Whisky Golf.

We are heading back to Steveston. The live-fire torpedo range Whisky Golf is active today. Lotsa boats being warned! I'm looking across at a submarine at the surface with an attending helicopter overhead. The sub is outside the range. Strange. It's a first for us. A sub sighting that is.

Jim

From the profile and the shape of the conning tower, it looks to be one of the RCN's Victoria-class subs.

Don't get too close to it, they spontaneously combust or just sink. You could get sucked down with it.

At first I thought this thread was yet another missive about Donald Trump, now I realise that the North Koreans have mistakenly invaded Canada, having got their GPS co-ordinates for California mixed up.

And I thought that would make watching golf much more interesting!

Andy G said:

At first I thought this thread was yet another missive about Donald Trump, now I realise that the North Koreans have mistakenly invaded Canada, having got their GPS co-ordinates for California mixed up.

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Nawww,
I t's those yanks that have their nav mucked up.

I thought the range was primarily used by the US

In all the years that I have crossed Georgia Straits never has Whisky Golf been closed to marine traffic. So this year it never entered my mind to even check. As we started to get closer to the area, a small boat off in the distance started coming our way, and I could see a larger ship way off in the distance. I checked my chart and could not see the boundaries for the range, so kept going while keeping my eye on that small boat coming my way. When it got close enough I could see it was a military boat, I'm thinking something is not right. I turned around and the patrol boat stopped.

All this time I'm thinking my charts should be showing those boundaries. Finally I figured it out. When I was setting up my charts, I had selected a option that eliminated a lot what I thought was unnecessary clutter, not realizing that included the boundaries for Whisky Golf. Once I turned it back on, I looked at my tracks and we turned around right on the line. Another few minutes and we would have been chatting with that patrol boat.

WG is rarely closed on weekends but Monday thru Friday it is often active in the summer. Since I usually travel from Silva Bay to Welcome Pass it's easy to scirt the edges.

It's not unusual to have the USCG require one to move out of the shipping channel in Suisun Bay toward very shallow water further away from ammunition docks at Port Chicago. One can, however, request an escort if one fears going aground.

Judging by the carnage in the US Navy right now, even our "Sinker Class" subs might be a threat while the US Navy plays bumper cars with the world's shipping...

Just kidding, we love you guys! Who else is going to protect us? "The Destroyer" is having its bottom painted and the tank is having an oil change. Somebody borrowed the gun and went moose hunting with it and the Lee Enfields our Northern Rangers are using are rusty and somebody is using the cleaning rod as a Skidoo dipstick. All our army guys are fighting forest fires and piggy-backing natives across streams...

I always monitor the continuous weather broadcast (WX01 in that area) when crossing since they always include the Status of Whiskey-Golf. Last month WX01 had a lot of static on it so I called Winchelsea Control on VHF10 and just asked them. Fairly simple to determine status of the range and I ALWAYS check before crossing, only seems prudent.

Marty.........................

MartySchwartz said:

I always monitor the continuous weather broadcast (WX01 in that area) when crossing since they always include the Status of Whiskey-Golf. Last month WX01 had a lot of static on it so I called Winchelsea Control on VHF10 and just asked them. Fairly simple to determine status of the range and I ALWAYS check before crossing, only seems prudent.

Marty.........................

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I'm glad I wasn't the only one who had a hard time with WX01. I tried to listen to it but the static was so bad I couldn't. I find that just by monitoring 16 you can usually hear a dozen or so calls asking about WG. I considered calling Winchelsea Control but didn't want to bother them and was able to find the info I needed. Good to know that it really is OK to check in with them.

Victoria Coast Guard radio will also give you W. G. Information politely, and courteously.