351 in 50,000 might not sound much unless its the one you need or use!
If you were really worried about that you would install Radar.
and yet we don’t have street lights on all roads, or even cats eyes everywhere… it’s like someone has to make an economic balancing act to decide if these things actually still make sense in these locations.
I hope that you do realise that cat's eyes only work because they reflect the light from your headlights.
Eh? What's the sun reflected off? You're confused between light sources, and the reflected light off surfaces.Eyes only work because they see light reflected off things.......
Eyes see things as a process where light reflects off objects, enters the eye, gets focused by the cornea and lens onto the retina, which converts it into electrical signals, and then the optic nerve sends these signals to the brain, which interprets them as recognizable images, flipping them right-side up and adding color/depth
Mind you, laterals would need some paint touch up, that IALA A/B stuff.So I ask again, what's the sun reflected off when you see it? No amount of quoting Wikipedia please.
Would that be those special underwater radars that show up sand banks etc?
In my defence, it was entered as such to illustrate that it's an aid. All aids should be gratefully accepted. These buoys, that they're possibly removing, won't affect the majority of vessels, but what it's doing is removing one slice of "Swiss Cheese", which will reduce the safety margin for those who need it the most.
GPS doesn’t show you the location of the sand banks it shows you where you are relative to chart. Likewise Radar shows you where you are relative to the fixed objects above the water. If for some reason you really need to go particularly close to sand banks, especially sand banks which move - then if the bouys can be relied on to guide you through that is great (but they are unlikely to be the ones that any navigation authority is removing). In that case though they can no longer be trusted to give you the exact position referred to above as they may have moved! If this really is your reality then in the absence of bouys you may need forward looking sonar (underwater radar effectively!) and great caution - but unless you trust charts to miraculously update between your visits that might be helpful anyway!
I have been trying to imagine what navigating without marks would be like. In places like the Thames Estuary, for example, I am far from convinced that radar would be a direct alternative to a GPS chartplotter due to the underwater hazards. However, I have never used radar, so perhaps it is possible. Or did I misunderstand your post 23?
Come to Scotland then. Probably have at least 2/3rds of UK coastline and more than our fair share of hidden rocks.
I think you’ve understood the gist - that IF the PLA (or whoever looks after the bouys) decides to get rid of navigation bouys AND someone maliciously interferes with AIS and GPS then Radar would seem to provide an alternative way to affirm your location when you can’t see shore landmarks. I think it’s unlikely that the PLA would be removing the bouys anythime soon though.
Assuming, of course, the mark is on-station. At West Highland Week, the race committee used a southerly cardinal mark off Kerrera as a mark of the course. Only one boat sank, after several hit the rock the mark was supposed to be marking but wasn't because it was off-station.
Sorry but times when GPS let me down:0