FLEET UPDATE 2019-04-20

1) ABOUT AIS – Zihuatanejo, MX Hailing Commercial ShipsWhen cruising from Isla Mujeres to Corpus Christi, we were hailed by a “Crane Ship” captain who had seen us on AIS. He was a “good ole boy” from the south and he was quite chatty.  In the process of talking to him, he gave us this advice…whenever you are in the vicinity of a commercial ship, cruise ship or anything a whole lot bigger than you, hail them on Channel 16 because they are so big and you are so small (and they are often not watching), that they won’t even see you on their radar or on their AIS.When you hail them, there is a record of your conversation and you alert them to your existence.  Ask them if they see you on radar and AIS.  If necessary, be ready to give them a definition of where you are in relation to them. i.e. 2 miles off your port bow.We do this on a regular basis and have actually had some nice conversations with some ships, especially cruise ship captains.  We also find that they respond more often to a woman’s voice, so I am generally the one that does it.  On the way south from Bahia Hadras, we were traveling loosely with three other boats, all of whom had AIS, but one only had receiving AIS, not sending.  He was under sail and was very difficult to see in the dark.  There was a commercial ship bearing down onRead more