On Sat, 29 Jul 2006 14:59:32 GMT, "Roger Long"
wrote:

Yeah, I could have called him on the radio but the rules of the road
were written to make it possible to deal with something this simple
without having to yack and negotiate on the air.

Actually that's not quite the case. The rules of the road
specifically mention horn signals to clear up cases of uncertain
intentions. You, like many other small pleasure craft, do not have a
horn powerful enough to be useful at a distance, and many skippers of
large boats are in an enclosed pilot house where horns can be
difficult to hear. For these and other reasons, almost all approach
situations between larger vessels are being negotiated on channel 13
these days.

You might call it yacking, I'd call it prudence. Be safe out there.