Jeff, How close could we have been to watch the action? I am sure there are perimeters that you must secure.
Well actually, you can get right up next to us. All we do is pick an area where we've got room to work. We've got underway (moving) and DIW (Dead In Water-not moving) hoists. For the underway hoists, the boat needs a trackline long enough to fascilitate the hoisting evolutions, which'll be less than a mile. For swimmer hoists, the boat isn't even involved, they just stand by and remain on scene incase 1) we eat it and go in the water, or 2) something goes wrong in the helo while the swimmer is in the water, and we have to bail, leaving him floating; the boat will pick him up.
You can get as close as you like so as to not interfere. I'd keep a good 75-100 yards, though I've seen boats alot closer. Just don't act all suspicious and motor at high speed towards the boat, or anything creepy like that. But heck, take pictures, wave, whatever. Something else you could do is if you see the boat out, just kinda meandering around, or sitting there, you can flag them down or hail them on your radio and ask them if they're doing "helo ops," and ask if you can watch. They may or may not tell you what they're doing, but if there's a helo in the area, they likely will be. Just kinda hang out in their vicinity-half mile or so.
Don't be afraid to hail them on the raido. Hail them on ch. 16, and they'll have you switch to ch. 21, 22, 81, or 82 for conversation depending on which freq's they work on. (Those four freqs are reserved CG working freqs.) If you can see the number on the boat, hail them by that, "Coast Guard 41327, Coast Guard 41327. This is Gigi's Party Barge (whatever your boat's name is, or describe yourself-"this is the 25 foot pleasure craft off your port stern") on channel 16. Over." Ask them if you're at a safe distance to watch helo ops. Tell them you've got a friend who's a flight mechanic in Port Angeles and that you want to watch. Don't chit chat on the radio as they'll probably cut you off, but just talk to them. They can't force you to leave the ocean. They'll just have you hold a position and distance and call it good.
If the helo is already near, circling, or over the boat, leave them alone. Go ahead and take a look, but stay off the radios. While we're over the boat, we're busy talking to them and coordinating what we're doing. They won't have time to respond to you at that point in time. The time to talk to them is when the helo is still over the horizon.