Gary wrote:

Sailaway wrote:
Roger Long wrote:
Good seamanship dictates passing, when possible, by a sufficient
distance to accommodate the unexpected. Even powerboat to powerboat,
it isn't wise to put the stand on vessel in a position where spotting
something like a floating log might force them to hit either it or you.

Gary wrote:
Good points. Of course one does not normally make passing
arrangements based on the likelihood that the opposing ship will lose
control. Good seamanship, however, does demand a certain degree of
prudence.

My original point was that the terms "one or two whistle pass" is not
commonly used by mariners around the world. It might not be clearly
understood. It may work when dealing with tug boats and pilots in a
particular area of the US but it is not a good way to learn to
indicate intentions if you venture a little farther from home. It
wouldn't work here in the Pacific Northwest.


And that brings up the above discussion on "whistle" passes. Please go
back and read the Rules on signals. Whistle (or horn) signals (although,
sadly, not as commonly used by small craft as before) are required under
certain conditions. If a radio request includes discussion of sound
signals you shouldn't have any problem figuring out the meaning if you
are familiar with the signals and their meanings. And unless I am not
fully understanding the above discussions, it is truly frightening to
read of a Navy Captain who doesn't understand sound signals that are
very clearly spelled out in both the COLREGs and the Inland Rules.

I enjoyed your well written thoughts right up to the paragraph above. I
would like to point out that nowhere in any of the Colregs does it talk
about using slang like "two whistle pass" on the radio. You had me
thinking though and I did have to go back and read "Part D - Sound and
Light Signals" again. In there, when ships are in sight of one another,
two blasts on the whistle indicates a vessel altering to port. (I'm sure
you knew that) So does a "Two whistle pass" mean that both vessels
alter to port (and leave each other to starboard) or leave each other to
their port side. Do you see my point? It is confusing.

Yes but then it is the original signal rules that are confusing, not
the radio communication. If a boat was approaching you and sounded
two whistles, what would that mean to you?

I do understand sound signals, what we are talking about here is voice
communications with slang terms. It would be clear to me what two short
blasts on an opposing vessels whistle meant. It still would not be
clear to me what he means if he calls me up and says; "How about a two
whistle pass?"

It should be understandable (IMHO) if you know what the whistles mean.
I understood what it meant even though I would have to look up what
one or two whistle was.

The only thing the radio communications does is keep the
'conversation' between the two parties that need to understand each
other's intentions. How often do you hear an automobile honk the horn
and have to look around to see whether they were honking at you? In a
busy harbor, if everyone was whistling away, it would be chaos. And
even in the ICW it would be an unwarranted amount of noise to do it
with whistles rather than with the radio.


Please go back and read the rules on signals. Maybe you didn't
understand the discussion.


In the ICW there are whistle signals for bridges, but many bridges
won't respond to them anymore. They require that you hail them on the
radio, or in some cases on a cell phone.