On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:51:34 GMT, in message

Bruce in alaska wrote:

Read the Radio Callsign Thread that has been running on the Group,
and Know where, and when, to listen for, Commercial Traffic, Navigation
Traffic, and Safety Traffic, while transiting the St Lawrence VTS System.
Remember those BIG Boys, can't STOP or Turn, near as fast as you can,
so it is important that you stay out of their way.

It is really rare here for fog to be an issue, so visual should be
adequate.

IME there is lots of space to run to if you are watching them, unless
you draw 20 ft. They behave very predictably in the river. We race
around them. In the lakes there is a lot more room and they can
surprise you by altering to avoid you.

My major peeve on the lakes is about big boats with so much white deck
light that you can't read the nav lights to tell which way they are
going. If I could add one thing to the COLREGS as practiced, it would
be something about nav lights being bright enough to be seen clearly
over deck lights. Boats may need to do ops at night. They should
either stop or display enough light to show where they are going.

Ryk