Electronic systems on boats expand the sensory information being provided to a skipper.
Wind speed, barometric change, water speed, knot meter, SOG, CPA, bearing, Mag-Tru. Deviation, AtoN etc. the list goes on and on. It feels like you need a book to identify or decode just a few of these let alone understand what they mean and how they affect you and your boat.
Last year we had a discussion about radar. The bottom line was radar is a great tool but you need to use it on good clear days so you learn what it is telling you before you turn it on and attempt to find your way home through a “where did the bow of the boat go” blanket of fog.
AIS is another one of those seemingly simple gadgets. Turn it on and you will know where the big boats are so you can avoid getting run down. Oh if it was only that simple.
Reading an article in Panbo I learned about a new device. An AIS AtoN that is attached to a fishing net.
Cruising down the coast on a dark night. Suddenly your AIS alarm goes crazy. You alert from the peaceful cruising stupor and check your screen. What you see looks like a semicircle ring of giant wasps. Heading for your boat. You whisper that sailor phrase WTF ! You click on one of the RED dots. It says it is the MaryAnn a fishing boat. You click on a second dot. It also is the MaryAnn a fishing boat. WTF! A couple more clicks and your total confusion goes to panic when you scan the horizon and there is not a light to be seen, except perhaps the trusty light house beacon on the bluff 8 miles to starboard.
Just as you decide the AIS must be on the fritz your boat becomes entangled in a fishing net.
WTF!
Wind speed, barometric change, water speed, knot meter, SOG, CPA, bearing, Mag-Tru. Deviation, AtoN etc. the list goes on and on. It feels like you need a book to identify or decode just a few of these let alone understand what they mean and how they affect you and your boat.
Last year we had a discussion about radar. The bottom line was radar is a great tool but you need to use it on good clear days so you learn what it is telling you before you turn it on and attempt to find your way home through a “where did the bow of the boat go” blanket of fog.
AIS is another one of those seemingly simple gadgets. Turn it on and you will know where the big boats are so you can avoid getting run down. Oh if it was only that simple.
Reading an article in Panbo I learned about a new device. An AIS AtoN that is attached to a fishing net.
AIS fishing net buoys, the wrong way & the right way
Sorry to report that completely illegal AIS fishing net buoys are still for sale on eBay, and thus there may be strings of them still out in the oceans confusing cruisers and other mariners. I thoroughly understand how AIS buoys could help commercial fishermen protect their assets and income...
www.panbo.com
Cruising down the coast on a dark night. Suddenly your AIS alarm goes crazy. You alert from the peaceful cruising stupor and check your screen. What you see looks like a semicircle ring of giant wasps. Heading for your boat. You whisper that sailor phrase WTF ! You click on one of the RED dots. It says it is the MaryAnn a fishing boat. You click on a second dot. It also is the MaryAnn a fishing boat. WTF! A couple more clicks and your total confusion goes to panic when you scan the horizon and there is not a light to be seen, except perhaps the trusty light house beacon on the bluff 8 miles to starboard.
Just as you decide the AIS must be on the fritz your boat becomes entangled in a fishing net.
WTF!