Re: [Paddlewise] SV: Just received my Icom m32.

This post reminded me of an incident in Mexico while my wife and I
were cruising our 32-foot sailboat in the Pacific. I had lived and
worked in Latin America for years and so spoke Spanish. We were
anchored in La Paz harbor, where many cruising sailboats stop for a
few months waiting out the hurricane season before heading on down
into the South Pacific. It is also occupied by yachties who have
either decided to stay in the Sea of Cortez or who have, for one
reason or another, become more-or-less permanent. Some of them, no
doubt, became tired of listening to the continual fisherman chatter in
Spanish on Channel 16 .

After dinner one evening I heard a call in Spanish on channel 16 that
indicated there was a problem with a vessel entering the twisting (and
confusingly marked) channel leading up to the harbor. I responded in
Spanish to get the position and to help launch a rescue vessel and in
the middle of this there was a woman's voice, in American-accented
Spanish saying "cambio el canal por favor" (change the channel
please). I ignored her call and we finished the emergency
communications (still on Channel 16) until help was on the way to the
vessel in trouble.

The next morning I spent a few minutes on the yachtie morning VHF net
(on channel 68) explaining to them that they should not interfere with
communications on channel 16 unless they understood what the
conversation was about. Even then....

This happened 20 years ago but I'd be willing to bet that there are
still English-speaking yachties doing the same thing on channel 16 in
La Paz today. Nothing can substitute for common sense.

While English has become the common language of the shipping and
aircraft industry (after all, no one can know all the languages of all
the countries one can visit on a vessel), proper VHF procedures are
important in order to not interfere with what may be local emergencies
and also not leave a bad impression for the next visitor to deal with.

I believe it's important to carry a marine VHF simply because it is
ubiquitous and can be very effective in an emergency. Far more
effective than an FRS radio could be. But FRS is much better for
boat-to-boat chatter. I even use FRS between sailplanes.

As a final note, one must be cautious about putting EPIRBs on a kayak;
certain types are automatically activated by immersion in 3-5 feet of
water and could launch a rescue when none is needed.


On 4/18/05, Jens Viggo Moesmand <jensviggo_at_moesmand.dk> wrote:

> The language is another matter. The local language is always the right
> one and on top of that you may e.g. be able to use English. I wouldn't
> try to speak Danish to the Finnish authorities, and I would speak German
> when boating there.
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