Portland Coastguard

[Fugazi]

Yesterday I visited Portland Coastguard headquarters on Weymouth Quay with the dive club for a guided tour of the facilities and to see how they manage diving emergencies.

 

A couple of the guys from the club had just completed their VHF course during which it was implied by the instructor that the frequent requests heard for radio checks were not appreciated by the CG. We put this view to the CG and I thought it might be worth sharing their response that this was not the case because they like to know who's about and where.

 

It

[Swainiac]

Gordon, all good stuff, but most importantly, is that if you do call them up to let them know where you are intending to steam, etc etc, that you call up when you are back in safe waters, and clear their records, so they dont start asking for you!!!!

 

Rich

[duncan]

sorry but I am going to have to disagree Rich

 

long gone are the days when they expect or require this and it is just additional work UNLESS they have specifically requested you to - which can happen in certain circumstances.

 

the info is used if 1. a boat physically or phonetically (ie a radio alert) like yours is reported in dificulties 2. your wife (or whomever!) reports you overdue 3. they (the coastguard) are looking for assistance in the area at the time your indicated you would be there. finally it will also be a fast corroberation of a DSC alert.

 

cross referencing the above to yor trip will often give you the obvious answer to whether you should call in your trip or not - the obvious one is inshore to the West in poor conditions; possible call to CG from JP re small boat in obvious difficulties etc when you are busy drifting a race for bass!

 

edit - the disagreement of course disappears if you change your plan ie come in early, head somewhere else etc all of which constitute a new plan! In Fred's case it is important to give the CG the exact coordinates of all the marks you intend to fish........please!

Edited February 13, 2007 by duncan

[Paul J]

I always do a radio check and as long as it's on the routine traffic channel ( 67 for solent and 73 for Portland) they don't seem to mind.

 

As far as letting them know the passage plan- i don't bother

 

PJ

[Maverick Martin]

Poole harbour control will give you a radio check on 14 or what about other members?

 

Martin

[Fugazi]

Gordon, all good stuff, but most importantly, is that if you do call them up to let them know where you are intending to steam, etc etc, that you call up when you are back in safe waters, and clear their records, so they dont start asking for you!!!!

 

 

Hi Rich,

 

As Duncan says, they do not follow up if you fail to call in your arrival as it

[Swainiac]

Thanks Duncan / Gordon, thats one bit of the vhf course thats changed then!!!!

 

Rich

[duncan]

Thanks Duncan / Gordon, thats one bit of the vhf course thats changed then!!!!

 

indeed Rich, just as the calling channel now has responsibility for selecting the working channel...............

[Shropfisher]

I visited the Holyhead Coast guard station last summer, got the sixpenny tour etc, and was made welcome, they said they want people to call in and log their day, as I was in the main radio . observation room, a ship did just that, they entered the details on their computor and then asked my boat name, then they showed me how many ships / boat etc they recieved calls from called ISIS, loads of them, they can look back at any entry.

Is the Poole CG so differrant that they don't want the travel log ?

 

[duncan]

Is the Poole CG so differrant that they don't want the travel log ?

 

Don't understand what you are questioning? No one has suggested that you shouldn't log appropriate passages with Portland (which covers Poole).