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Dean Abramson wrote:What I really hate is when, here in Maine, we have been communicating - on a talking channel - with another boat or announcing our position, and some (no doubt young and immature) snarky lobstermen listening in have engaged in mocking us and making fun of what they apparently consider to be elite, nerdy, probably elderly pleasure boaters.
It helps (a little) if you can make yourself useful.
The ferry captains in Boston Harbor have no love for recreational boaters. On the other hand, they appreciate good seamanship (expecially in reduced visibility). So when they hear, "This is the sailing vessel LIQUIDITY, inbound in Nantasket Roads at #6 bell," that helps them. After a while, they get to know your name.
In a different context but same point, when talking about the constant battle between bikes and cars, one of my friends always points out, "You give respect to get respect."
By the way, the lobstermen might mock you on the radio, but they'll save you and your boat if the need arises. The radio is good for that, too... so thank them for listening.
The worst case of what my wife was referring to was one time we were in very dense fog between Vinalhaven and Tenants Harbor. At one point we went to a buoy, and circled it for a while while planning our moves on the chart, and inputting data into the Loran. Then another sailboat showed up doing the same thing. That skipper asked where we were headed and asked if we knew the waters. (They were from Michigan.) Yes, we said. "Can we follow you?" Yes, we said, and agreed on a talking channel, which had seemed pretty low-traffic.
We talked back and forth with this other boat periodically. I asked him not to follow too closely, and we would lose a visual on them off and on. And we made our way towards Tenants. But after a while, every time one of us would say something like, "Bill, do you see that large radar target at about 280M?," one of these two lobstermen (clearly on two different boats and entertaining themselves) would, in a high-pitched mock-hysterical voice, broadcast to his buddy (and everyone else listening), "Nate, did you see that wicked awful scary thing on the radar?" Then the other would go "I am so scared!" Etc.
With this comic routine going on, we pressed on. It was fairly tense, there was commercial traffic, no visibility, and we were trying to be helpful to the other couple, who was in a brand-new boat and had never been to Penobscot Bay before. These jerks were not helpful. Finally, I told them to shove it, and amazingly they did shut up after that.
Marvo does not even like land-based phone calls very much, so I accept that I am the primary radio guy. When, that is, it is on!
Asses like those guys are fortunately not all that common. And we really do need to monitor, and we will.
Man, did we have a great happy hour on those folks' boat when we finally got to Tenants! A spankin' new Catalina 36 which seemed like the SuperDome compared to our 25D. Very nice folks.
That experience with the lobstermen did not help Marvo's shyness about the radio, though.
Dean
Dean Abramson
Cape Dory 31 "Loda May"
Falmouth, Maine
Dean Abramson wrote:Marvo (Dean's wife) chiming in here:
I am shy about all forms of electronic voice communication. The VHF radio particularly intimidates me. Dean is always trying to get me to practice with it. I know it is a safety issue. I know I need more practice, but it is the fact that so many others are listening in that is a BIG turn-off.
What I really hate is when, here in Maine, we have been communicating - on a talking channel - with another boat or announcing our position, and some (no doubt young and immature) snarky lobstermen listening in have engaged in mocking us and making fun of what they apparently consider to be elite, nerdy, probably elderly pleasure boaters.
I know I shouldn't care what they think, but I admit that I do cringe when they broadcast it to the entire coast of Maine.
To offer the opposing point of view. Several years ago the Chesapeake Fleet was on a cruise--using channel 71 for our communications--in the area near Smith Island. Two local watermen were engaged in non-stop chitchat for an extended period of time, on channel 71. At about the time when their conversation meandered to the state of the tires on one of their girlfriend's pickup truck, an exasperated Fleet member (and former CDSOA Commodore) transmitted the following message--pretty much verbatim--"No wonder you guys can't make any money. Why don't you just shut up and fish?"
The Fleet moved to another channel.
Mitchell Bober
Sunny Lancaster (where sometimes you can't hear the radio in the cockpit), VA
Most of the commercial skippers with whom I've exchanged radio messages answer with a "thank you, cap'." The same isn't always true of sportfishermen.
However I have overheard tugboat captains on Buzzards Bay warning one and other about "a WAFI off your port quarter."
I wasn't sure what they meant until a friend, whose brother is a Kings Point grad, explained that "WAFI" is tugboat-captain shorthand for "Wind Assisted F*ing Idiot."
Still, most professional mariners appreciate professional courtesy, as you can tell from some on this board, a lot of them enjoy sailing when they're off-duty.
--Joe
Former Commodore, CDSOA
Former Captain, Northeast Fleet
S/V Crème Brûlée, CD 25D, Hull # 80
"What a greate matter it is to saile a shyppe or goe to sea."
--Capt. John Smith, 1627
I too don’t like talking on the radio or the phone, I don’t know why, I am just funny that way. But after watching an 800 foot long barge T bone me, totaling my boat, I have learned to call the barges the minute I see them instead of waiting as I did. Now I get mad if they don’t answer.
Thank you. I manage to talk effectively and with confidence on the phone all the time while performing my job (home health visiting nurse), because I know I have to. I just need to put VHF communication in the category of "have too", and your story is a very good example of why! Sorry for the loss of your boat. I hope you were physically unharmed. Dean and I are certainly motivated to mend our ways by the good advice on these posts. One is never too old to learn and change. Thank you to everyone
Marvo
Dean Abramson
Cape Dory 31 "Loda May"
Falmouth, Maine
We usually select a working channel for everyone to use during our Northeast Fleet events, and we ask participants to monitor that channel. The problem is, that as soon as they reach port, they tend to shut off their radios. This makes it extremely difficult for the event organizers to reach rendezvous participants to give them updates and generally let them know what's going on.
Last year this became an issue while we were in Dutch Harbor, RI. Since most of the CD's radios were turned off, Bruce and I had to hop in the dinghy and visit each boat individually. This took over an hour and it was nearly noon before we got everybody ashore and headed in the right direction.
As each day passes, I am being more convinced that men really are from Mars and women are from Venus. I never did figure out just where my mother-in-law came from. But that's another story for another time.
I would be in my element puttering and tinkering around, fixing my boat that wasn't broken. My late wife was perfectly content curled up in her muu muu and floppy, furry slippers while being totally absorbed in a new cook book. As the Brits say, "different strokes for different blokes". This diversity spilled over in our concepts on boating.
I was a dyed in the wool water rat, as were my children. My wife was poles apart from our love of the water. She was a concert pianist while I had sandworm blood under my fingernails. My tools in trade were from Black and Decker. Hers was from Steinway. We were truly the "odd couple", for 52 short years at that.
As a result of our mutual understanding of each others lifestyles, we lived in perfect harmony. She just didn't care for the water. Quite often, usually on Sunday afternoons and evenings, a group of the guys hanging around the docks would pile into someones boat and head for City Island, at the western end of Long Island Sound, for a hamburger. It's a guy thing.
One of the guys, whose boat we were on, was a milkman.(remember them?). He was dabbling in a foreign element, marine electronics. He was being a real pain in the elbow calling for radio checks three times or so an hour. It is my understanding that some USCG monitors now refuse to give radio checks anymore.
I can't adequately describe the electronic mayhem going through the airwaves on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, a short distance from and within eyesight of Manhattan's Empire State Building. Every weekend warrior and his brother is out on the water in all sorts of watercraft, all trying to communicate with anyone and everyone at the same time, and not all in English, either. Reminiscent of when they built the Tower of Babel. If one had a strong tolerance for noise, it often became humorous to eavesdrop.
...and all of a sudden, PAM PAM, May Day, May Day. A ship was on fire. You could detect the panic in the callers voice. The call was very powerful, probably very close by. We quickly scanned the horizons and there it was, less than a mile from where we were. We saw the smoke billowing out of the cabin and the people on the bow deck waving for help. We were on our way.
Sad to say, so were dozens of other sightseers and rubberneckers who soon were circling the burning ship and just getting in the way. A lot of the responders, if they could be called that, couldn't help if they wanted to. Small outboard runabouts, 16' catamarans, even a canoe.
We had radio contact with the captain, a licensed professional. The burning ship was bout 55' or 60 ' long. It had its own fire extinguishment system and we were told that the fire was under control. We were advised to stand by just in case.
This potential tragedy turned into some wry humor. By this time, the Harbour Police cruiser as well as two Coast Guard Auxiliary craft had arrived on the scene and dispersed the curious armada of sightseers. But that's not all that arrived. When the May Day was sent out, two of the local TV stations monitored the call and dispatched news helicopters to the scene to take aerial pictures.
Well it gets better. A day or so later, I got to talking to two of the officers on duty on the County patrol boat who responded to the call. It turned out that the yacht was owned by a very well known TV personality. He was going through a partically seamy divorce trial. There was a person on board that day, clad only in a teeny weeny bikini, who if discovered, would have blown open the divorce proceedings. The lovely young passenger was removed from the yacht with a towel over her head to prevent identification by the aerial photos being taken. The papparazi would surely be swarming when the yacht returned to its port.
Ah, yes. Another day, another episode on the water. So keep monitoring already.
O J
Last edited by Oswego John on Apr 17th, '10, 14:55, edited 3 times in total.
I probably have a different perspective on radio conversations having worked commercially on vessels with limited maneuverability. As to the jabber of commercial fisherman, fisherman in each area tend to have an agreed upon working channel so they monitor that and 16. They have no specific right to the channel but if you decide to start using it, they will do their best to get you to change. I am sure that some of them have nothing better to do than change channels with you but the vast majority of them will leave you alone once you get off of their local working channel. The easiest way to deal with it is usually to just go up a channel. It might not be just and certainly is inappropriate but just change the channel.
The thing that really gets me (and a lot of other commercial people) going is the radio banter in the fog. Unfortunately, there simply isn't enough airtime for everyone to give a very detailed securite call constantly. The boats that I want to hear the most are the big ones that are not maneuverable and are moving quite quickly and are in an area with a high volume of traffic. It really aggravates me when someone keys up their mic for 45 seconds straight to tell us every detail about their boat, their route, etc and then repeats it every 10 minutes. Everyone here should be smart enough to figure out what information is important and what information is not. What I am most concerned with is their geographic position (most boats do not have the resources to plot coordinates of every call), their heading, speed and a way to call them back (boat name). If you have a question about the intentions of another vessel or are not comfortable with the CPA, definitely call them and then figure out passing arrangements on 13. I have never had a problem with anyone calling me to ask my intentions or make sure that I see them on radar. I try to be proactive with calling people but if you beat me to it, that is great. Just be aware that airtime is limited.
Sorry for the rant, I trust that the people on this board would think about how they use up precious airtime but it is something to always keep in mind. Most people are pretty good about it but all it takes is two or three people to give a minute long securite call every 10 minutes and it messes up everything. As far as the mocking, it is inappropriate but I think the best way to deal with it is to change channels.
Something is missing in this thread...I run commercial vessels as a Captain for a living and everyone needs and should monitor channel 16 outside the demarcation lines at all times. Inside everyone should monitor channel 13 with the exception of the Intercoastal waterway south of Freeport Texas (Channel 16) and the Mississippi River (Channel 67) at all times. Most of the pleasure craft and sailboats I run across are not available for any type of communication (I will say they do better than shrimpers) and I end up in situations where I am maneuvering around them and anticipating there next bad move.
HERE IS WHAT IS MISSING........If you actually are monitoring the radio and do try to communicate with someone else PLEASE do not identify yourself as the sailboat off my port bow....Chances are there are thirty sailboats off my port bow and I have no way of knowing who wants to cross the channel or only intends to get close and then tack the other direction. No one would believe how hard it is to get someone to say "I am the blue hulled boat" or "I am on a starboard Tack" on the radio.
When communicating with commercial vessels realize most of us own pleasure boats and spend our off time still on the water. It really would make a difference on the amount of chatter on the radioI have read some complain about. Sailboats do not show up on RADAR as well as other pleasure vessels and there speed etc.. can lead to dangerous situations. Next time were all out there think of a identifing trait your boat has and try throwing it out over the radio we might all be surprised and a little safer.....Just my two sense and 18000 tons
Thanks for the input. It's helpful to get the perspective from the other side of the fence. A lot of what you both mentioned makes sense. I also think what might be appropriate in one area say Boston Harbor may not wotk in another say the middle of Penobscott Bay.
Joe
Better to find humility before humility finds you.
Joe Myerson wrote:At least in my area, they send "radio check" calls to Channel 9. --Joe
If you request a radio check on CH 16 around here someone will chastise you and send you to CH 9, as well. No need though, as by then you know your radio works.
OK, I know that we are supposed to monitor the VHF, and also completely understand why it is a good idea. But do we do it? Rarely. We monitor the appropriate VTS channel when crossing shipping lanes in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, especially if it's foggy. We'll turn it on if some especially confusing or dangerous situation seems to be developing. Otherwise, it's off.
Why? It's noise that we don't want in our sailing lives. The sound of the wind, the water and the birds is not enhanced by channel 16. It may be a romantic illusion that you leave behind most of the irritations of modern life when you set sail, but it is a comforting illusion all the same. We keep a pretty sharp watch on our environs, and try not to surprise anyone. Any ship or tug/tow reasonably close to us should have no reason to believe that we are on a collision course, and if it looks to be close, we change our course - we're generally in no big hurry, and are not headed to a GPS waypoint on autopilot. We're happy to cross astern of large vessels.
Having the VHF on all day seems a lot like kids with cell phones stuck to their ears all day. They feel connected to the world, listen to a lot of gossip, and sometimes it helps them avoid some trouble. Mostly though, it's a lot of unnecessary noise, and information they really don't need. If we start to sink, will we call for help on channel 16? Sure. Will we feel guilty about it? Probably.
Tom and Jean Keevil
CD33 Rover
Ashland OR and Ladysmith, BC
It's noise that we don't want in our sailing lives.
That is precisely how I feel, and even though I resolve to do better, I know deep down that probably we will still not listen all the time.
We often like a little music with happy hour or dinner when we are anchored, but we never listen to music while underway either. We like the sounds of the sailing and the sea.
I appreciate the candor, Tom.
Dean
Dean Abramson
Cape Dory 31 "Loda May"
Falmouth, Maine
