First there is the “Sat phone” or satellite phone, which we dutifully turn on every morning as part of the preflight checklist. There is a fifteen digit number that you can purportedly dial and reach us anywhere in the world. How about that? We don’t know what it would cost to make that call, but it is reassuring to family that we can always be reached. Additionally, we have a fairly antiquated “SSB” or single sideband radio. The special benefit to this system is that, if you are smart enough to understand its vagaries, you can communicate with others of like knowledge from several hundred to several thousand miles away.
Of more benefit to us are the trio of VHF radios in the pilothouse. Chapman’s Piloting and Seamanship, courtesy of son Paul, describes the VHF short range communication system as “by domestic and international treaty, the prescribed vehicle for local communications, both ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore.” That’s a lot of verbiage for talk radio!
Mariners such as our insignificant selves, the Coast Guard, fishing and charter vessel owners, captains of tugs and tankers, commanders of warships and subs, all use VHF Channel 16 to hail each other. Channel 16 is to be used only to get the attention of another ship, no chatting is allowed and you will be reprimanded if you dawdle. Once hailed, another channel is chosen for the actual “talking”. Other channels have specific functions as well, but for now, let’s stay with 16. There are three levels of notification. Securite for announcements of general interest, Pan Pan( pronounced pawn pawn please!) for non life threatening situations, and Mayday. You guessed it! For example:
Radio voice: “Securite, securite, securite! Hello all stations, hello all stations, hello all stations. This is warship five-seven underway from point A to point B. Standing by on channels thirteen and sixteen for any and all concerned traffic. Over.”
Concerned traffic??? Of course we are concerned! What is he thinking? And where is point A? Point B?
Or there’s this:
Coast Guard: “Pan pan, pan pan, pan pan! Hello all stations, (etc., etc.) This is the United States Coast Guard, Sector Chesapeake Bay, (etc., etc.) We have received a report of a disabled vessel on the rocks at ABC point, taking on water with two adults on board! All mariners are requested to keep a sharp lookout, assist if possible and report all sightings to the Coast Guard. Break.”
Captain Bill: “This is the motor vessel ‘Let’s Dance‘. We are in the vicinity of the disabled boat and will arrive at their location in approximately 20 minutes!”
We step on it and, with a slightly altered course, soon come upon the rock-ridden boat. Luckily, a swifter good Samaritan arrived ahead of us and the soaked couple were safe aboard his boat. Sadly, not such a happy finale for their little skiff.
Other notable transmissions received this summer included notices of a debris field from a sunken sailboat in Boston Bay; the salvage effort by a professional team of a 120 foot yacht that had run aground near Woods Hole; the cursing frustration of fishermen whose lines were fouled by irresponsible boaters; latitude and longitude of errant trees and lumber in the upper Chesapeake Bay set afloat upstream by runoff from “Lee” and other dramas, both natural and man made.
So, to the trio of VHF’s in the pilothouse -- one attached to the boat, two freestanding to take with us to other parts of the boat or in the Love Me Tender. She, of course, has her own built-in VHF radio, but we often take an extra -- just in case. Also, when piloting from the fly bridge, a VHF radio is just the thing to keep Captain Bill in touch with the outside world.
For intra-boat communication we boast a pair of wireless two-way radios. Definitely one of our better acquisitions! Thanks for the heads up, Captain Bernie! The headsets assure marital harmony as well as ease of communication when anchoring, docking, mooring, etc. We have encountered many couples in the past year (picture her on the bow, him in the pilothouse as they approach an anchorage) who appear to have developed a system of hand signals to indicate whether to go to port or starboard, forward or back. An equal number of couples appear to just yell loudly at each other. With our headsets we can do it all!
And then there is our friend “Spot”. We are able to send out a “spot” whenever we like, from anywhere in the world and it sends a short message and a Google map of our location to up to ten of our closest friends. It’s pretty cool, and cute besides. Reminds me of a rather bright orange puppy!
Last, but perhaps most importantly, we have satellite TV, satellite weather stations, cell phones and a laptop. Oh, and lots of music!
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| The Admiral doing engine check |
I'm hoping that if the boating thing doesn't work out that I can get a gig with a NASCAR pit crew.
Let’s Dance…..Carol and Bill
