marinetraffic.com

[dillybar]

Very cool website.

This will show you with one click all shipping in your area and their distance and bearing. A few more clicks and you have their heading, speed, past track, future track, last port, destination and all details about the ship including pictures.

Great resource if you don't have AIS but you have connectivity.

And yes, for I phone users there's an app for that.

[Faster]

Very cool indeed... it reminds me of the winlink site for ham-equipped cruisers.

[chef2sail]

Great site...we use it all the time.

[Nautichthys]

I'd be careful about using these sites for real time navigation. In the area I hang out in there can be quite a lag between position updates. For example, marinetraffic.com is showing one ferry between Vancouver and Nanaimo at its position 45 minutes ago, and the Gabriola ferry in the wrong dock, where it was 35 minutes ago.

The sites vary in what they pick up as well. Marinetraffic.com is showing three transponders in Nanaimo Harbour, Login is showing eight, and the Gabriola ferry is on the right side of the harbour for this time of day. One of the transponders marinetraffic.com isn't seeing is on a 1200 tonne Class A.

Marinetraffic.com very rarely shows my Class B transponder. AIS3 usually picks it up but I've seen both sites miss a lot of Class B traffic around the Saanich Peninsula.

Regardless, very nifty sites.

[PalmettoSailor]

Originally Posted by Nautichthys

I'd be careful about using these sites for real time navigation. In the area I hang out in there can be quite a lag between position updates. For example, marinetraffic.com is showing one ferry between Vancouver and Nanaimo at its position 45 minutes ago, and the Gabriola ferry in the wrong dock, where it was 35 minutes ago.

The sites vary in what they pick up as well. Marinetraffic.com is showing three transponders in Nanaimo Harbour, Login is showing eight, and the Gabriola ferry is on the right side of the harbour for this time of day. One of the transponders marinetraffic.com isn't seeing is on a 1200 tonne Class A.

Marinetraffic.com very rarely shows my Class B transponder. AIS3 usually picks it up but I've seen both sites miss a lot of Class B traffic around the Saanich Peninsula.

Regardless, very nifty sites.

I've been playing with the Android app for marine traffic and this mirrors my experience. If you see a target that could present a problem you can give the app a check to see if its showing, but reality trumps what the display shows.

Latency in my area of the Chesapeake Bay seems to be on the order of 5-10 minutes, so even at 15-20 knots you can usually identify a target correctly.

[jackdale]

User should read the FAQs. Frequently Asked Questions on AIS and Real time ship observation

Some data may be an hour old.

I have used by marinetraffic and an AIS receiver, but not at the same time. Next time I will compare.

[sailjunkie]

Like Faster, I think it is cool.

Like Jackdale and many of the others suggest, it should be used with considerable caution.

[fairbank56]

I monitor live AIS traffic in the Annapolis MD area 24/7 out to around 20-25 miles and upload to marinetraffic. The data there is not real time and is certainly not meant to be used in place of your own receiver for navigation safety use. It is however, a cool site with lots of useful information. Great for vessel tracking.

Eric

[Nautichthys]

Originally Posted by jackdale

User should read the FAQs. Frequently Asked Questions on AIS and Real time ship observation

Definitely worth the read. I had no idea Marinetraffic.com was an open community project. I thought it was just part of the swarm that's been trying to commercialize the data over the last ten years.

Maybe I should quit complaining about local coverage and put up an antenna.

[MITBeta]

I find this site useful to see if there are commercial ships approaching Boston harbor. When a LNG tanker comes through, the whole harbor (including some highways around it) shuts down. So if I know a LNG is inbound, I won't think about sailing until it's safely at the dock.