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Old 12-02-2015, 01:53 PM   #11
cardude01
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City: Victoria TX
Vessel Name: Bijou
Vessel Model: 2008 Island Packet PY/SP
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 5,290
Running at night

Quote:
Originally Posted by djmarchand View Post

I have done about a dozen overnights on the open water in small boats. I always have radar on. AIS may be a help, but 99% of the fishing boats out there, recreational or commercial, don't have AIS transponders, so all it is good for is to avoid big freighters.

I agree that AIS was pretty worthless on my Gulf crossing. None of the the shrimpers or other small boats we encountered during the day had AIS, and the one really big shrimper we saw at night didn't have AIS either.

Where AIS was very helpful was on the ICW from LA to Texas. The huge amount of barge traffic would have been much harder to negotiate without AIS IMO. It's been my experience that when you hail the tows by name they answer quickly-- when they see you have AIS they almost expect to hear from you. I have had much less success getting them to answer when I don't know hail them by name. I've never had a big ship answer me even when I call them by name however. I'm probably doing it wrong or maybe they didn't speak English.
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