Yes, you're right you can signal more frequently. In fact, vessels have been held liable
for not doing so.

However, it is not appropriate to signal continuously as you suggest. Remember, the
signal takes about 15 seconds. You have to allow time for other boats to signal back,
and if you're too frequent, no one can hear anything.

Meanwhile, two vessels going at your "safe speed" of 8 knots are closing at 27 feet per
second, or 1600 feet in only 60 seconds.

At the speed you claim is safe (which the courts have held is unsafe for any vessel)
vessel can go from "off in the distance" to in your cockpit in just a minute.



"Simple Simon" wrote in message
...

"Jeff Morris" jeffmo@NoSpam-sv-lokiDOTcom wrote in message
...
Oh, I forgot that English Major thing you have.

Let me explain in simple words: If a sailboat can move 1600 feet between signals, you
have a circle, 3200 feet in diameter, where the boat could be two minutes later. This
is
assuming you could pinpoint its position from the first blast, which is impossible.
And
you're saying that the other boat is somehow required to know where the sailboat is.


More ignorance on display. The fog signal is required at
least every two minutes. It can and should be sounded
at shorter intervals by a prudent mariner. If I heard the
fog signal of a motor vessel approaching, you can bet your
boots I would be sounding my fog signal every ten or fifteen
seconds to wake them up if nothing else.

There is plenty of fog like that, especially in the summer out
here. Sometimes it can get so thick that I can barely see the
bow of my Cal 20. And, the fog is moving at 20 kts or more.

"Peter Wiley" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 19:07:16 -0400, "Simple Simon"
wrote:


"Shen44" wrote in message
...
Seems this one went belly-up .... thanks AOL.

OK Neal, here's a scenario with some questions ....

You're proceeding in the Mother of all Pea-soup fogs (can't see your
bow),
sounding one prolong followed by two short blast and hear a fog signal,
someplace forward of your beam (can't exactly tell where, because sound
in fog
can be distorted) of one prolong followed by two short.
What is it? Where is it? What's it doing?What must you do? Are we on
collision
course? How do you know the answers to any of these questions?

I can tell it is NOT a motor boat. I can tell is either a sailboat, a
NUC, a RAM,
or one of the other vessels that sounds a one prolong/two short blast
signal.

Where is it? It is somewhere on a line between me and the sound signal it
produces.
What's it doing? Can't be told because it can be doing any number of
things.
What must I do? I must determine if a risk of collision exists before I
do
anything else. If I determine a risk of collision exists then I must act
to avoid
a collision which might mean I can make a course change or it might mean
holding to my present course and speed of three or four knots until
further
information becomes available.
Are we on a collision course. We might be but that will take some time
to determine. If the signal stays on the same bearing and appears to be
getting louder then we are on a collision course

How do I know the answer to these questions? The answers are known
when sufficient information becomes available to answer them and not
before.

As for a pea soup fog so think that I cannot see to my bow which is
all of twenty feet away when I'm at the tiller, there exists no fog so
thick. It is a myth. It is perhaps correct to say a fog is so thick that
a ship that has the bow hundreds of feet or hundreds of yards
from the helm may not be able to see to the bow but don't attempt
to say the same thing about a small vessel such as mine.

You are completely, absolutely and utterly wrong about fog density.
The fact that you make such a claim demonstrates how little real
experience you have had at sea. I have personally been in fog thick
enough to reduce visibility to less than 5 metres.

Peter Wiley

On 29 Jul 2003 22:17:05 GMT, (Shen44) wrote:

much stuff snipped

Shen,
While I value your opinion, it's difficult wading through all the old,
verbose text to read your replies. Could you just list the stuff he got right?

Thanks,

S/V Cat's Meow
http://www.catsmeow.org

On 29 Jul 2003 21:53:20 GMT, (Shen44) wrote:

A sound signal can be highly distorted in bearing and there is no way you can
get an accurate bearing of a vessel (EG unless he's on top of you) in fog
from that sound

Well, it depends on what kind of sonar array you have, doesn't it?

S/V Cat's Meow
http://www.catsmeow.org