marine safety calls

bastonjock

bastonjock

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hi guys

I shall be off on thursday with the intent of sailing up the east coast for a couple of weeks.I will be sailing solo so i was wondering about marine safety calls,do you guys call the coast guard to let them know when you are heading out?
 
Nope. Tell relatives where going and when expected back, but that's because they're nosy anyway, and the animals might need feeding too, but otherwise no need.
 
thats what i usually do but!! daughers are in Greece,wife is on a 5 day jolly,the dogs are in kennels,the horses are being looked after.

Guess i could pester my son
 
A few times on long solo passages, only if the radio is quiet, I have called up the CG for a chat and have always found them more than happy to pass a little time talking about whats going on, weather etc.. Nothing official in it, just lets them know were you are, where you are going, lets you know the radio is working fine, and adds to that all important "all is well" feeling.

How was Santorini by the way ?
 
I guess it rather depends on what sort of response you are expecting.

For instance, if you log your passage plan with the CG and you don't call in again when you arrive safely, what do you think happens?

Does the CG launch a search and rescue mission when you are overdue, or does he just assume you have reached your destination and are now in the pub?

I don't know, but I think the CG only responds when a person ashore reports their loved one overdue. That being the case, there doesn't seem to be much point in telling the CG that you have gone out sailing.

Should you encounter some sort of problem while out sailing, that's a different matter. If you call in and say the nature of your problem, the CG will keep tabs on you until you have solved the problem or are back safely.
 
If you do call the CG to tell them your intentions (they call it a TR, Traffic Report) they will note it but they will NOT initiate any action to find you if you don't tell them you've arrived. Only if someone else reports you overdue will they start looking. Hence the need to tell another party what you are doing, not forgetting to inform them when you have arrived.
Believe it or not, the latter thing happens, on the CG locally I have been involved in searches for solitary yacht skippers who invariably turn up safe and sound having 'forgotten' to tell their contact that they had arrived.
If you want to tell Thames CG your plans, call 'em on 16 and ask for 'routine traffic'. They will then switch you to 67 to take the details.
 
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We normally leave a copy of our CG66 registration with someone, with instructions what to do.

Then a quick text to let them know when we're sailing somewhere and when we expect to arrive.

On arrival another quick text to say we're safely there. Just make sure you get an acknowledgement text back.

Having said this we normally only do this on more adventurous trips otherwise its comes a pain for all concerned.
 
Shamal said:
We normally leave a copy of our CG66 registration with someone, with instructions what to do.

Then a quick text to let them know when we're sailing somewhere and when we expect to arrive.

On arrival another quick text to say we're safely there. Just make sure you get an acknowledgement text back.

Having said this we normally only do this on more adventurous trips otherwise its comes a pain for all concerned.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's what we do.

And laugh at the people sending in passage plans for the 5-mile trip between Harwich and Walton!

Confession time:
Last year, in the Netherlands, we forgot to text the shore contact for about 3 days - we were fine, sailing happily between Frisian islands in the Waddensee. He got worried and tried to phone - phone was off, of course, and eventually he phoned the CG, who put him in contact with the Dutch coastguard, who put out a message on Ch 16 - we didn't hear it, of course. We sailed into a harbour next day to be greeted by the harbour master who said "All North Holland is looking for you". We phoned our contact and the CG, and apologised to everyone for causing trouble. They said they were just glad we were ok, and that was what they were there for - we still felt awful.
 
CPD said:
A few times on long solo passages, only if the radio is quiet, I have called up the CG for a chat and have always found them more than happy to pass a little time talking about whats going on, weather etc.. Nothing official in it, just lets them know were you are, where you are going, lets you know the radio is working fine, and adds to that all important "all is well" feeling.

How was Santorini by the way ?
Click to expand...

santorini was beautifull,it was expensive,considering it was the height of the season the bars down the beach were empty.The place really is gorgeous


thanks for all the input guys,i shall be leaving in the morning by way of the river nene and my target destination is Lindisfarne and the holy isle,i have a plan to sail up the east coast and return.

i intend to pop into some interesting places and hopefully have a great sail for two weeks
 
Why not do a nathan lee and give us an update as you go!

If we don't hear anything within 4 weeks we will alert the coastguard.

Is that OK?
 
I sailed up to Saltfleet on Sunday, from Boston, was told there that if you leave the haven and head south, it's Yarmouth CG, go north and it's Humber CG.

Hope you get some of the weather I enjoyed! :)
 
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