Best turn off AIS if you're planning to break the rules

Irish Rover

Irish Rover

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I'm planning to head up the coast for a few days on Tuesday, and I had a look on Marine Traffic to see if my favourite anchorages are busy. I spotted this EU registered boat which came directly from Chios to a remote anchorage in Türkiye. The only nearby port of entry is Çeşme which would have been a much more direct crossing for him. Turkish Coast Guard and Customs will take a dim view if they nab him. What's he at? God knows!
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johnalison said:
Yes. I always go into stealth mode when I’m doing my people smuggling.
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Interestingly around 2020 time my AIS developed a wiring fault, when t(e connection to the splitter and hence the aerial seemed to have fallen off.
Surprisingly Marine Traffic still picked up signals in some locations. It seems that a metre of cable lying inside the cable run in the cabin was sufficient to transmit, so the 20m of mast and masthead aerial was unnecessary.
 
dunedin said:
Interestingly around 2020 time my AIS developed a wiring fault, when t(e connection to the splitter and hence the aerial seemed to have fallen off.
Surprisingly Marine Traffic still picked up signals in some locations. It seems that a metre of cable lying inside the cable run in the cabin was sufficient to transmit, so the 20m of mast and masthead aerial was unnecessary.
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It'll be all the guns, rifles and rpg launchers working as an aerial 🤔
 
guess he's trying to escape from the Chios fires :rolleyes: (would be a nice excuse anyhow...)

btw, will be in Mitilini in 3weeks time, meeting a couple of friends arriving from Copenhagen, will tour the island and plan was to go to Chios (not too sure about that tbh right now) and then go to Cesme were another couple of old friends have an 8m boat and recently bought a house there. Not familiar with the area at all, haven't finalised the logistics (as son and his gf will probably join from mainland with his car, daughter and her dog may also come for a while, it's going to be messy...) so may have to pick your brains a bit in a few weeks time!

cheers

V.
 
vas said:
guess he's trying to escape from the Chios fires :rolleyes: (would be a nice excuse anyhow...)

btw, will be in Mitilini in 3weeks time, meeting a couple of friends arriving from Copenhagen, will tour the island and plan was to go to Chios (not too sure about that tbh right now) and then go to Cesme were another couple of old friends have an 8m boat and recently bought a house there. Not familiar with the area at all, haven't finalised the logistics (as son and his gf will probably join from mainland with his car, daughter and her dog may also come for a while, it's going to be messy...) so may have to pick your brains a bit in a few weeks time!

cheers

V.
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Yes. I concluded that the next day when i read the news about the fire and I saw he sailed to Marathokampos on Samos. Dreadful situation in Chios. I was up that direction on the Turkish side the last few days and the temperatures were in the high 30's and strong winds so perfect weather for wildfires.
I'll be glad if I can offer you any advice for your trip to Türkiye. Çeşme is really nice but will be crazy busy in July/August, especially the traffic because of its proximity to Izmir.
 
Bahamas are now applying $1,000 fines to any vessel (including pleasure yachts) not transmitting on AIS at all times whilst in their waters. So fitting an AIS if you do not have one is now compulsory. Will become commonplace I guess.
 
Blue Seas said:
Bahamas are now applying $1,000 fines to any vessel (including pleasure yachts) not transmitting on AIS at all times whilst in their waters. So fitting an AIS if you do not have one is now compulsory. Will become commonplace I guess.
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That's going to be hard to enforce. I find that some boats have a good ariel and can be picked up more than 6 miles away but others only show when you approach within ½ a mile. I don't see how they will be able to enforce it, if they are monitoring AIS they won't see the boats that are not transmitting.
 
Seven Spades said:
That's going to be hard to enforce. I find that some boats have a good ariel and can be picked up more than 6 miles away but others only show when you approach within ½ a mile. I don't see how they will be able to enforce it, if they are monitoring AIS they won't see the boats that are not transmitting.
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They'll pick them up on radar and intercept them. I imagine that the need arises because of the international nature of their waters and, using my Eurocentric bias, the higher rate of nefarious activity in that general area. Presumably there has to be some way of defining the lower limit for applying the rule that doesn't include small day-boats.
 
Seven Spades said:
That's going to be hard to enforce. I find that some boats have a good ariel and can be picked up more than 6 miles away but others only show when you approach within ½ a mile. I don't see how they will be able to enforce it, if they are monitoring AIS they won't see the boats that are not transmitting.
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You have to clear in and out. So the authorities don't even have to go looking for you. You turn up, gotcha.

For those that evade clearance, that's when patrolling customs and immigration vessels come to you. Double trouble.
 
The Bahamas AIS rule is coming in at the same time as a five fold increase in the cost of cruising there. If you include the fishing and anchoring permits the cost is now $1650 for vessels above 34ft. They were already by far the most expensive place we'd ever cruised, at $300. Next most expensive is BVI at $85. So we won't be back, sadly.

However the AIS rule has been slightly amended and will only apply to vessels over 50ft.

Is there a legal standard for the range that AIS must be detectable, like for nav lights? We've encountered Jeff Bezos's yacht Korun several times and it only appeared on AIS when we were within about half a mile. They've probably got the aerial wrapped in tinfoil or something. They're definitely over the 300t limit so legally ought to have it.
 
Roberto said:
Fernando de Noronha (tiny Brazilian island in the middle of the Atlantic): national park etc so daily rates in 00s for both boat and number of people, IIRC we remained 3-4 days and spent abt700USD :(
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Ouch.
The problem with the Bahamas is that they don't offer a daily rate. It's either $2500 for two years or $1650 for one. $1350 without the fishing permit.
We'll have to transit that area next year; I just hope we can do it without having to stop.
 
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