Shipping Lanes
- Thread starter Dave S
- Start date
good reminder on VTS services. we had the senior officer from Seattle VTS give a presentation to our PSA chapter a few years back. she said, give'um a shout if you have questions about traffic as its there job to monitor and respond. leaving port in the fog, it is aways a good idea to chat with VTS regarding in and outbound traffic. they can tell you what traffic is around and if you tell them where you are, they can give an ETA so you can be aware in advance.
one last thought from me, brush up on the VHF protocol for placing and recieving calls so you don' sound like some red neck from a long ago 'smokey and the bandit' B movie. amazing how many folks don't have a clue.
one last thought from me, brush up on the VHF protocol for placing and recieving calls so you don' sound like some red neck from a long ago 'smokey and the bandit' B movie. amazing how many folks don't have a clue.
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Maybe not, but in this crowded neck of the woods some Canadian and US warships seem to be broadcasting AIS much of the time. I suspect collision avoidance is as important to Navies as everyone else. Now if they have a reason or stealth is mission critical such as shadowing a suspected smuggler they won’t be broadcasting their location. If deception was considered mission critical I would also not be surprised if they have the ability to project a false location on AIS.
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on AIS most times, you will see all the smaller Navy training vessels like Moose 60 and Edmonton, etc, if they are doing naviagtion training in the gulf. When the big carriers or subs are moving, they are not on AIS screens. On vessel traffic you will hear them call NAVY unit 43, or such, this is not the number on the side of ship, it is a number assigned to them to move around in Puget Sound or Gulf of Gerogia, without using their actual name.
quicksilver11
Member
A lot of good ideas i'm reading here, use the VTS channels for the area as well as ch16. Radar reflector is a must no matter what the reports are saying about how good they are, every little bit helps. AIS is very good but can be turned off at any time, has the same vulnerabilities as any VHF radio has, the info you recieve on an AIS is only as good as the info that is put into it some very reliable some not so much. It actually updates every 2-10 seconds, if the ship is moving faster approx every 2 seconds for ships over about 20kt. Info every 3 minutes for a ship at anchor is reported. Ships generally only use it as an aid to safe navigation as it is based on SOG and not speed thru water. It is an excellent tool but you need to understand as a lot of guys said there are a lot of boats that don't use it so what you are looking at is not really the full picture. Still have to listen for the fog signals and keep the knife close.
Degree of Freedom
Active Member
Marine Traffic...and I'd like to think no one on here is actually dumb enough to think this transmits a signal
B
badassbaits
Guest
Although there are a lot of concrete ideas and apps to help out in these situations. The best response I can give you is a book called Collision Regulation. Can be picked up at most marine stores for around 10 dollars. Rule 19 is about restricted visibility (fog).
Few more things to consider re: traffic lanes and radar....and collision regs.
Collision regs are free from the Canada Shipping Act.
http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/PDF/C.R.C.,_c._1416.pdf
Just the text there, though - no diagrams.
Much of the under 300-500 GRT marine traffic NOT following the VTM traffic lanes will be pleasure craft and fishing vessels. Many of the pleasure craft operators will be newbies or at least much less experienced. It's been my experience that you cannot depend upon them to know or follow the rules of the road all the time.
Various fisheries at various times of the year have sleep-deprived people at the helm - particularly at night. It's also been my experience that you cannot always assume they have seen you, even in good visibility.
AND for both vessel types - they use the smaller radar antennas which are also commonly at lowered heights as compared to large, commercial traffic. This means reduced signal strength and clarity. They may not see the target returned from a small wood and/or fibreglass boat - particularly if there is sea clutter from waves.
AND I agree with High Five, and have had similar experiences about fog and numnuts running their boats real fast in it.
When running in the fog – never travel faster than you can manoeuvre around an obstacle like a log – no matter whether you have radar or not, or how fast your boat can travel. In thick fog – that's like 5-7 knots – NOT 20+!!!
Stay aware and stay alive!
Collision regs are free from the Canada Shipping Act.
http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/PDF/C.R.C.,_c._1416.pdf
Just the text there, though - no diagrams.
Much of the under 300-500 GRT marine traffic NOT following the VTM traffic lanes will be pleasure craft and fishing vessels. Many of the pleasure craft operators will be newbies or at least much less experienced. It's been my experience that you cannot depend upon them to know or follow the rules of the road all the time.
Various fisheries at various times of the year have sleep-deprived people at the helm - particularly at night. It's also been my experience that you cannot always assume they have seen you, even in good visibility.
AND for both vessel types - they use the smaller radar antennas which are also commonly at lowered heights as compared to large, commercial traffic. This means reduced signal strength and clarity. They may not see the target returned from a small wood and/or fibreglass boat - particularly if there is sea clutter from waves.
AND I agree with High Five, and have had similar experiences about fog and numnuts running their boats real fast in it.
When running in the fog – never travel faster than you can manoeuvre around an obstacle like a log – no matter whether you have radar or not, or how fast your boat can travel. In thick fog – that's like 5-7 knots – NOT 20+!!!
Stay aware and stay alive!
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My understand there is a lot more to them than just size. Design is also important.
I have posted this tip before but here it is again. In an emergency you can go to the galley and get a garbage bag and a role of aluminum foil. Crunch up the foil in loose balls and but in the bag and tie it off. Now you have a large if not well designed emergency reflector for a glass or wood boat.
could even find some out of the way places to cover with foil.
I have posted this tip before but here it is again. In an emergency you can go to the galley and get a garbage bag and a role of aluminum foil. Crunch up the foil in loose balls and but in the bag and tie it off. Now you have a large if not well designed emergency reflector for a glass or wood boat.
could even find some out of the way places to cover with foil.
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It's legal to build your own. The best design (IMHO) is the three intersecting circles. It actually doesn't take a very big reflector of this design to give you a much larger return. If you look at that design there are 8 "corner cube" like reflectors (see -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corner_reflector) in the center of the sphere. Unlike a flat surface that will only reflect radar back to the source when it's at a perfect 90 degree angle to the direction of the source, a corner reflector reflects back to the source almost independent of the angle of orientation. Hence a corner reflector of modest size will give the equivalent signal of a much larger collection of metal parts on the boat only a small subset of which will reflect back to the source. A bigger reflector will give a bigger reflection but there are practical limits to what you can actually make use of.
Foxsea
Well-Known Member
We had a good thread on reflectors last year:
http://www.sportfishingbc.com/forum/showthread.php?18850-Radar-Reflectors&highlight=radar+reflectors
Big Green Machine
Well-Known Member
Seadna was the one who posted it.
This web site - http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/ - displays the AIS data in real time. You can zoom into the end of the strait of JDF right now and see what vessels are out there. There are iPhone and Android amps that do the same thing. The apps have the advantage that they display your current position also using the GPS in the phone/iPad
Dave S
Active Member
Just fill a bag with empties and throw it in the bow or cuddy. haha.
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