I cant believe how retarded some of the people are down here! Who drives around in a boat with no lights on at night? You would think it would be common sense but apparently its not. The other night I came damn close to hitting a small unlit fishing vessel i couldnt see on the radar. Fortunately he turned on his lights at the last minute so i could scoot around him but i literally almost crapped my pants!
Oh well, I guess thats how it is in these third world countries…for now on i’ll be using the spot-light extensively on my watch!
Try working in West Africa. Fishermen in tiny dugout canoes group together a couple miles offshore, no lights, nothing. They do this all night and take turns sleeping. As you get close, ‘something seems to be’ on the radar, and it’s about that time that the one guy that (hopefully) stays awake wakes up the others. They all spring awake and light their ‘rolled newspaper torches’ and begin frantically waving them to get your attention.
Your watch goes from complete darkness to ‘what the heck is that’ to Pink Floyd concert in the space of about 2 minutes.
Yes it is interesting out there. But usually if you have decent radars and less than 5 foot waves, it is possible to spot them on the radar more than six miles off. Waves greater then those and its not likely that they’ll leave port.
That said, I fear fishing vessels the most in all types of seagoing vessels my ship might out at sea.
Man its hard to spot them on a radar with a 12 inch screen and no ARPA…we just got this new radar and ive had hell trying to get it tuned just right, when you turn trails on it just fills the screen up with blue clutter…
[QUOTE=Deftsound;25233]Man its hard to spot them on a radar with a 12 inch screen and no ARPA…we just got this new radar and ive had hell trying to get it tuned just right, when you turn trails on it just fills the screen up with blue clutter…[/QUOTE]
Dontcha love it when they toss new bells and whistles on board but don’t think to provide any training on how to use them? Classic.
[quote=Deftsound;25152]I cant believe how retarded some of the people are down here! Who drives around in a boat with no lights on at night? You would think it would be common sense but apparently its not. The other night I came damn close to hitting a small unlit fishing vessel i couldnt see on the radar. Fortunately he turned on his lights at the last minute so i could scoot around him but i literally almost crapped my pants!
Oh well, I guess thats how it is in these third world countries…for now on i’ll be using the spot-light extensively on my watch![/quote]
They may just be paranoid from Peruvian Flake. If their lights are on, you can see them.
Yep…'cause the search light makes dat spot you can move. If it’s on, it’s da spot light. Some dummy called it a spot before coming on…dats funny.
Dat can’t be a water hose until the water is in it, so it’s a hose pipe until den. You don’t call it a garden hose with no garden, but it’s da same damn ting. Depends how it’s being used at da time.
Seriously, even Carlisle & Finch has a product called a “night finder” (that is very good), but actually you found night pretty good to need their product. The term is trademarked.
<meta http-equiv=“Content-Type” content=“text/html; charset=utf-8”><meta name=“ProgId” content=“Word.Document”><meta name=“Generator” content=“Microsoft Word 9”><meta name=“Originator” content=“Microsoft Word 9”><link rel=“File-List” href=“file:///C:/Users/CAPTER%7E1/AppData/Local/Temp/msoclip1/01/clip_filelist.xml”><!–[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:DoNotOptimizeForBrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]–><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:“Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:“Times New Roman”;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style>I grew up in the Bahamas, they don’t like lights there ether. But I do remember running out of Destin Florida back in the early 80s, coming up on tugs with a tow, They never lit their lights until what seemed to be the last minute. And I can tell you first hand if you see tow lights over your left shoulder, what you don’t want to see over your right. But as far and Peru goes, Their not much on rules and their not going to change any time soon and Id still rather be out their with you guys - Eric ( captsirl@yahoo.com )
Yeah, the first time I encountered this was as a 3rd Mate off the coast of India. The Chief Mate saw the mess from deck and came to help (I put him on the helm!) then I called the Captain for more backup.
The Captain took one look out the window and said “Yep, your probably F@$$@'d” and turned to head back to his Cabin.
I asked him where he was going and he said “I’m over 60, there is no way I could do a better job picking out these little bastards than you’re already doing… just don’t pick up any more speed” and he left.
I ran into a lot of this, delivering private boats/yachts up and down the coast of Mexico…When you happen across floating plastic bottles/jugs and assume it’s just garbage, it’s not! These are bouys for fishing or crab trap markers and there is probably a small panga or other assorted small open vessels nearby…If your lucky the boat has a flag sticking up but at night, it doesn’t make much difference…I’ve ran into these guys as far as 20 miles off the coast…unreal…
[QUOTE=john;25334]Yeah, the first time I encountered this was as a 3rd Mate off the coast of India. The Chief Mate saw the mess from deck and came to help (I put him on the helm!) then I called the Captain for more backup.
The Captain took one look out the window and said “Yep, your probably F@$$@'d” and turned to head back to his Cabin.
I asked him where he was going and he said “I’m over 60, there is no way I could do a better job picking out these little bastards than you’re already doing… just don’t pick up any more speed” and he left.[/QUOTE]
I like that Captain. I’m sure he knew what he had in the bridge.
well today when i was on watch i passed through about 100 sail-boat’s, at first i thought i was driving through a regatta until we got real close to one or two i saw they were all fishing! Of course, none of them had lights or anything, i was just happy it was during the day time…
