re radiochecks down under

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Eightball

Eightball

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11 Feb 2005
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brisbane qld aussie land-
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hi all i thought maybe you would like to know our radio procedures. when we arrive at boat we must contact the coast gaurd. gos something like this .brisbane coast gaurd re peat 3 times then your call sign then you tell them where you are going how many folk are aboard and when you8 expect to be back.if you are doing long trip they pass you on to next area and you report in every 2 hrs if you do not they call you up i f no answer they will start looking for you.i think we have a wonderfull sytem. and we are in contact at all times we use 90 and 82 relay stations. and 88 and only use 16 for the bad stuff mayday ect and to talk to the big tankers and the likes when in there domain and for entering our harbours to warn all ships we are entering port . so what do you lot think of this/?? good or not dave /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
David it sounds wonderful but my experience of sailing/cruising up your coast was that your system which is mainly manned by volunteers was not quite as perfect as intended! My first leg in one hit from Sydney towards Brisbane I tried to obey the system rules but found that frequently the radio stations did not in fact pass me on to the next station.

To make matters worse - anchored in Lady Musgrave lagoon in heavy weather 2 other yachts went on the reef with waves breaking over them. I got on the radio to the local station and after being told by the volunteer operator it was too rough to launch the life boat - he suggested I should get in my rubber dinghy and rescue the crew in distress off the reef myself. When I said that was not only impractical but impossible he then informed me that there was nothing else he could do. I insisted there had to be something we could do and eventually he gave me a telephone land line number for the police who may be able to help. I then contacted another yacht who had a sat phone and they contacted the police who sent a helicopter and saved the lives of the crews on board the stricken yachts....

Give me professionals any time!
 
Not the first time the subject of different practices between UK and Oz has come up. I find that most Australians have no concept of just how crowded our land and waters are! From my experience of both, I estimate that the number of boats per square mile of sea around the UK coast is two orders of magnitude (i.e. 100x) higher than anywhere in Australia outside Sydney harbour.

Yes, a great system for big areas and small numbers of boats but no chance of it working here, even leaving aside the fact that the British are so much less law-abiding than the Aussies.
 
Since about 2 years ago there is no official VHF system at all now in Oz Michael. All VHF is now run by amateurs or the state governments so VHF there is probably even less reliable now than what you experienced.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority now only operate MF/HF and INMARSAT (and of course, EPIRB's) for the official safety radio system (I think their reasons for doing so were valid, so not criticising them). Official trip reports can now only be made on MF/HF (or INMARSAT, if you have it /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif) and then they are only accepted for long coastal voyages.

John
 
hi sorry to hear you had the problem you state i remember this happening .we were told that the two yatchs concernd were warned before hand to move as storm was comeing as you know they dident and ended up on reef its not a good place to anker at the best of times .like most places on our coast its good when its good and darn right murder when its rough. holding bottom is poor in most places here. ive also not had the problems you had comeing up coast ive allways had good coverage by our coast watch boys as everyone seems to know over there that we have only volunteers kitted out with powerfull cats and ribs and are on watch 24hrs a day and are fully back up with the water police who are in full charge of all s,a.r. we now have 24hr listening watch on 27meg and vhf and you can contact them still 24hrs on these channels.they also run mf hf but nearly every man and his dog only use 27 meg or vhf as that is the norm and our boys deal wth thousans of calls a day as we are sailing all year round not like the boys in uk and we travel long distances here as everything is so far away.any thanks for reply happy sailing dave
 
yes dead right but realy daft . or your realy dum if you dont i would never leave port with out doing so i like my family to much to put them in any unessary worry while out at sea.or when they are with me i think its my responsiblity too look after them in every way possible dont you? and its free so whats the problem with loggingon and loggingoff when you return are you one of those that just pop off and then get into trouble and no one knows where you are or where you where going hope your not but there are a few out there
 
hi sorry to see you have no idear of what goes on here they closed down because no one called them any time that i can recall we all use the coast guard so they realy were not needed as cg stations are about 3or 4 miles apart all way up coast and getting better all the time
 
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yes dead right but realy daft . or your realy dum if you dont i would never leave port with out doing so i like my family to much to put them in any unessary worry while out at sea.or when they are with me i think its my responsiblity too look after them in every way possible dont you? and its free so whats the problem with loggingon and loggingoff when you return are you one of those that just pop off and then get into trouble and no one knows where you are or where you where going hope your not but there are a few out there

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You appear to be confusing looking after your family with someone else actually looking after your family. I try to treat the voluntary help of others as non existent, so anything I do, or any get out plans relies entirely upon my decision.

Should something go awry, then I would thank the goodness of human kind for trying to get me out of it. But to treat that as part of my everyday passage backup, seems somewhat selfish really.

I am sure this is not what you meant, but the system you describe does seem to remove responsibility for your own actions a little!
 
sorry to see you have no idear of what goes on here

Don't actually know what made you claim that because I was at pains in my post to point out that I was not criticising the reasons for AMSA's removal of the official VHF safety service. However, I do know the reasons for the removal, and they go beyond the reason you give.

Furthermore, I had actually restrained myself from commenting on your claim that you are required to make trip reports, although to my knowledge Queensland Transport (assuming you are in Brisbane) had no requirement for such - subsequently another has clarified that your claim is incorrect and I have found no reference to such in Queensland Transport's requirements. So, as it seems that you want me to treat you as an imbecile I can now confidently tell you that you are talking a load of rubbish.

As to submitting trip reports, I am in agreement with what Ships_Woofy says.

John
 
hi yes you are right i just do it as one of my back up things to do . i try to cover all posibilitys before i leave any port to make my trip as safe as possible and have a good back up but yes i only realy rely o n me . as in most cases i fix it . as im the one thats there but if i need help ill take that too every man to his own. happy sailing dave
 
hi i dont think i said anywhere that you have to just that i do every time i leave port as it is there for me to use and most nerlyall that i know here do so to and i have never said any thing at all about qld transport so dont no were you got that from??? all i said was this is what we do down under look at my very first post nothing about haveing to . and it takes one to know one . your a man after all regards dave
 
Dave hi - just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the trip up your coast - The Great Barrier Reef was a good experience - loved Cairns, fascinated by Cook Town and enjoyed Dawin enourmusly - Torres was great fun too.... The volunteer radio service was useful as they gave me the number of the police to call out the rescue helicopter but after that I did not bother to give them radio reports any more than I would bother to give UK CC passage reports. My choice.

There were 6 yachts anchored in Lady Musgrave when the weather warning came in. 1 Local boat did a runner to another safer anchorage 90 miles away that he knew of and was fine I think. 4 out of the 5 remaining boats moved out into the centre of the lagoon leaving one fairly inexperienced boat anchored close to the Island. (I had no local knowlage and felt it was better to ride out the storm where I was than try to make a port or anchorage I did not know - possibly in the dark and certainly in challenging conditions!)

During the night the anchor chain of one of the re-anchored boats snapped and he re-anchored several times, wrapped his prop with an anchor warp, I let him hang off me for an hour or two until the warp wrapped a bommy and broke. Up on the reef he went as did the inexperienced boat anchored close to the island and reef in poor holding... The inexperienced boat was a write off but the other boat (steel) eventually bounced over the reef and ended up on that long beach north of Galveston... I picked up the owner in Galveston???? later and took him to the beach and he was able to recover her with some local help........

I found there were stacks of anchorages between Sydney and Darwin and going in that direction it was pretty easy cruising - would have hated to have gone the other way to windward!!!!! Overall an excellent experience - did not dive or swim enough mainly because of my fear of crocks, sea snake, jellyfish etc but the diving I did do was very good.
 
sorry john i did say MUST . been doing it now for 43 years so it now seems like one must. as it is just part of mydeparture list .and we are encoraged to do it and if going up coast. the coast gaurd like you to put in a trip list and to leave one with some one at home family member or friend.and there are also boxes at some launch sites for you to put them in also and one of the coast gaurd guys pick them up.and thats how it is HERE. may not be eles where in aus as every state as its own idears and all these idears are made up by boaties to try and make it safer . regards dave
 
hi michael.thanks for the mail you surly had an aventure here . its a funney set up here with our cg as they are all vols and they do try to help but when it gets realy bad its not the place to be .we have no all weather boats here at all that i no of like u.k as and all us locals no not to be out there . but we do get caught out some time and its not realy bad as you had so the boats cg got can come and get us if we need them. big storms if we need help we co0ntact police on channel 63and as you no they will get help to you one way or another.our cg only realy cater for busted gear no engines and some storm recovery when they can get out to you .it is a wonder full place to see and sail around .and yes we have things that will eat you .but you would have to be realy unlucky. but you could be the one. the whjtsundays are the greatest you must have loved it all way up to darwin . was weather ok as you went .anyway thanks again for mail .also love your web had a good look at it you have had a good life same as me travel and adventure all over the world ,and still doing it might bump into you one day. till then happy sailing and fair wind on the seas ahead regards dave
 
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