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Interesting situation


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I thought I would start this as a new topic.

We had a very interesting situation develop on Sunday morning when we arrived at Waikawa. As we

entered the Marina to use a dock to unload our gear, a small power boat motored past and yelled

out to us that Marlborough Marine Radio were trying to contact us in VHF. That surprised me. How

did they know I was in the Sounds? I contacted MMR and they said that Maritime Radio had been

trying to contact us. Someone had called Maritime with concern of our whereabouts. MMR could

had no idea who that person was, but they had passed on that we had been seen safe in Waikawa.

Apparently the person that called them had known we had left Gisborne and new we were about to

sail into a major blow and had not heard from us and were concerned for our safety. I was

completely baffled. I had been in contact with everyone I had been keeping up to date. I had no

clue who would have known we had left Gisborne and sailed on and then had lost contact with.

 

Righty, I will skip a bit here and come back to what happened.

When we traveled to Auckland 5 yrs ago, we kept a watch with Maritime Radio. During the day we

would contact them at arranged times during the day. At night we had 2 hr'ly contact times. They

were great. I remember we missed a contact time by ten minutes and they had radioed us. I have said

before, while CG try hard, I had been concerned with their handling of certain situations. One of the most

concerning was a guy that called the next day to say sorry he had missed cancelling his TR the night before.

I turned to Dawn and said, so why had they not tried to contact him??

Anyway, this trip back home, I had been really chewing over whether to bother setting up a TR with

Maritime Radio. Normal traveling around we have never bothered. I figure that if we need help, we simply

make the call. It would be a very rare and peculiar event that we just suddenly vanish. And if that happend

it would be most unlikely it would be a situation we would be found in anyway. During the Castle Pint

episode, I thought very clearly that actually, if we get to a point of needing help, who on earth would

be able to come to it anyway. We were very much on our own. Anyone in that water, I think even with a

spray hood, i doubt would have survived for long.

this trip home was different to our trip up. We were doing this in short stages so we could visit many

places on the way. Where as the trip up was going to be a single trip.

I also had one person I was keeping in regular contact with. He knew where we were at pretty much all times

and when we were expected at the next point in our Journey. He would contact authorities if I hadn't contacted him

when I was supposed to.

 

So back to the main story. The person that called Maritime Radio phoned me last night. He is a great friend

and I actually didn't know he had been reading my FB page where I had been keeping my friends up to date.

But we lost internet connection from not long after we left Castle Point and I had txt my update to

friends as soon as I was back in Txt range. Which is often before speaking cell ph range and certainly

well before internet range. So after 24hrs and he had no seen a report from us, he got really concerned.

He apologised that he may have started a huge ball rolling but I said well i don't think any apology

is needed, because it was nice to know someone actually made the call when they got concerned. Many don't.

At the end of the day, he gave all the info he knew to Maritime and they were the ones to make the decision

of what to do next. They were making calls over the VHF and basically, if we didn't reply or call in some where

by a certain time, they would put a Helicopter up to search the coastline.

Interestingly, we monitored ch16 the entire trip. We heard all there normal Securitay's and to go to

appropriate channel to listen. That I did not do, mainly because I got more info on weather

than they gave in their reports. But at no time did I ever hear a call for us on Ch16. Perhaps I just missed them.

I do remember some VHF ch16 calls where I could not really hear the call and just ignored it thinking they

were just between working vessels. I am sure I would have registered to hearing our boat name being called.

We did not bother with MMR because it is just people making TR's and no one other than those that needed to

know, knew we were in the Sounds.

Sooo, I thought well what an interesting situation. Never ever considered this kind of situation to unfold and if we ever

make a similar trip again, then I probably will keep in touch with Maritime Radio, just for such a situation.

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Maritime NZ specifically say they will not instigate a search if you miss a scheduled position report while you are on passage and have set up a TR with them. For that reason we we did not bother with them and instead relied on our predictwind tracker and regular emails home via that system on our trip around NZ. Our previous trip to Nelson return we did file a TR but with the predictwind system we did not consider it necessary this time. On any of our other coastal passages between Auckland and North Cape we never file trip reports with Coastguard or anyone else as we feel they are an imposition and take away from the pleasure of sailing where I much prefer the bubbling under the forefoot to the racket on the VHF.

 

If you are bothered about risk don't ever hop in your car.

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Maritime NZ specifically say they will not instigate a search if you miss a scheduled position

report while you are on passage and have set up a TR with them.

 

Really? that is unbelievable. I wonder how many else don't know that and simply expect that they are being looked after.

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It's true TRs are a waste of time eg if you forget to close your TR from Auckland to Barrier nothing happens unless an independent party reports a vessel overdue eg family ashore.

 

Chewing Gum is right the endless racket of pointless TRs on ch80/82 is mind-numbing and spoils a nice sail. But listening watch on Ch16 is nice and quiet and keeps you posted on the essential stuff.

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from the solo sailor stroke story

 

we learn that if enough cages get rattled

 

boats that are transmitting AIS signals can be tracked across oceans even if they are not responding to radio calls

 

afaik

 

wheels does have AIS

 

so they could have been located via AIS

 

presumably the system is "manual" at the moment

 

and concern wasn't high enough to trigger the manual effort

 

but you'd guess there were plans for dedicated software + computers to find + hold this kind of data to enable automated searches

 

air traffic control must have similar

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AIS is great for keeping track of where boats are - to the extent that one of our crew sent us a text after seeing the boat on the move on AIS, when they thought we were still away up north (nowhere near the boat ...) Just checking that the boat hadn't been stolen or borrowed by someone! That was great to see!

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Once heard a TR being lodged for someone leaving Issie Bay, bound for Motuihe Island.

That kind of TR is common! Hence the volume of calls makes ch80/82 virtually unusable for anything else during peak times. Given the propensity of smartphones and digital technologies the manual TR voice radio system is a relic of the dark ages, serves no useful purpose and should be scrapped. In fact it probably gives people a false sense of security that they are being 'watched over'. The only instance when that does occur us when someone calls CG to report a planned bar crossing - in which case the CG starts a timer (usually about 7-10 mins) and if they haven't received a call to confirm safe bar crossing within that time they will trigger an initial request for more info / search.

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Just thought we'd clarify a few points with regards to the Trip Report service that Coastguard Northern Region offers. While the sheer volume of trip reports (we were handling one TR every 15 seconds last Saturday) prohibits us from following up every "unclosed" TR, these trip reports do provide excellent information about intentions and past "habits". This information, especially when combined with a call sign with up to date details attached is extremely useful when planning and executing a response. With very little information required to start the process, we can quickly access this data and form the most accurate picture possible of what might have happened, potential target areas and what we are looking for.

 

Please note that bar crossing reports are handled quite differently and unless closed, we will instigate a response.

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afaik

 

wheels does have AIS

 

 

Hell no. Not us. Who can afford to buy an AIS transponder. I would love to have a dedicated receiver and will do one day, but not a transmitter. But a Receiver is not at the top of the list.

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"I used the Live ships AIS thingy on my laptop as a poor mans radar. Actually it's not so poor. Told me far more than the Radar ever would have. We had one really annoying Trawler working out in the Strait and you never knew...." 

 

how are you porting? other ships AIS positions?

 

web browser - cell tower - phone - laptop?

 

ais web.jpg

 

2 minutes later different live ships site

ais 2.jpg

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From the Maritime NZ Radio Handbook page 42 :

Every effort should be made to notify arrival at a safe anchorage or at the

end of the voyage. However, unless a vessel is reported overdue,

the absence of a closing TR will not initiate a search or other

follow-up action.

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From the Maritime NZ Radio Handbook page 42 :
Every effort should be made to notify arrival at a safe anchorage or at the
end of the voyage. However, unless a vessel is reported overdue,
the absence of a closing TR will not initiate a search or other
follow-up action.

I think this is just stupid. I wonder how many don't realise that. I don't have their handbook and didn't know one even existed. I guess it was because our local VHF station, Marlborough Marine Radio, used to follow up. I have a feeling that has also been dropped. I must find out what the situation is exactly now.

So now, I see no point what so ever in making a TR. I had always thought that the entire point of making a TR was that if you did not close it, then it should be considered that something has gone wrong and from our own point of view, we could rest in the knowledge that someone is going to know we need help if we have not closed it. What a scary thought to know now that one could be floating around out there thinking that at such and such a time, someone will fail to reach us on VHF and after exhausting all means of communication and a time, a search will be conducted in the area of last known position to destination.

Looks like I better work hard toward owning an EPIRB then.

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I used to file a TR when I was a teenager borrowing dads boat. He said I had to, his boat, his rules. I don't do it now, unless doing a long or maybe a solo journey. I did regular scheds with maritime radio when I sailed my last boat Auckland to Welly.

 

Don't mock people for being 'safe', if the cg is happy, what's the problem?

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Being safe has more to do with making sure your boat is up to scratch and you are vigilant in your navigation and you carry appropriate safety equipment for the the voyage you are planning. When we are planning more extensive trips the boat is pretty close to Cat 1 equipped and all systems double checked.

At night and rough weather we uses harnesses and the man on watch has an Epirb attached to him.

In other words you need to be self reliant and confident in your vessel and crew and only call for help as absolutely a last resort.

If your vessel is well found the chances of an emergency are practically nil with the exception of perhaps a fire which is always a concern as shown by recent events.

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My thoughts now are that i would do what i did this last trip. Have a person that knows where I left form, where I intend to head to and a report in time. Then that person can raise alarm to authorities if I don't report in within a specific time.
Lets face it, if the worst possible scenario happens in that persons are in the water, unless you are wearing a wetsuit, no one is going to last 24hrs in our cold NZ waters.

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I lodge TR's with CG everytime we go out over the bar. I often don't bother when we are just out for a harbour sail.

 

So once out there (over the bar), I stay in contact with CG, changing channels as we sail up or down the coast.

 

Last Feb, we sailed to GBI. I logged in and out with Waihi Beach, Whangamata, and Whitianga, and then in with Emi at GBI radio. When we left GBI, we logged out with Emi, but did not bother with logging in with Auckland. Three days later, I had a call on my cell from CG asking where we were. Someone had started a check to see were we where. It seems it was someone from Waihi Beach who was concerned that we had not been heard from in some time.

 

I had been updating on fb, and knew everyone who knew us knew exactly were we where. I still do not know who started the process, but I assured CG that we were safe. The man insisted we file a TR every day with CG even if we stayed put.

 

So now I do just that. I let CG Waihi Beach know we will be away for so many days. If longer, I call them from the cell. When in the Cove at GMI though, I cannot call in each day, so I tell them we will be off air for approx so many days and will call them when we leave.

 

Having them follow me up like that really amazed me, and made me feel like such a naughty girl!

 

The Bowentown bar is one which CG requests all vessels log a TR when crossing. Our last crossing was really fun with triple hull surfing down a breaking wave at over 16kts. I only shook for half an hour this time ;)

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