[Flukemeister1]

Unless you are on fire or ready to sink it is faster/better to call to the local Coast Guard station rather than call Mayday. When you just call out Mayday it can take time to sort out which is the covering Coast Guard station and since there are often times overlapping areas of radio coverage you can have several responses to your Mayday and this can slow down the response time. When you call in an emergency the most important thing to get off first is the location of your boat. When you make the call repeat the Coast Guard's station's name three times, Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook, CG Station Sandy Hook, CG Station Sandy Hook and the vessels name three times, this gives them a chance to dial in the radio direction finder on your location. If your radio quits at this point they at least have a radio reference by which to start their search. Once you have given them the location of the boat then give them the number of people on board and then the nature of your problem. If you are running a private boat with guests it is always a great idea at the begining of the voyage to explain how to read the GPS and call for help if you are incompacitated.