On Tue, 18 Oct 2005 13:22:47 GMT, Don White
wrote:

BTW, even when sailing on my friends Mirage 33, I always brought my
handheld VHF along and tried to monitor traffic, over his stereo and
boisterous crew.

I keep a handheld VHF (with a NiCad pack I recharge every 12 hours or
so) in a caddy hanging in the companionway. I also have an air horn
and a couple of hand rocket flares within reach. Lastly, I file a sail
plan with the Coast Guard when cruising away from Toronto and/or so
far out in the lake that I'm beyond cell phone range. Sometimes, if
the weather's rough, I do a position check and repay their attentions
by providing local weather, wave height, etc. as there are only two
weather buoys in Lake Ontario (at either end).

The lake freighters and tankers keep to fairly well-travelled lanes. I
keep a running fix with pelorus and/or GPS on the hour when I do my
log entries, and I can tell if I am getting close to these lanes.

Lastly, when night sailing, I keep the usual nav lights on and raise a
"raincatcher" radar reflector on the flag halyard. I also ready a
500,000 candela halogen hand light to flash on the sails. I also add
the "ship-to-ship" frequencies to my scan list on the nav station VHF.

Frankly, though, I have had far closer encounters with dopey fellow
recreational sailors, powerboaters and jetskiers than I have with
commercial maritime traffic. I have had 35-40 foot sailboats under
main and motor cross my path obviously under autopilot in Lake Ontario
with no one at the helm or visible. I gave one such "near miss" two
miles offshore a blast with the horn (I was under sail alone) and saw
a bed-headed sailor with a mug of what I assume was coffee appear in
his cockpit, peering owlishly about as I sailed off, having missed him
by about three boat lengths.

Some people just don't get it. He probably thought his chartplotter
would shriek if he got near another vessel.

R.