"Wayne.B" wrote in message
news
On Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:06:30 -0400, Jeff wrote:

One problem now is that while in the "old
days" (before low cost radar and loran/gps) the only fools out in the
pea soup were being ultra cautious, tooting horns, going slow etc,
nowadays every rich bozo thinks he can run his sportfish at 30 knots
because the radar and GPS will keep him safe.

Back in the 80s a friend of mine was bringing a new (to him) 40 ft
sailboat back from Canada in the fog. He was T-boned by a tug boat
operated by the Canadian coast guard even though both boats were
operating their radar and were aware of each other's presence. Go
figure.

This summer while in Nova Scotia I learned that one of the sailboat got
T-boned last year.

The owner was waiting for his sailboat to be fixed. He still have problem
with his insurance.

He was motoring in heavy fog and his sailboat got T-boned by a Coast Guard
fast recue boat going at low speed.

The lawyers are still debating it. It was said that the sailboat was on
autopilot.

This summer I have learned that it is best to advise the Coast Guard Traffic
of your sail plan.

Usually the ETD, position, speed, course, destination and ETA are given. In
coastal Canadian Waters the traffic is not as heavy as in the United States
and Coast Guard Traffic will acknowledge your plan and will say report when
you get there. At time, when I was late in getting to my destination

they called me and asked for my position.

This summer we sailed in heavy fog all day under radar, plotter, paper
charts and on autopilot.

Being on autopilot gave us more time to monitor the instrument, identify
possible problem and take necessary action on time to avoid problems. The
person monitoring the instrumentations and autopilot was relieve every 30
minutes while a senior person would have a global view of the situation and
advise accordingly.