Many short blasts means danger or imminent collision.

"Rosalie B." wrote in message
...
ray lunder wrote:

Years ago we used to have to toot our horn to alert the bridge troll.
There was a specific series of honks but my dad was doing it and I was
about 10 so I've forgotten. Guess that's a thing of the past.

You are still supposed to be able to do that. But some bridges don't
or won't answer. Generally the radio works well except in some places
between Lake Worth and Ft. Lauderdale where there are a lot of bridges
close together and you can't always tell which bridge you are talking
to.

On Tue, 01 Aug 2006 14:16:20 GMT, Rosalie B.
wrote:


In article ydzzg.289377$iF6.117034@pd7tw2no,
Gary wrote:

I don't think that VHF radios are required on small pleasure craft but
I
wonder why everybody wouldn't have one as a basic safety onboard
safety
item?

You would think. And also a GPS so you would know where you were if
you got into trouble. I often hear (on the radio) where someone is
lost and has no idea where they are - complicated by the fact that
there are several different places with the same name in the
Chesapeake.

But there are indeed boats with no radios, or at least they aren't
using them. In 2002 when we were coming north from Ft. Pierce, I
wrote:

There is a large white wooden ketch from Montreal which has been
behind us, but was slowly catching up to us. He was behind us
yesterday, and must have stopped somewhere behind us, and he's behind
us again, although he is slowly reeling us in. Four power boats went
by him, and he was yawing and pitching wildly in their wake. They went
by us too. We have the sail up to steady us though, and we don't pitch
as much.

He eventually catches us, and we follow him through the Matanzas
Inlet, and don't go aground although the alarm goes off a couple of
times. The TowBoatUS guy that appears to be stationed here permanently
is fishing from his boat. A boat with a round bow that looks like a
little tug named CLOONFUSH passed us. It has a medallion figurehead
lion on the front.

When we came to the last bridge before the San Sebastian River, I
called the bridge (as I usually did) to request an opening. The
bridge tender asked me if we knew what were the intentions of a boat
which he said was anchored there in front of the bridge. It was the
big white wooden ketch, with a red kayak as a dinghy. It appeared to
be skippered by a single hander from Canada.

I didn't know what to tell the bridge tender of course, but as we came
up to him, we saw him hastily pulling his anchor, so I reported to the
bridge that he had apparently been waiting for someone else to go
through the bridge because he either didn't have a radio or didn't
know how to hail the bridge. So he went through with us, and stuck
close behind us (we'd also passed him north of Titusville and he was
going a lot slower than we were then).

We got to the turn off, and he started to come up the Sebastian River
with us. I think he thought he could to go through the Bridge of Lions
with us but was foiled because we weren't going there.

grandma Rosalie

S/V RosalieAnn, Leonardtown, MD
CSY 44 WO #156
http://home.mindspring.com/~gmbeasley/id1.html