Sunday, November 13, 2011

Offshore overnight through video...



















7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Really neat seeing the ocean so calm. Long day and night for you both. Thanks for the videos!

Paula Sue Russell
paulasue1@aol.com
http://oceanbreeze-lake-erie.blogspot.com

Sheila and Bill Corbett said...

Thanks much for the vicarious cruise experience!

Anonymous said...

Calm ocean, great weather, good passage. How much time did you spend running the boat from the fly bridge?

MV Red Head said...

Flybridge piloting - almost none. Most "normal" people would have been up there for most of the day on Saturday. It was beautiful weather - 75 to 80 degrees. For us, one was piloting and the other was on their computer. The pilothouse can't be beat for that.

We had internet access for the entire time offshore.

Roger Montembeault said...

Thanks for posting the videos. Re: the night ship traffic - what did you find the most useful, AIS on the chart plotter or the radar images?

MV Red Head said...

Roger - good question. We only have radar right now. AIS is one of the things we're adding over the winter along with completely re-doing all of the electronics. AIS would have helped a lot especially if those shrimp boats had transponders.

The most confusing place was the area outside the Savannah River where I shot the video. I used a cool trick on the radar to help figure it out. There is a "wake" setting mode that leaves a little tail over time showing where the targets used to be. The tails grow for about 10 minutes so you can get a great idea of movement. For ships standing still, all the tails would be in the same direction as they came closer because we were moving toward them. Any tail in a different direction meant that the ship was moving. That would be one that we'd target with MARPA (a radar tracking and intersection tool - Roger, I know you know!). It turned that mess of targets into just 3-4 that I had to watch and track. MARPA provides target intersection time and distance. We don't allow any ship to get within 1/2 mile of us at night. Alarms go off if one will be inside that intersection range.

It was pretty unsettling for about an hour. It would have also been a little better with the option of overlaying radar on the chart (something that I can't do because of a Raymarine failure on the boat right now).

We need new electronics...

Anonymous said...

Good video and calm seas. I am anxious to see your choices and follow along with your electronic upgrade especially given the fog here in the bay area.

Ortega Landing is a great place and we enjoyed our month there this time last year.

Take care and stay warm I know Jacksonville can get cold at night.

Gerald Wallace
m/v Kiwi Magic