So Who Needs a Radio, Anyway?

So, who needs a radio, anyway? When you have a perfectly good cell phone, what's with having a radio?

In fact, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says that you don't have to have one, or any type of radio for that matter.

That is, if your boat is under 20 meters (65.6 feet) in length and you cruise only within US waters.

At one time all recreational vessels were required to have a Very High Frequency (VHF) radio. Some had a Citizen's Band radio as well, although these are waning in popularity. Of course if you were cruising offshore, say to Paopao on the South Pacific island of Moorea, you'd want a single sideband radio. But for those of us who cruise inland and near coastal waters a VHF radio does the trick.

True, some boaters seem to be perfectly comfortable having just their cellphone, and cellphones are very handy, and coverage is increasing all the time.

But if you rely only on your cellphone, while you certainly can call the US or Canadian coast guards, Vessel Assist, or any other emergency resource, no one else will hear that conversation (or your Mayday call!). If you have an emergency, I may be just a few miles from you (and far closer to get to you than the USCG), but I or any other nearby boaters will never know that you're in trouble. And it's usually other boaters who will get to you first. In some areas of Puget Sound the USCG can take two or three hours to get to you. Courting possible disaster? Obviously. 

Except you don't have to have 

But, if your going to be a responsible, prudent boater you'll have at least one VHF radio aboard, preferably a fixed "station" radio. I have two, but then I like redundancy. Besides, I can monitor more channels this way. I also have a VHF handheld radio, very handy if your boat's electrical power should go down, making your fixed radio useless. You still have the handheld.

Fixed VHF radios transmit at 25 watts at hight power; handhelds usually at 5 or 6 watts at high power (strong enough for me to talk from West Point to Possession Point).

So, while you're not required to have a radio, if you cruise to Canada you are required to have one under international law .

And if you cruise to Canada you're also required to have both a ship station license and a restricted radiotelephone operator permit. The license is a ten year license, the permit lasts a lifetime. Both are issued by the FCC. Your handheld radio is considered one with your station radio; you don't need a separate license.

There's a bit of a loophole here. If cruising in Canadian waters but do not dock and without communicating with Canadian stations, you don't need a license or permit (but you are still required to have a VHF radio). But who doesn't want to take in a Canadian port? My gas tanks certainly dictate otherwise. It's probably safe to note that the Canadians (accommodating as they are) don't enforce this stringently, but just to be safe . . . . .

All this, radio requirement, licenses and permits, also apply if you're going into Mexican waters.

So, use the cellphone for personal business. Use your VHF radio for ship's business.

And when I have an emergency, I want the whole world to know! 

Thanksgiving Day 2008

For all that we have

For all that we are

(For all we wish we might be!)

We give thanks

Charles Schulz Nov. 26, 1922 - Feb. 12, 2000

A tribute to a great cartoonist, from this morning's Delanceyplace (with thanks to friend, Mike Harlick)

In 1952, the introduction of Charlie Brown and the comic strip Peanuts, with its clean drawings and psychological orientation, made for a stark contrast with both the clutter and the vaudeville-gag orientation in cartoon strips of the time:

"Most cartoon drawing is about distraction: popular masters like Walt Kelly and Al Capp crowded their panels with characters and activity; Pogo and Li'l Abner are dense with what actors call 'business.' Peanuts, full of empty spaces, didn't depend on action or a particular context to attract the reader; it was about people working out the interior problems of their daily lives without ever actually solving them. The absence of a solution was the center of the story. ...

"The American assumption was that children were happy, and childhood was a golden time; it was adults who had problems with which they wrestled and pains that they sought to smooth. Schulz reversed the natural order of things ... by showing that a child's pain is more intensely felt than an adult's, a child's defeats the more acutely experienced and remembered. Charlie Brown takes repeated insults from Violet and Patty about the size of his head, which they compare with a beach ball, a globe, a pie tin, the moon, a balloon; and though Charlie Brown may feel sorry for himself, he gets over it fast. But he does not get visibly angry.

" 'Would you like to have been Abraham Lincoln?' Patty asks Charlie Brown. 'I doubt it,' he answers. 'I have a hard enough time being just plain Charlie Brown.'

"Children are not supposed to be radically dissatisfied. When they are unhappy, children protest--they wail, they whine, they scream, they cry--then they move on. Schulz gave these children lifelong dissatisfactions, the stuff of which adulthood is made.

"Readers recognized themselves in 'poor, moon- faced, unloved, misunderstood' Charlie Brown--in his dignity in the face of whole seasons of doomed baseball games, his endurance and stoicism in the face of insults. He ... reminded people, as no other cartoon character had, of what it was to be vulnerable, to be small and alone in the universe, to be human--both little and big at the same time."

David Michaelis, Schulz and Peanuts, Harper Collins, Copyright 2007 by David Michaelis, pp. 245- 247.

Customs & Vessel Fees

A few years ago we were coming back into the States (as Canadians tend to refer to the US) after cruising the Canadian Gulf Islands. While we had NEXUS passes which would enable us to clear US customs and immigration with a simple cellphone call while still underway, our traveling companions did not, so we pulled into the Customs dock at Friday Harbor to check in.

"What's your citizenship?", asked the Customs official who greeted us dockside.

"I have duel Canadian - US citizenship," I replied.

"No you don't. You can't be both. What are you?"

"Well, then I guess I'm a US citizen" (thinking this would be the wisest claim to make).

"Your not a Canadian, then?"

"Guess not."

Just then my wife handed down my NEXUS card which read Citizenship: Canadian.

"You're not a US citizen. You're a Canadian citizen! Why didn't you say so earlier?"

"Okay," I replied, sensing the emerging of a Laurel and Hardy skit. One had to take this fellow seriously.

So we dutifully checked in, got moorage, and mused the encounter over a cool glass of wine.

Okay. By now most everyone knows that you need a passport or passport card or en enhanced state driver's license to re-enter the US from Canada. A form I-68 or NEXUS also work. (See my November 14th post.)

But did you know that your vessel also needs "permission" to re-enter the US?

If your boat is 30 feet in length or more you'll need to pay an annual processing fee of $27.50 at the time of your first re-entry that year - - the fee is good for the whole calendar-year. With this payment, which requires a credit card, you get a non-transferable decal mailed to your address of record.

Rather than pay this fee at the time of re-entry, I've always found it more convenient to purchase the decal on-line early in the year.

This past September saw a change in how this is done, and by whom. The new system is now operated by the US Customs and Border Protection, rather than a third party as before. This change also means that your current User ID (assuming that you've bought a decal before) will not work with this new system. 

Go to the CBP's online procurement system to register.

The CBP regulations seem to be constantly changing or evolving. It's always wise to check out the latest and not assume that what you knew to be correct last time is still correct. Being a government agency CBP tends to be complex, but they seem to really be trying to be user friendly. This new procurement process is a good step.

But don't grate the folk when checking in at the Customs dock.

Canada Bound?

Dave Kutz, president of the Recreational Boating Association of Washington, yesterday emailed out the following reminder.

If Boating to or from Canada next summer, apply for your Passports now.The Passport Office will get very busy and the process takes several weeks.

Beginning June 1, 2009 Passports, a Passport Card or an Enhanced Washington State Drivers License will be required for travel to and from Canada on a boat. A regular driver's license and a birth certificate will no longer suffice.

While a Passport Cards or Enhanced Drivers Licenses are smaller, more convenien and cheaper they do have limited application. Passports on the other hand are good worldwide with no restrictions as to mode of Travel.

At the present time a new passport cost one hundred dollars ($100) and is good for ten years. When applying for a passport, for an  additional twenty dollars, a passport card can also be obtained.

A Passport Card by itself cost forty five dollars ($45) and is good for ten years. It is not known what the cost would be for someone who already has a passport, but except for smaller size there really isn`t any advantage in getting one if you already have a passport.

Customs & Border Protection (CBP) and the State Department are urging everyone who thinks they are going to need one of these documents to apply as soon as possible as this is their slow time of the year. Both organizations feel that as June 1, 2009 gets closer and the traveling public realizes the change in requirement, delays in processing applications could be very long.

I-68`s and NEXUS passes issued prior to June 1, 2009 using a birth certificate or similar document will be valid after June 1, but CBP would appreciate a call advising after one of the new approved documents has been obtained. For questions, call 1-800-562-5943(Washington State only) and ask for the Small Boat Program. As of now I-68`s will continue to be issued after June 1, 2009,

For questions go to Customs & Border Protection.

Many thanks, Dave, for this heads up.

More on the Recreational Boating Association of Washington in a future post.

"The News of My Death . . . ."

As Mark Twain is reported to have said, "The news of my death has been greatly exaggerated."

Earlier this month I mentioned on my blog post On the Rocks that the Olympic Boat dealership in Tacoma had been closed. I mentioned that the two brokers there, Kurt Kingman and Bob Berglund are great guys, not because they made many referrals to CruiseMasters over the years, but more for the many strong and very positive comments I heard from their customers. They looked after their clients well.

I've now discovered, thanks to Neal Booth of Boat Insurance Agency, that indeed Kurt and Bob are "alive" and have started a new brokerage in Tacoma, Northwest Yachtnet, located on the south side of the Thea Foss Waterway.

Great to know that they're back in business, and apologize for the obituary.

Five Short Blasts

The 30-minute ferry run between Kingston and Edmonds is a great time to relax, people-watch (some walking laps around the deck during the whole trip), get in some reading and telephone calls, gaze out on the Sound, watch passing ships and pleasure boats, or just zone out. For working folk it's a great time of transition, much like it use to be walking down the dock to the Lady Mick at the end of the day, shedding cares with each step.

It can also be a bumpy ride, especially if the wind is really up. You can always check the wind speed by going to the Washington State Ferry's weather site.

Last month saw the height of the salmon run on the Sound, and hundreds of fisherfolk out in all sorts of boats, trolling across the waters, some even across the shipping lanes. That morning as our ferry approached the Edmonds dock our serenity was shattered by five short rapid blasts on the ferry's  whistle. Then another series of five blasts. That piqued everyone's curiosity as we took to the windows to see what was up. Soon we felt the ferry reduce speed. Now yet another five short rapid blasts as the ferry threw her engines into reverse.

Cutting across our bow, merrily trolling along and seemingly oblivious to the sounds, came a small outboard, not more than 150 yards directly in front of this 3,000+ tons of steel ferry.

Five short rapid blasts on the whistle or horn. That means "what in blazes are you doing?" In the language of the US Coast Guard's Navigation Rules it reads:

" . . . fails to understand the intentions or actions of the other, or is in doubt whether sufficient action is being taken . . . to avoid collision, the vessel in doubt shall immediately indicate such doubt by giving at least five short and rapid blasts on the whistle."

Five short rapid blasts - - a signal every boater should commit to memory. When I hear it I quickly look to see if I'm part of the situation, or not. I don't want a ferry "doubting" my intentions.

Five short rapid blast are also a signal used by the bridge tenders on the Ship Canal System to warn off vessels that have signaled for a bridge lift that the bridge is not going to open right then. Again, a warning, but obviously a less critical situation unless your reverse gear fails!

There are some more whistle signals you should commit to memory, but that's for another post later. 

Remembrance Day 2008

For me, November 11th will always be Remembrance Day. Ninety years ago the armistice to end All Wars was signed between the Allies and Germany at Compiegne, France, to take effect at eleven o'clock in the morning - "the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month." Originally known as Armistice Day, it was changed to Veterans' Day here while renamed Remembrance Day in Canada and much of the rest of the British Commonwealth.

During the late '60s I was stationed in Ottawa, Canada, and every November 11th was responsible for co-ordinating media coverage of the observances at the National War Memorial. Dignitaries of every stripe were there, led by the Queen's representative to Canada, the Governor General. Mounted at the cenotaph were four armed sentries and three sentinels – two flag sentinels and one nursing sister – posted at the foot of the cenotaph.

The first year I had this duty the Governor General was Major-General Georges Vanier, a tall, striking figure (he had an artificial leg), a World War I hero and one of Canada's few Victoria Cross recipients, and very much a soldier's soldier. (His son, Jean Vanier, is the founder of L'Arche)

Everywhere you'd see people wearing the red poppy, the symbol of the Day, remembering the fields of poppies that grew in Flanders, Belgium, where so many of the Allied dead are buried, and which inspired the poem, which even today is almost a national treasure in Canada, "In Flanders Field", by Lt.Col. John McCrae, Canadian Field Artillery. 

What captured me was the military parade to the memorial. Led by contingents from the Royal Canadian Navy (being the senior service, of course), a Canadian Army regiment (often the Canadian Guards Regiment), the Royal Canadian Air Force, there followed the veterans - - First World War, Second World War, Korea. But the group that moved and cheered the crowds most were the few Boer War vets - - a very few proudly marching, albeit some with canes and crutches, some in wheel chairs pushed by Boy Scouts, some in hospital beds, again with Boy Scouts. Headgear properly worn, medals polished, mustaches waxed. 

Each year this contingent grew smaller, until the last year I was there only five Boer War vets made it. And we saluted them, and we cheered them, and we wept.

Whether you call it Armistice, Remembrance, or Veterans'  Day, I still wear my red poppy on November 11th, remembering the fallen.

A Reunion?

CruiseMasters: The Blog.

Talk about  nostalgic moments!

Former clients, some reaching  as far back as 1997 when CruiseMasters Boating Instruction started,  responded to the launching of this new blog.

Some I had forgotten until a chance remark ignited a neat memory.

Some described exciting cruising adventures.

Some with harrowing happenings! But that's boating, and hopefully new lessons learned.

Some, almost everyone, mentioning something special that they gleaned from their training, warming the heart of this teacher. 

My wife describes this blog as a virtual reunion. And it is.

Over the years CruiseMasters has given 550 boaters 2,060 hours of instruction and coaching. Now this blog is, in a manner of speaking, a continuing ed adventure, revisiting old learnings as well as introducing new gadgets and wrinkles,  broadening our world of boating. (And amazingly, of well over a hundred emails sent announcing the blog, less than a dozen bounced back as undeliverable.)

Please make use of the "comment" key at the bottom of each posting to add your own thoughts, ideas, comments. These are what make a blog a conversational. And don't hesitate to use your comments to suggest topics for possible future posts, which would be much appreciated.

Boating, teaching and coaching, people - - how could one ever improve on that mix? Hey, what more could one want from such an "encore career", anyway?

So, many, many thanks to you all. and let's hear from you.

 

Notice to Mariners

Did you know that

• the Hiram Chittenden Large Locks will be closed on November 22 through December 5th for annual maintenance, but that the small locks will continue normal operations?

• the Montlake Bridge will not necessarily open on Saturday, November 8th from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM and again from 7:00PM to 9:30 PM due to the Husky game?

• they'll be working on the University Bridge from November 17th to February 4th with a large tarp hanging down under the bridge reducing the vertical clearance by six feet?
  

These are some of the handy bits of information gleaned from the the U.S. Coast Guard's weekly Local Notice to Mariners (LNMs). You can subscribe  to get the free weekly issue. I do, and every week I get an email notification that the next issue is available. I click on the site which downloads a PDF, usually about 12 pages long, eyeball the complete LNM, wondering what's going on in my nautical world. Then I delete it.

Each LNM stands alone, so no need to keep back issues. However, when I'm planning a cruise, then I pay much more attention to what's apt to impact me as I cruise from point A to point B, and on.  I'll usually print out that entire LNM .

Not only items like locks and bridges, you'll also find chart corrections, navigation alerts (such as that missing green buoy which you'd planned on using as a critical reference when cruising), waterfront-construction advisories, military live-firing exercises (ouch!), and tons more - - more than you really need. But its all valuable! Plus, it keeps you in touch with that wet corner of your world.

The LNMs covers Washington, Oregon, the Columbia, Willamette, and Snake rivers, which is what the USCG's District 13 is responsible for.

A handy navigational aid, and at times perhaps critical for you.

A Sea Change

A NEW DAY FOR THE COUNTRY

A fantastic voter turn-out . . . the young adult faces, missing in national dialogue in years past . . . a moving concession speech by Senator McCain (a side of him missed these past months) . . . a powerful and truly moving (did you see Jessie Jackson and Oprah with a tear?) victory speech by President-elect Barack Obama, a speech not only to the nation, but to the whole world . . . character trumping political sound-bites . . . a people still living in prejudice seeing the possibility of  "a promised land" . . . folk in Europe and Asia and the Middle East and and Britain and Asia-minor and Australia and Africa and New Zealand and Greenland feeling and celebrating a renewed sense of global care and partnering . . . the word "respect" re-entering the international lexicon when talking about the United States . . . "hope" the DNA of our national tomorrow, I hope.

Perhaps all the flowers will come back, after long-time passing. I only pray and hope that a sea change has, in fact, come!

Think I'll keep my "Obama 2008" bumper sticker on for a bit.

(Sea Change -a poetical or informal term meaning a profound transformation; big significant change. The expression is Shakespeare's, taken from the song in "The Tempest".)

On the Rocks

The current financial crisis, perhaps more accurately described as the erosion of credit failure, obviously has hit many corners of society - - mortgages,  lay-offs, grocery prices, to name a few. Not good, so painful to millions here and abroad, and a stark example of corporate and governmental greed. To quote a line from a great 60's song, "When will they ever learn?"

A smaller corner, but one that impacts many of us is the recreational boating industry. One instance. Olympic Boat Sales is in bankruptcy, in fact, most all the West Coast offices have been closed. Just a week or so ago I was sad to see the Seattle Bayliner - Meridian dealership at the foot of Alison St., just next door to our Lake Union moorage, was locked up tight. No floating inventory. A few days later the trailered inventory disappeared. Good people now gone.

I called the Olympic dealership in Tacoma - - Kurt Kingman and Bob Berglund are great guys - - but all I got was a  disconnected message. I mention Kurt and Bob, not because they made many referrals to CruiseMasters over the years, but more for the many strong and very positive comments I heard from their customers. They looked after their clients well.

Just today the Marine Retailers Association of America asked the Feds for financial relief to help customers obtain financing so they can purchase boats and to help the dealers so that they can purchase inventory. MRAA said the credit freeze is having a severe adverse impact on the marine retail business with sales of new boats down 38 percent this year from the already depressed levels of 2007.

Overseas, reports were that last month's large international boat show in Genoa, Italy, was one to forget. Now the European boating market is looking ahead for some hope to the next show in Amsterdam in November.

CruiseMasters has felt the impact of the slump. When buyers can't get financing they can't buy boats/ And if they can't buy boats they don't need boathandling instruction. Our last customer completed mid=October. Being a retirement career, the lack of business is not crucial. I miss the opportunities to meet new boaters and help them master their boathandling skills. I do miss the "ah ha's" that are the real stuff of instruction.

On the flip side, my friend at Seattle's Ray Rairdon Yacht Sales, Richard Ashton, says that sales are going well there.

And that's good!