Concluding a Safety Watch once in France.

[STATUE]

If a Safety Watch is logged with the local coastguard in the UK when one has commenced a passage across the Channel, what do you do to inform that coastguard that you have arrived safely?

I don't mean the rule book, what practically do you do.

Thanks.

 

[MoodySabre]

You could phone them. If you do nothing then they will not chase it.

What I do, and I believe they prefer this, is for someone in the UK to be your contact and for them to notify the coastguard if you haven't confirmed arrival within the timeframe that you set. I leave my CG66 card with my wife or daughter and say if I haven't rung you by xxxxhrs then call this number.

 

[LadyInBed]

Nothing to CG
They assume safe arrival unless they hear different.
Phone home or whoever to let them know of safe arrival.
If you don't arrive, then your 'shore party' should Inform CG who may well know if you have already called them, sent mayday or set off PIB.

 

[Sybarite]

Nothing to CG
They assume safe arrival unless they hear different.
Phone home or whoever to let them know of safe arrival.
If you don't arrive, then your 'shore party' should Inform CG who may well know if you have already called them, sent mayday or set off PIB.

I remember my first proper crossing which was France to Corsica. I duly went to the harbour master and told him I was going to cross to Corsica. He shrugged and said "Et alors...?"

 

[Robin]

iIn the days when we were regular X-Channelers between Poole and Cherbourg I would try and call HMCG on the VHF when just off the French coast and most times got through Ok, we had a good VHF set with the aerial high up, mounted atop a 50ft deck stepped mast and were calling from say off Cherbourg to either Portland or Solent CGs both of which have their aerials on high ground. It doubled as a decent radio check too, much better than a call from just 5mls . if we couldn't reach them via VHF directly then we would call The French CG, who would always happily pass on the safe arrival message as and when they could, failing that we tried to let HMCG know by mobilephone call. However as others have said, not notifying them doesn't start off a massive search.

 

[SteveSarabande]

You could phone them. If you do nothing then they will not chase it.

What I do, and I believe they prefer this, is for someone in the UK to be your contact and for them to notify the coastguard if you haven't confirmed arrival within the timeframe that you set. I leave my CG66 card with my wife or daughter and say if I haven't rung you by xxxxhrs then call this number.

A CG66 card? I don't remember getting one of those. Are they standard issue

 

[Daydream believer]

You could phone them. If you do nothing then they will not chase it.

What I do, and I believe they prefer this, is for someone in the UK to be your contact and for them to notify the coastguard if you haven't confirmed arrival within the timeframe that you set. I leave my CG66 card with my wife or daughter and say if I haven't rung you by xxxxhrs then call this number.

So there is not a lot of use telling them. If you do not arrive then the shore party or people back home may raise the alarm. However, if there is no one then the CG would not know or do anything
is that what you are saying?

On reading Roger Oliver's book about sailing round Uk he regularly reported to the CG
However, when I was doing the same & was crossing the Bristol Channel fog came down & I was worried about being run down.
I called the CG & reported fog & they seemed totally disinterested about my call & I felt embarrassed doing it

After that i no longer call except in an emergency--
However, in the one instance that I had a problem the CG ( forth) were extremely helpful & i could not have asked for better service
They even had a mobile CG meet me at the dock side in Eyemouth--so full marks for the - now defunct-- Forth CG

As the Cg is reduced to a central service will we still get the same dedication or will it be the Bristol Channel mob all over again???

 

[[3889]]

You can request HMCG do act as your shore contact but you must ask specifically, and don't forget to confirm safe arrival.

 

[DJE]

So there is not a lot of use telling them. If you do not arrive then the shore party or people back home may raise the alarm. However, if there is no one then the CG would not know or do anything
is that what you are saying?

.

They want you to have and to use a responsible shore contact. I would have thought the reasons for that were pretty obvious given the number of leisure vessels around our coasts. If you are reported overdue they will check their records to see if you advised them of a passage plan and to see if that tallies with what you told your shore contact.

Personally I trust my shore contact and I don't generally advise passage plans to the CG. Those that do - what do you do on leaving France for England? Do you advise the French CROSS? And do you contact them again on arrival?

 

[sailorman]

.

They want you to have and to use a responsible shore contact. I would have thought the reasons for that were pretty obvious given the number of leisure vessels around our coasts. If you are reported overdue they will check their records to see if you advised them of a passage plan and to see if that tallies with what you told your shore contact.

Personally I trust my shore contact and I don't generally advise passage plans to the CG. Those that do - what do you do on leaving France for England? Do you advise the French CROSS? And do you contact them again on arrival?

I do the same as you, i have never told the CG of a passage plan. I cant see the point.

 

[Sandy]

A CG66 card? I don't remember getting one of those. Are they standard issue

No, but a really good idea as it gives the CG details about your boat and can be done online. Often uploading the picture of the boat is a pain but the CG are really helpfull and can do that for you, well they did in Brixham.

http://www.dft.gov.uk/mca/mcga07-home/emergencyresponse/mcga-searchandrescue/cg66.htm

 

[LadyInBed]

A CG66 card? I don't remember getting one of those. Are they standard issue

https://afrmmcanet.mcga.gov.uk/formspublic/CG/MSF6037.pdf

 

[MoodySabre]

View attachment 42872

A CG66 card? I don't remember getting one of those. Are they standard issue

A postcard sized card on which you enter your details etc to hand to your shore contact. You could make your own

Oops. Mobile upload!

 

[chanelyacht]

From a CGs perspective...

Firstly, noone should ever be made to feel uncomfortable calling us for anything. It may be sometimes that we've other things running and might not be as chatty as usual, but thats no excuse for an unprofessional reception to a call.

On passage plans, I personally don't mind them - in fact we encourage them for international passages, and if filing one makes someone feel more secure, that's good with me. It is true we don't launch SAR activity as soon as someone is overdue, but having that plan, and knowing when and how it was filed gives us a good idea for search start points if the alarm is raised. They are NOT a waste of time.

As for arriving in countries other than the UK, personally I'd lodge your arrival with local authorities - coastguard, harbour office, etc. It again gives us a record if we need to start following up non arrival.

The one biggy though - if you change your destintation during your passage, please update us and your shore contacts!

 

[chanelyacht]

I do the same as you, i have never told the CG of a passage plan. I cant see the point.

I'm on a tablet today so don't feel like typing huge amounts. When I'm home tomorrow I'll set what we do for overdue reports - so you can see how many stages a passage plan cuts out, which hopefully means you'd be found quicker!

 

[STATUE]

Well, that puts that into perspective.

Thanks everyone for your good advice.

Regards.

 

[Robin]

.

They want you to have and to use a responsible shore contact. I would have thought the reasons for that were pretty obvious given the number of leisure vessels around our coasts. If you are reported overdue they will check their records to see if you advised them of a passage plan and to see if that tallies with what you told your shore contact.

Personally I trust my shore contact and I don't generally advise passage plans to the CG. Those that do - what do you do on leaving France for England? Do you advise the French CROSS? And do you contact them again on arrival?

IN the reply I made earlier and relating to regular passages betwixt Poole and Cherbourg like we used to do, we would call UKCG from just outside Cherbourg and again get a useful, long range, radio check as we usually managed to make contact even on bad reception day if we were5 miles off France before the Solent chatter/radiocheck mob quieted down enough for our call to be heard.

We had a CG66 filed with Portland CG and updated it with any changes that occurred too, why not, it is a free service that might prove valuable? Did we report every voyage by radio however minor, no but if headed foreign we did if only as a useful radiocheck without joining in with the irritating numptiness and crowd cacophony of calling for one whilst still tied up in our berth. By informing the CG of a X-Channel they were also aware of where we were likely to be and could and did (albeit rarely) ask us to confirm actual weather/sea conditions to advise to others and of course if there was reason to, ask us to look out for any reported incidents ( we had a couple involving overdue small aircraft and one time even found a bit of aircraft wreckage although it turned out to be unrelated.

 

[DJE]

Robin,

That sounds like and exceptional vhf installation you had there. Did you use it to contact UK coastguard as you departed Cherbourg on the return leg?

I too have a full CG66 record filed with the coastguard but I prefer to use text messages to my shore contact rather than filing a passage plan via vhf. (My shore contact is an experienced yachtsman so is well aware of the situations that can arise at sea.) The inconsistencies involved with filing a plan but not reporting on arrival and filing a plan on the outward leg but not on the return leg are putting me off as much as anything. That and the fact that CROSS JOBURG always seem to be very busy dealing with the Casquets TSS.

I will be very interested in Channelyacht's reply tomorrow to get the Coastguard's point of view. He might change my mind.

 

[prv]

Robin,

That sounds like and exceptional vhf installation you had there.

I've never tried to talk to Solent from Alderney or Cherbourg, but I can certainly hear them. Likewise I quite often hear Jobourg Traffic in the Solent.

Is my installation "exceptional"? Well, it's a Salty John Metz aerial and a Standard Horizon GX2100 radio - both quite common choices among the enlightened members of this forum . I did take care to use quality cable in the mast - it's about 10mm diameter with a very high braid coverage figure. The shorter run from mast foot to radio is thinner, to snake it more easily through the interior fitout, but it's again a quality piece of cable and decent plugs.

In Kindred Spirit, with a bog standard old aerial, downlead, and deck plug, Solent used to fade out before we reached the shipping lanes.

Pete

 

[Robin]

I've never tried to talk to Solent from Alderney or Cherbourg, but I can certainly hear them. Likewise I quite often hear Jobourg Traffic in the Solent.

Is my installation "exceptional"? Well, it's a Salty John Metz aerial and a Standard Horizon GX2100 radio - both quite common choices among the enlightened members of this forum . I did take care to use quality cable in the mast - it's about 10mm diameter with a very high braid coverage figure. The shorter run from mast foot to radio is thinner, to snake it more easily through the interior fitout, but it's again a quality piece of cable and decent plugs.

In Kindred Spirit, with a bog standard old aerial, downlead, and deck plug, Solent used to fade out before we reached the shipping lanes.



Pete

We replaced the aerial and cabling on our last UK boat immediately after purchase ( but used it continuosly for10 years thereafter) it was a V-tronix wih windex I believe. We had 4 VHF sets in 10 years, an excellent inherited one whose make I forget but it had a telephone handset as standard, a NASA SSC Which was poor and refused to talk to the Navman GPS and lastly a Navman (7100??) which was also excellent. THE key I think is good cabling and antenna height. Our last boat had a tall rig, the mast itself measured over 50ft top to bottom and a bit more aerial, plus mast mounted o deck adds a bit more height, then again Solent CG and Portland CG aerials are also on high ground aiding with line of sight High pressure tmospheric conditions also seemed to help with exceptional VHF reception.

Whilst excellent VHF performance was mostly very useful it was a veritable PITA for picking up totally irrelevant banshee DSC alerts from stations hundreds of miles away, finally resolved with the Navman VHF set that allowed DSC reception to be selectively toggled 'off' in favour of the EU internal waterway system a design/software quirk possibly but one I took advantage of gladly at the time..

We were once able to make a VHF link call via Lands End Radio when we were moored in l'Aberac'h River, I had just heard them transmitting and so gave it a try and was answered immediately. we had an ICOm SSB MF Set on board too but only ever used that for weatherfaxes Navtex etc, and occasional reception of voice forecasts