 |
| Our photo |
Most boats have a very high frequency (VHF) radio for relatively short range communications, out to about 20 miles, including distress messages. SUNRISE came with a VHF radio when we bought her that worked well even though it was now 26 years old. The problem is that it lacked all the modern bells and whistles that the latest VHF radios have. The new radios connect to a GPS system and displays your location, course and speed on its display. They also have a distress button that automatically sends a distress message to the Coast Guard and all vessels. The distress message includes your GPS-derived location, identifies your boat by name and activates an alarm on all modern VHF radios that are turned on. With the new VHF radios, each radio has a unique number, just like a telephone. When I mentioned to my sailing friend Brad that I needed a new VHF radio, he said, "Come and see the great new radio that I just installed on my boat." We bought the same Standard Horizon unit a few months later after checking out all the radios at the Seattle Boat Show last year. All you ham enthusiasts know this manufacturer as Yaesu.
The Automatic Identification System has been required on commercial shipping for at least 10 years now. Each vessel has a transceiver that broadcasts a short data burst at intervals between ½ to 6 seconds on a specific frequency in the VHF band. The data burst contains the name of the vessel, its "call number", what type of vessel, length, beam, location, speed, course, turning rate, destination, etc. Fast moving and turning vessels transmit every ½ second while static vessels only transmit about every 6 seconds. The transceiver also listens to other ships' data reports and calculates the closest point of approach and time to closest point of approach. Very handy information to have when vessels are trying to avoid hitting each other and prioritize which encounters to be most concerned with.
US-flagged yachts are now being permitted to have a scaled-down version of the commercial AIS transceivers. The rest of the world did this 10 years ago while our government took its sweet time deciding what the detailed requirements should be for a non-required system. We had planned to install one for our upcoming voyage and were monitoring what was finally coming on the market in the US. The new transceivers were a bit complicated and were a hassle to run silent, which I thought appropriate most of the time for yachts. Our new VHF radio contains a built-in AIS receiver (but not transmitter), which means we did not have to find the room for an additional transceiver, display, VHF antenna, GPS antenna, circuit breaker/switch and interconnecting cables. On our boat, the antenna farm real estate, nav station real estate, cable runs and electrical panels are already maxed out. We can live with being "AIS-silent" all the time.
 |
| Sierra Guardian |
This morning, a target showed up on our radar screen at 17 miles range on the starboard quarter. A surprise, since or radar usually initially detects ships at 10 - 12 miles range. It was going roughly the same direction as we were, but gradually closing with us. Over time, it got closer and we were able to visually identify the ship at about 8 miles. There it was, indicated on the display of our new VHF radio. We push a few buttons, get the name of the ship, SIERRA GUARDIAN, and its call number. We watched as it closed with us and at 4 miles pushed the "CALL" button. Not only do we automatically hail their specific radio, but both radios automatically switch to a different frequency from the hailing frequency. "SIERRA, SIERRA, SIERRA. This is the yacht SUNRISE, four miles off your port bow. Are you aware of our location?" A cheery and understandable voice came back, "SUNRISE, this is SIERRA. We have you in sight and will cross about ½ mile in front of you. Are you comfortable with that?" "SIERRA, this is SUNRISE. We just wanted to make sure that you were aware of us." Soon, instead of looking at the port side of the ship, we were looking at it head on, then the right side. It was making a major course change, eventually passing over a mile astern of us. That was very nice of them. BIG tanker. Riding high in the water. Going 20 knots. A VHF radio with integrated AIS receiver paired with a great radar. Sweet! REALLY SWEET!!!
In the tropics, you expect to see lots of squalls/thunderstorms at night. So far this trip, only three very small blips on the radar, total. Our boat is covered with salt crystals. Not quite as bad as the lake bed in Death Valley, but we do need a good rain to wash off the salt. This afternoon, a rain cloud came over and we got a four inch rain. That's desert count, like we use in Ridgecrest. The drops were four inches apart. SUNRISE is still covered with salt crystals. It is a good thing that our reverse-osmosis water maker is working. We could not survive on the rain water that we catch.
In the early evening there have been patches of rain clouds all over the sky. But we are on Moses' boat. The rain clouds pass on either side of SUNRISE and we get no rain on the boat. Later in the night, Mrs Moses went to bed and we have one rain cloud after another sprinkle the boat. The rain is gentle and winds are light, but that is OK. On other trips, the squalls have had high winds and heavy rain and I have to be out in it shortening canvas. Life is good.
One of Lynne's college dorm mates, Marilyn, is also sailing toward the Marquesas from Panama, by way of the Galapagos Islands, with Sam. There was a brief introduction of them, also mentioning us, on page 88 of the May issue of Latitude 38, a Northern California sailing magazine. The magazine can also be viewed online at latitude38.com. Marilyn introduced Barry to Lynne in 1963, they were in our wedding, she came to our Cursillo and she googled to find our names and our boat. We were new parents together.
Position : 4 50.72' N, 133 43.52' W
Speed : 5.0 knots, Course : 180 degree
No comments:
Post a Comment