"I'm a sailing vessel and have the right of way"

[BeauV]

Geesh! I better get a move on, 2 miles a day is a lot of trips from my chair to my coffee pot! Seriously, I'm impressed. Two miles is a big accomplishment. Congrats!

[kdh]

Tim, best wishes for a comfortable recovery. Can't be easy.

[Jamie]

AIS is useful when trying to contact commercial vessels, sometimes..
Coming back from Maui in 2010, we had a Class A aboard. On at least three occasions we tried to contact tankers and container ships to let them know we were there and our heading and speed (even though they should have been able to see it on their AIS), and ask them for their intended course. Nuffin, nada no reply.

In 2011, crossing a shipping lane NW of the Gulf stream on the way back to Newport, we had a Class B receiver on. The first Russian ship was saw was contacted and was fantastic. They altered course for us and signed off with Bon Voyage... Later that night another Russian ship doing inconsistent course and speed changes was contacted. After giving them our course and speed and asking their intentions, their radio operator denied being that ship, and denied being in the area. I asked how that was possible given that we were talking in VHF range, and could see them on the AIS and radar. It was a bizarre conversation. In any event, with no sensible response, we made a big course alteration to avoid them.

I remember that quite well, it was pretty Kafka-esque. "What do you mean you're not you? I'm looking at you!"

I hope you're doing well, Tim. Beth and I were just talking about you today, yes, it was all good.

Thanks Rob. Every day gets a bit better. I'm now walking at least two miles a day. Hopefully by late December I'll be back on the water

[Orestes Munn]

Impressive progress, Tim. A great sign for the long term.

[Lin]

Tim is doing well. However, it is my wee opinion that he should not be sailing until January. That sternum needs a solid 4 months to heal right through. : ) It's like he is recovering from three major surgeries, and I must say he seems to be taking care to do it right.

[Audrey]

There are no pics so it didn't happen....


Nevermind...

At least the photo is blury so I can attempt denial.

Notice the mast height on the ship, the stick on the Merit is about 30'. Needless to say that got us 5 blasts. oops...

[VALIS]

AIS is useful when trying to contact commercial vessels, sometimes..
Coming back from Maui in 2010, we had a Class A aboard. On at least three occasions we tried to contact tankers and container ships to let them know we were there and our heading and speed (even though they should have been able to see it on their AIS), and ask them for their intended course. Nuffin, nada no reply.

In 2011, crossing a shipping lane NW of the Gulf stream on the way back to Newport, we had a Class B receiver on. The first Russian ship was saw was contacted and was fantastic. They altered course for us and signed off with Bon Voyage... Later that night another Russian ship doing inconsistent course and speed changes was contacted. After giving them our course and speed and asking their intentions, their radio operator denied being that ship, and denied being in the area. I asked how that was possible given that we were talking in VHF range, and could see them on the AIS and radar. It was a bizarre conversation. In any event, with no sensible response, we made a big course alteration to avoid them.

Dredging this up, in 2012 we had a similarly strange encounter with what I think was a Russian ship. from the blog:

Friday, Aug 10, 3:00PM PDT
Position: 33d 23m N, 156d 33m W Course / Speed: 000d magnetic @ 5.5 kts.
We’ve not seen any ships for a couple of days, but now we are near the “STOLT SUN” (mmsi 319459000), a 538 ft tanker allegedly heading for Los Angeles. The strange thing is that he has made a U-turn and is now pointed back in our direction. I spoke with the officer on deck (he sounded Russian), and he has promised not to hit us. They are currently going only one-half knot, and according to our courses and speeds, we shouldn’t be approaching any closer than four miles. We are now ten miles from them, and we can just make them out on the horizon. Sometimes tankers are told to divert to another port, or delay their arrival, due to oil market price fluctuations. I suppose this could be one of those cases.

10:52 PM PDT, Aug 10
lat 33d 59m N, lon 156d 21m W Course 000d mag, speed 5.3 kts. Motoring.
It turned out that that mystery tanker just wanted to test some electronics (I know, it seems a little fishy to me too). They asked if we had received some test messages they had sent via a little-used feature of AIS. Since we don’t have that particular capability with our AIS system, we couldn’t help them. So, they turned back towards Los Angeles and never got closer than four miles to us.
Perhaps they were a Russian spy ship, monitoring the Navy exercises that have been taking place? We may never know.

I included the MMSI (ship identification #) in the blog posting in case VALIS mysteriously disappeared during the encounter. It was kind of strange. On the other hand, I've had some long and pleasant VHF chats with bored ship crew. When we got back home I wrote some software and decoded that AIS message he had sent (nerd that I am, during the voyage I was logging all my data, including AIS data). The message said something like "Test message, can you read this?"

[BeauV]

Paul,

A skipper of mine, who loved country music, used to broadcast what he called "Pacific Country Radio" (PAR) on channel 68 when we were more than 200 miles off shore. He'd stop between songs and ask for requests, and listen to Channel 16, just to have something to do in the middle of the ocean.

Imagine his surprise when a voice with a southern American accent replied: "Play, Your Cheatin' Heart". We were probably 400 miles due west of Baja, Mexico. Well Captain Larson did a great rendition of that old Hank Williams song on the VHF, complete with a harmonica solo in the middle, and while he was playing I spotted a flashing orange light on the horizon along with some running lights; they were headed our way. There were two more requests while the lights got closer. It turned out to be a US Sub putting along on the surface (at least that's what my books said a flashing orange light was). You could hear the applause from the sub come over the VHF after the songs and shouts of what they wanted to hear next. NO idea why they were on the surface or what kind of sub it was, too dark to tell. I suppose we were pretty conspicuous to a modern navy vessel on a well lit old wooden schooner with the VHF blaring country music.

I've never forgotten it and I do broadcast PAR in Capt. Larson's honor, for your listening pleasure, when well offshore in fine weather.

BV

[VALIS]

Paul,

A skipper of mine, who loved country music, used to broadcast what he called "Pacific Country Radio" (PAR) on channel 68 when we were more than 200 miles off shore. He'd stop between songs and ask for requests, and listen to Channel 16, just to have something to do in the middle of the ocean. ...

Beau, that is one of the best stories I've ever heard (at least one of the best involving radio). Thanks!

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But I thought that a sub was flashing yellow (amber)? I saw one of those once and had to look it up. Of course I couldn't tell yellow from orange at any distance...

[Soñadora]

wow Tim...2 miles/day? Hopefully not all in the same direction. Eventually, that's a pretty damn long walk back!

[Ish]

wow Tim...2 miles/day? Hopefully not all in the same direction. Eventually, that's a pretty damn long walk back!

It's OK, they gave him a sleeping bag, and it's a relatively warm climate. As long as he doesn't keep going due east or due west he'll be fine.