safely retrieved from the water by the captain of the Adeline. So I cannot imagine how stressful this ride would have been out to the sinking vessel knowing might have been in danger. It would have been a very different mood.

How far out are we going? Two more miles. Two more miles? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Holy crap. It was a very long two miles. And thankfully, when we got there, the captain of the Adeline was headed back in with all eight boaters on board. So this boat just flipped. I had sunglasses somewhere. This boat just capsized. Eight people were on it. Good Samaritan picked them up. And so what are you guys doing now? We're just picking up debris. We're gonna stay in the location for a little while just to make sure we don't hear anything. Maybe someone trapped in the hole or something. We can hear them or. But we're pretty sure we. We heard from the source that there were eight people in, eight people out. Everyone's accounted for. So we're just picking up debris at this point. Oh, some dude wants these shoes, man. Those are. Where's the other one? It's over there. Oh, yeah. How fun would it be to take a guy's shoes back just to bring it back, be like, hey, we got your shoes. Hey, you forgot. Thanks for paying your taxes. They were on your boat that you also forgot. How crazy would it be to get his other shoe? Man, that'd be crazy. It's right there. Shoe. Shoe number two. Oh, let's go. You got it. There's the other one right there, Justin.

All right, so a boat sank. They're trying to get the numbers off of it. There were eight souls aboard. They made it in. That's good. Nobody's hurt. Now they're thinking about the environmental issues, such as oil in the water, stuff like that. So right now they're trying to get the registration number off of the boat. A salvage company was contacted to come refloat the boat. And we made our way back to Station Destin and tied up. But the funny thing about getting the shoes and the hat is we actually got to give the captain those things back. And I'll show you that in just a minute.

A huge thank you to you for checking out the deep dive series here on Smarter Every Day with the Coast Guard. Got more videos coming. Please consider subscribing if you want to check that out. Also, a huge thank you to everybody that supports on Patreon. I have a surprise coming up soon for patrons, so if you want to check that out patreon.com smarter everyday that's it. I'm destin. I'm grateful for you. You're getting smarter every day. Have a good one.

Coast Guard, Maritime Safety, Patrol Operations, Education, Technology, Leadership, Smartereveryday