Instead of going to my SAR team’s bi-annual high angle refresher in the south this week, I’ll be up North with the rest of my company’s management team at a very interesting-looking seminar.  The first day is outdoor “group” activities, though I don’t think they’ll come within the realm of anything requiring real exertion.  After that, we’ve got 2 days of seminars from some leading business professors at a nice place up near Kyriat Shmona.

Of course, I’d rather be on a rope, but for reasons that I am still not ready to make public, I’ve elected to take a bit of a hiatus from the activities of my SAR team until a certain situation gets resolved properly.

Denis Fontaine and Richard Juryn, two Canadian adventure racers from Vancouver tragically died while training out on the water when their kayak capsized.  My sincere condolences to their friends and family.

Friends and family are remembering Denis Fontaine as a man with a true passion for life who wasn’t inclined to play it safe.

The 40-year-old North Vancouver resident was one of two men who died Sunday in a kayaking accident near Porteau Cove, about 40 kilometres north of Vancouver. Richard Juryn of North Vancouver, 50, also died in the incident.

Dead kayaker was a dedicated adventurer, friend recalls

Every so often there’s an article about a great save.  While tragic, to find a 3-yr old survivor of a plane crash is simply amazing.

I can only imagine how good it felt for the SAR Tech to drop into this scene and to discover the child alive in the wreckage.

The lone survivor of a plane crash near Golden, B.C., was a little girl who endured five hours in the wreckage, suspended upside-down in a car seat.

“When you think of what that poor little girl went through, watching the plane tumble through the woods and hanging upside down,” said rescue helicopter pilot Don McTighe, 51, Monday. “What an incredible, horrible scene.”

Girl, 3, sole survivor of B.C. plane crash

Also covered here and here.

What a crazy month!  I have never felt so simultaneously dragged in very possible direction.  After returning from London for 30 hours, I was on a plane headed to New York.  Arriving Sunday morning, I had one prep day and two days of meetings.  Then off to Ottawa for the final days of Sukkot with the Chabad center there and old friends.  Of course, the pressure wasn’t off since every free minute not spent in the synagogue was spent trying to run around like an idiot to see friends. 

The weekend provided a bit of freedom to really see people and the city.  For example, Saturday night I was trying to get a hold of a friend who was supposed to meet up for drinks.  Due to phone problems, he wasn’t reachable.  I was around Bayshore in the West End when I heard mention on the radio of an Ottawa Senators home game starting in 45 minutes.  Hmm….why not?  Drove over, bought a ticket from a scalper out front ($110 ticket for $60) and got to see a great game against (ironically) New York.  The only downside is that both goals of the game were scored just as I was walking into the building, so I never got to see them.

Monday morning I was off to New York for more meetings, then back on a plane late Tuesday to Israel.  I landed late Wednesday and went to the office Thursday for the first time since Sept 18.  One day at the office.  Yup…that’s it.  On the next Sunday I was to spend the next two weeks attending a Search & Rescue team training course for handling Missing Person incidents. 

The course was intensive, involving nearly 13 hours/day of classroom time and not leaving me much time for work.  It was a superb course, covering interview techniques, map & terrain analysis and behavioral patterns. 

Wishing that it were as simple as that, I had to pop off to Geneva for meetings at the end of the first week.  I missed one day of the course, which was not such a big problem, but it was more the return to the feeling of non-stop travel.

Heck…last night was I think the 6th night in October I’ve slept at home!

So, I’m glad to be back to “normal”. 

It’s not that I’ve been neglecting posting lately, but I’ve just been on the move so much that I haven’t had a free moment to breathe.  Here’s what happened…mid-week in London I found out that some meetings I was hoping to schedule in New York for late October couldn’t happen then.  The only window was…some the following week (ie: Oct 1) and the remainder on Oct 7. 

So, I landed in Israel from London on Friday afternoon just before the Sabbath, and took off 30 hours later for New York.  There was just enough time to do my laundry!  After the meetings in New York, I had to figure out what to do for the last days of Sukkot which are a holiday.  I could have stayed in NYC, but this is rather pricey.  It was cheaper to fly up to Ottawa and to visit friends than to stay in NYC.  While I don’t mind NYC, I have no problem leaving either.  Plus, spending Sunday out by the Governor General’s residence in a park amid the beautiful fall colors was better than any day in the concrete jungle.

So, lots of flying, little rest, and I really am ready to collapse.  Back to the office today for one day.

It doesn’t end of course, because starting Sunday I’m on 2 weeks of reserve duty to take a course for my SAR team.  I really need to find out what the equivalent standard English term is within the SAR community, but the course is to learn skills for analysis of searches.  This ranges from techniques to question people involved in the case, such as family and friends, as well as behavioral analysis to know where to look for them. 

Rush, rush, rush.

I really don’t know why people think that going to conferences is fun!  I’ve been on the move since I arrived late Sunday.  So much for birthdays.  At least it’s well-organized and very interesting.

Here until Friday morning, then home for the weekend and off to New York Sunday.

I’m going to collapse when this is all over.  Next time in London I really need to stay a bit to see a show or something.

Sounds like a fun day!  Definitely envy the Canadian Forces SAR teams.  They’ve had some interesting rescues over the past year or two.

The two groups were working off of HMCS Quadra all afternoon on search and rescue drills which included jumping from American HH 60C Pave Hawk helicopters, being hoisted back into the aircraft and later, rescuing mock victims from an overturned boat.

BCNG Portals Page (R)

I’m about to shut off the computer for the holiday, but I’m seeing reports that a small tsunami hit and the warning has now been lifted with minimal damage reports.

It’s good news going into the holiday.

Shana Tova, and I wish everyone a very happy and prosperous new year.

Report just came in - a magnitude 7.9 quake hit about 100km off the coast of Indonesia at a depth of only 15km.  I haven’t seen it hit the newswires yet, and there is still no conclusive information on whether or not a tsunami warning will be issued.

I guess my phone is going to remain on this holiday in case a situation develops.

[Update 12:05 UTC] Tsunami watch is in effect:

TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 001
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 1124Z 12 SEP 2007

THIS BULLETIN IS FOR ALL AREAS OF THE INDIAN OCEAN.

... AN INDIAN-OCEAN-WIDE TSUNAMI WATCH IS IN EFFECT ...

A TSUNAMI WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR

 INDONESIA / AUSTRALIA / INDIA / SRI LANKA / THAILAND /
 UNITED KINGDOM / MALDIVES / MYANMAR / MALAYSIA / BANGLADESH /
 MAURITIUS / REUNION / SEYCHELLES / MADAGASCAR / SOMALIA / OMAN /
 PAKISTAN / IRAN / YEMEN / COMORES / CROZET ISLANDS /
 MOZAMBIQUE / KENYA / TANZANIA / KERGUELEN ISLANDS /
 SOUTH AFRICA / SINGAPORE

[...]

EVALUATION

 EARTHQUAKES OF THIS SIZE HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO GENERATE A
 WIDESPREAD DESTRUCTIVE TSUNAMI THAT CAN AFFECT COASTLINES ACROSS
 THE ENTIRE INDIAN OCEAN BASIN.                                      

 HOWEVER - IT IS NOT KNOWN THAT A TSUNAMI WAS GENERATED.  THIS
 WATCH IS BASED ONLY ON THE EARTHQUAKE EVALUATION. AUTHORITIES IN
 THE REGION SHOULD TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION IN RESPONSE TO THE
 POSSIBILITY OF A WIDESPREAD DESTRUCTIVE TSUNAMI.     

Ok, so it took me a bit longer than a day to get to posting.

Saturday started with our monthly high angle training exercise. I had to get up at 5:40 to make the 6:00 meeting time. We hit the road rather quickly and were on-site in Nahal Halamish by around 7:00. It’s a nice place for training, as it’s a 30-40m waterfall/cliff only 20 minutes out of Arad on the road to the Dead Sea.

The training was well-organized, and concentrated on knot-passing and other sudden problems that can come up. The thing is, outside of training and refresher courses from the army’s high angle school, we don’t often practice this. I was quite happy to see it, and I think we should actually do it more.

We finished around noon, and by the time we packed up the gear and drove back to Arad it was 1pm. I got home a few minutes later.

Often I’m too tired to hit the shower right away, but this time hunger got the better of me so I quickly showered and got lunch on the stove. I had JUST finished making lunch when my phone beeped. No way…can’t be a rescue. I was sure it was Ana saying ‘hi’. Nope. It’s a rescue. I left my lunch untouched on the table and ran out.

The rescue was a simple “go fetch” with a twist. A “go fetch” rescue is a basic rescue where we know exactly where someone is, they’re not really injured other than perhaps a bit dehydrated but cannot continue or are lost for whatever reason. What made this “go fetch” rescue unique was that the victim was…well…a dog. A girl had called in and said she was dehydrated as well as her dog, but reading between the lines she seemed fine. I can understand her wanting to say it that way, but in the end even if she were open with us we’d have gone out. After all, nobody is going to abandon their dog to die in the desert. If she stayed with her dog, we’d just be rescuing her at night.

On the way out I called Ana’s mother’s boyfriend who is very knowledgeable about dogs to find out what to do with a dehydrated dog. We got there, helped out the 4-legged victim and get everyone back into the jeeps for the ride out.

I got home at 4pm…exhausted.

Fun weekend!