Agree, Chris, or just stay well away from a TSS, *especially* if it's off to your starboard, so as not to be in anything that could be construed as a "meeting" situation or even a crossing situation by a vessel in the lane, on approx. opposite course.
It's already been pointed out, but rule 10 (h) covers it:
"A vessel not using a TSS shall avoid it by as wide a margin as possible".
I'd add my agreement with Chris and Tom. I should have mentioned that while you are listening to the VTS reports and laying out your trip, you should consider vessel traffic and weather. To many boaters the prospect of crossing the scheme just so they can sail outside of it with an option of relief to starboard seems a waste of time. I would advance the notion that it is no more a waste of time than allowing for tidal flow or giving a wide berth to underwater obstructions.
Windy makes an excellent point. If you sail in one specific area it is often not hard at all to meet some of the big boat crew and officers. It might be easily accomplished by just laying off the stern of a freighter at the dock. After a while the mate on watch will wander by and you can ask him your questions. I know that before they re-built the bridge in Tampa, few of the small boat sailors realized why those outbound ships and particularly tugs on the push wouldn't change course. The nature of the current was such that you had to make your turn precisely or you'd hit the damn bridge. And it got hit more than once! A local knowledge issue. Countless Captains and pilots were known to mutter a silent apology but not concede a desire to "own" fifty cars and a structural repair bill the size of Belize.
I'd add that fishermen are a tremendous source of local knowledge as well.
btw,
We used to freely give tours of our ship, cargo concerns dictating the availability. You could yell up to the mate on watch or the AB and they'd tell ya to tie up and come on up. I suspect that 9/11 has put a bit of the kibosh on that, although you won't know if you don't ask. The company would never approve it-but that doesn't mean the Captain wouldn't. I should tell you the Charles Kuralt story about the Ore boat and the Polish rabbit, but I've got to go to work. ( somebody remind me later)
__________________ The brain is merely a knot that keeps the spinal cord from unraveling.
There are two main routes from Port Townsend to Lake Washington.. One way, as discussed, is down Admiralty Inlet, forcing the crossing of several traffic lanes and lots of commercial traffic. (My trip two weeks ago using that route involved interactions with several tows, one naval frigate and two submarines!)
The other, longer, way goes through Deception Pass, or the Swinomish canal, and east of Whidbey Island through Posession Sound. The trip would take several hours longer, but would minimize interactions with commercial traffic.
My question/point is, even with radar, wouldn't it be better to take this longer, potentially safer route? Do sailboats equipped with radar normally transit VTS lanes in heavy fog when other routes are available?
I don't have radar, but my understanding is that if I did have it, I would use it to "get out" of a situation involving lots of traffic and poor visibility. I wouldn't use it to intentionally put my self in such a situation..
I don't mean to offend anyone, and I do like the tone of this thread, but, I'm really curious about this.. Are you folks with radar going out in conditions like this when alternatives (including waiting a day) are available?
Sometimes you'd swear they were getting close to you just to check you out, to see what kind of a boat you have. Now I'm off to actually read the rest of the thread.
Actually, this may be the case. I sail the same waters as John, both in my personal boat and a work boat and have spent more hours than I care to in the fog. A co-worker of mine used to work on tugs for one of the local log tow companies and knows a few of the skippers. Those guys have a lot of time on their hands.
That particular stretch of water is also very busy and subject to fog in the fall. Over on the SSCA website, some of our locals are trying to organize a raft-up next month and Port Townsend was mentioned as a gathering point. I haven't fixed the Radar on my boat yet and ruled out that meeting spot for us if it's foggy, it's just not worth it to me.
__________________
Ray
S.V. Nikko
1983 Fraser 41
La Conner, WA
I don't have radar, but my understanding is that if I did have it, I would use it to "get out" of a situation involving lots of traffic and poor visibility. I wouldn't use it to intentionally put my self in such a situation..
I don't mean to offend anyone, and I do like the tone of this thread, but, I'm really curious about this.. Are you folks with radar going out in conditions like this when alternatives (including waiting a day) are available?
Generally speaking for southern New England sailors' on planned cruises, there are certain coastal destinations during cruising season, that require crossing shipping lanes.
Whenever we plan routes between Narragansett Bay and easterly destinations, such as the Elizabethan Islands, Martha's Vineyard, or Nantucket, there's no way to avoid crossing commercial traffic heading from offshore to the entrance of Buzzard's Bay.
There's also not much flexibility in waiting for fogless mornings to leave port, especially when on a one week vacation schedule and faced with a 30 to 60 nm day of sailing.
__________________ True Blue . . .
sold the Nauticat
One other observation in this educational thread, for which thanks to jrd for starting from experience.
Trying to figure out who's going where is tricky on a smallish boat with a head-up radar presentation. Whenever you alter course, you move all your contacts around, then you have to re-plot them, either in paper, scope, or mentally, and if you don't have time, or keep altering bit by bit, you're not going to get a true picture of the contact's (or several contacts') course, speed and cpa. It's real easy to "put" a contact over where you want him, and believe he'll stay there. Trouble is, he may be doing the same with you.
I've had little hands-on experience with north-up radar, but did recently, and what a difference (once you get used to looking at the heading flash, and not "up", to see what's ahead). You alter course, and your contacts stay put, they don't "swing" opposite to your swing. So it's easier to get your brain around what the other guy is doing.
Don't know how prevalent north-stabilized radars are on sailing craft. Used to be you had to have a gyro to stabilize, I guess now the GPS input can do it. The boat I was out on recently was a 100-foot dive-passenger boat, but had most of the electronics of a large ship (2 radars, e-chart, GPS, AIS, autopilot, with e-chart getting input from both GPS and AIS). Coming mostly from smaller sailboats mostly without radar, I felt like "unfrozen cave man Mate". Nobody else paid any attention to the magnetic compass but me, just out of analog nostalgia, I guess.
But the one of the lessons I re-learned is that north-up, once you get used to it, rocks. Less chance of radar-assisted attraction between vessels trying to stay away from each other.
Still, if you actually have a choice not to run in the fog, take it..
A slight digression here on the unlikelihood of having a piddling sailboat horn heard on a large merchant vessel. Is there any particular rule about having the VHF transmitting the horn blasts "live", if followed by an "all stations" securite comment on either Ch. 16 or the bridge-to-bridge frequency?
What I'm getting at is the possibility of using the VHF to do the audible heavy lifting to get attention from a merchantman's bridge crew.
I don't yet have radar, but I had a real pea-souper in Toronto Harbour last year (a small but heavily used stretch of water with airport exclusion zones and plenty of buoys of the "don't hit me" size). Because it was outside of normal recreational boating dates, I plotted my waypoints and bearings on a paper chart, and then groped my way at 4 knots from buoy to buoy in approximately 100 feet or less of visibility, or 2 1/4 boatlengths. I had my wife at the bow with a can of compressed loud, giving the five short blasts every couple of minutes. I issued a couple of "securites" on 16 giving speed, bearing and current position, mostly for the benefit of the several 10 knot ferries that transit the harbour, plus the less predictable water taxis and assorted smaller craft.
Was this overkill? Having seen boats collide in restricted waterways on warm sunny days around here, I wasn't inclined to take chances.
Doesn't seem like overkill to me. The risks of "underkill" sound too great from how you describe it.
Your " radio-whistle" idea make some sense, but it'd be bedlam if everyone who had to sound a whistle every 2 minutes played it over Channel 16 (or whatever your local traffic channel is). Might pose some FCC problems if here in the states. Also (while your concerns about being heard are realistic), a "blast" on the radio doesn't tell the listener in what direction you are (your voice securite message does), while a real whistle does (granted that pinpointing positions of sounds in fog is tricky). So it's good out-of-the box thinking, but wouldn't work for a general broadcast (though it might for that huge vessel just emerging from the fog coming at you).
So seems to me at least, you did what you could.
Not to pick nits, but shouldn't your fog signal if under sail be one long, two short, or two long if under power? The danger signal is for a specific vessel or situation, I think, rather than for unknown traffic in general.
North-up is the presentation of choice on gyro-stabilized radar with the notable exception that most prefer head-up when transitting a river or canal. Either presentation can be gyro stabilized but the head-up presentation, if used for rapid radar plotting, will be inaccurate if yawing more than a few degrees. With the new electronic display screens it is my impression that the picture can be stabilized by the input of either GPS or flux-gate compass. Neither of these should be confused with "true motion" radar which is a whole 'nother kettle of fish, obviates the need for rapid radar plotting, makes cpa difficult to obtain, and is basically a pain in the neck to use. It involves your vessel moving across the radar screen with land and fixed objects remaining stationary on the screen. You have to 're-set' it periodically. Tom is quite correct in his perception that "north-up" rocks. Mine and Val's search for a small, energy efficient gyro compass is based around the ability to stabilize radar as well as take accurate bearing visually from a gyro repeater. Once you have operated with one you will likewise only record your magnetic compass heading periodically for safety's sake.
Val's post from earlier this year is worth re-reading to those who missed it. Securite broadcasts are, in essence, what Vessel Traffic Control is attempting to do, albeit at considerable taxpayer expense. (There was a huge controversy in the 70's when introduced. The USCG and VTS operators thought they'd model the system after the air traffic control system, where direct orders are given to pilots regarding course and speed changes. Given that the Master of the vessel bears COMPLETE responsibility for her operation, even while a harbor or sea pilot is on board, this theory of operation did not go over very well. The American Council of Master Mariners was quite willing to accept that direction, if the government was willing to indemnify them for any losses. At that point the government re-thought the theory behind the system. ) In any event, Securite broadcasts are always appropriate to the extent that they are not a running monologue on Ch 16. They do not relieve anyone of any compliance of the Rules.
As far as broadcasting your whistle signal over the VHF, you'll probably find that it has a deleterious effect on your hand mike. (g) If you happen to be transmitting while signalling so be it, and numerous small vessels are in the habit of doing this for just the reasons noted by Val. It is of little effect on the bridge of a merchant ship. Your best way to get the attention of the mate on watch via VHF is by relaying your exact location and the location of the vessel you are trying to contact. In a heavily trafficed area, an individual vessel may not realize you are trying to contact him. One thing that seriously exacerbates the situation is that small boats are notorious for having poor transmitting VHF equipment. You often sound like a boat 15 miles away when you're only a mile off. That will contribute to your signal sounding weak and distant on the bridge of a merchant ship. Get your antenna up to the top of the mast, get it tuned by a competent professional, own a good quality radio, ignore that low power setting on the radio when in fog (everyone else is) and make sure that you have ample power going to the radio. If you've got wiring problems, fix the radio before the stereo, or right after the running lights-it's the number two thing that is going to save your butt after navigation lights. Another thing that will help to get a merchantman's attention is if you know what type of ship he is, knowledge of what company is even better, and you call out to the "east-bound" ship for instance. All of those details will make it more likely for the mate on watch to pull his head out of the radar hood or put his coffee cup down and answer you. It should go with out saying that restricted visibility is not the time, nor are confined waters, to call up for a radio check or a "where ya goin'".
As True Blue notes, there will be times when you simply must transit in fog. Reading through a book such as Farwell's Rules of the Nautical Road can be instructive. For instance, whether radar equipped or not, the rules define, via court cases, that taking all way off means to stop completely allowing only for steerage and set/drift perhaps, as well as orientation to respond should further manoeuvering be required. The Inland Rules have held, as decided by the Supreme Court, that you must be able to stop your vessel within half the distance of the visibility! RADAR DOES NOT RELIEVE THE OBLIGATION should you have a collision. Nor does it relieve you of the duty to post a lookout. And if more than one person is on board the helmsman does not constitute a lookout! Obviously we proceed at a faster pace than we would without radar, but we are not authorized or given license to do so by the Rules, and the courts have looked extremely dimly on doing so. Use it, don't abuse it, and the moment doubt arises start thinking in terms of strict interpretation of the Rules.
I cannot recommend Farwell enough. It interprets the rules as well as gives you quotes from court cases and the like. You can spend more than a few interesting hours (not boring!) in paging through the book. Mine is a 1968 edition.
I'll close with a quotation from page 340 in the chapter on "The Law in Fog".
Quote:
The law in fog does not merely suggest that voyages must be delayed,m itm demands it in the interest of the safety of life and property. The navigator who knows the law and deliberately sets himself up as above it is likely sooner or later to come to grief, and to find that his skill in dodging innumerable vessels while he steams at excessive speed does not excuse him for a final collision. It is a well-known fact that many passenger liners have a common practise of making 30 knots or better, sometimes in thick fog. When the congratulations on the completion of these fast voyages on schedule in thick weather by passengers and owners are supplemented by suspension of the master's licenses by the government, the skippers of the ships may be able to exercise a more fitting regard for the safety of other vessels. The law in fog, when obeyed, is practically collision proof. In time of peace, no naval vessel should be in a collision in fog unless due entirely to the fault of the other vessel. The words of Dr. Lushington, famous Admiralty jurist of England, written over a century ago, in the days of sailing ships, are not only sound legal advise but excellent common sense:
"It is unquestionably the duty of every master of a ship, whether in intense fog or great darkness, to exercise the utmost vigilance, and to put his vessel under command, so as to secure the best chance of avoiding all accidents, even though such precautions may occasion some delay in the prosecution of the voyage."
End Quote
__________________ The brain is merely a knot that keeps the spinal cord from unraveling.
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