Doug Barnard wrote: Gerry wrote: > >Is there a similar traffic control in the San Juans to tell of my expected > >crossing of Rosario Strait? Channel number? > > I thought that everyone monitored Channel 16, then shifted to another to > talk. Am I wrong in this? Depends on the area. Where there are defined shipping lanes and "inland" waters, such as in Puget Sound and Georgia Strait (extends to/through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, I believe), shipping traffic is monitored somewhat like air traffic near busy air corridors. This keeps ships more or less aware of the other heavy hitters, and allows coordination of joint usage of turning zones, etc. A VHF channel is reserved for this. 16 is reserved for hailing and emergencies. The "traffic" channel in these areas gets too much use to be used for hailing. [In my area, 13 is used for bridge-to-bridge calls for shipping traffic in the Columbia River channel. I monitor it when I'm on the River, because I can pick up on conditions (fog, etc.) through eavesdropping on tugs and ships.] Yakkers crossing Rosario Strait can quickly become a hazard to shipping traffic they could not even see when they started their crossing. It's also nice to know of any heavy stuff headed your way before you start a crossing, and most (all?) ship's captains do not respond to the random "securite'" announcement on 16 -- the usual mechanism for warning of a crossing of the shipping channel. Hence, the use of "Seattle Traffic" to warn the big boys of some nearly invisible yaks crossing the lanes. Sometimes Seattle Traffic tells us to buzz off, I've heard. I've never used the service, so all my comments are based on second-hand info. Hagen should have better info. He lives up there. Should be a similar service for the lanes offshore of SoCal -- Santa Barbara Channel, etc. Ask around at the marina and see what the serious powerboat crowd does. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Jun 01 1998 - 22:19:02 PDT
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