Mistroma
Well-Known Member
Fair comment and we do indeed use a certain amount of hand signals but none of the above works when madam has her back turned to me and at present she insists on doing the deck work (all 8 stone of her) with me on the helm because helming makes her very nervous even in open water, let alone the confines of a marina
I doubt me she will ever have the confidence to helm the boat alongside a pontoon although a mooring buoy maybe
Her hearing is poor but not (yet) so bad as to need hearing aids but getting her attention is the major problem followed by my having to bellow questions and requests (aka instructions that may be carried out if the recipient feels so inclined)
We use a set when I'm up the mast twice each year, quite useful. Never used for mooring or anchoring. I use hand signals when retrieving the anchor, direction to anchor, ahead, slow, stop and reverse. Seems to work and I never turn around, simply signal behind my back. I just trust my wife to watch the signals, no big deal.
We use a £12 ebay remote windlass system when mooring stern to a quay. I trigger the remote which lets my wife know when to start running chain out, seems to work. She comes back to help with lines and we use the cheap remote to adjust the anchor chain.
Headset seems too much bother for mooring and anchoring as we manage without shouting about 99% of the time. I sometimes make a sign for "what's the depth? (index finger & thumb)" and get fingers held up showing metres depth. She sometimes shouts the depth but very, very rarely.
