We’re voyaging north to further explore the Hakai Luxvbalis Conservancy Area and the outer islands north of Seaforth Channel, so we won’t be blogging again until we’re back and caught up in the mid-August time frame.  More then.

Jennifer & James Hamilton

Jennifer@mvdirona.com / jrh@mvdirona.com

Hi James,

As I recall, your website shows pictures of you using your laptop on the bridge of Dirona. Can you tell me what laptop you use that is viewable in the bright sunshine? Is your laptop dedicated to Nobeltec or other software or does is get all-around use?…….Excel, Word, Photoshop…..that sort of thing.

Nice work on Cruising the Secret Coast. I didn’t make Trawler Fest, but perhaps you could do a presentation for the Power Squadron in the fall?

Thanks,

Gerald Albertson

Response:

Gerald, you can buy products like the Panasonic Toughbook that are ruggedized.  We chose to spend less and, if necessary, replace more frequently rather than pay extra for a ruggedized system.  Essentially we self-insure.  Over the course of the last 8 years, I think we have established that it was the right approach.  We buy inexpensive laptops, they last quite well—typically  around 3 years—and then we upgrade.

For screen brightness, any screen is a problem in the sun and there is no avoiding that problem entirely. We do find considerable variation in laptop screen brightness.  We favor those that are on the bright side and we have always found them usable.

We run Nobeltec, Word (boat log), Excel (fuel log), Photoshop, weather software, a NMEA multiplexer, and logging software all on the same laptop (I wrote the last three software packages).  If we ran single functionality, we probably would spend less time chasing the odd weird issue, but that would require more laptops. Each costs money and each requires power.  We choose to run everything boat-related on the one boat laptop and it works fine. We do, however, have a backup laptop that is running Nobeltec and always is ready to go if we run into problems.  And we have a backup GPS system in case the main GPS fails.

Sure, we would be happy to do a presentation for the Power Squadron in the fall.

            --jrh

When we leave the marina on a Friday after work, we often don’t reach an anchorage until well past 7pm. Although we could prepare a meal underway, usually we just like to enjoy being out on the water for a bit and winding down from the week. So on Friday night we typically favor lighter, simpler fare that is easy to prepare.

Most Friday night meals are accompanied with Rosemarie Diamante bread from the Essential Baking Company (we buy it at our local QFC.)  We usually also boil a half-pound of frozen Edamame (soy beans in pod) that we buy at Uwajimaya in Bellevue. Recently, we’ve started eating more shrimp, and came up with a simple recipe that fit our Friday night dinner style perfectly.

1.       Use 10-12 shelled, deveined, uncooked shrimp per batch

2.       Heat a tablespoon or so of olive oil on medium to high heat

3.       Sprinkle shrimp with spice rub. We used Nantucket Off-Shore Rasta Rub on the first batch and Dragon Rub on the second batch.

4.       Sauté, spice rub side down, for about a minute

5.       Sprinkle the other side with spice rub as the first side books

6.       Sauté the other side for about another minute

7.       Serve with wedges of fresh lemon

We use a variety of spice rubs, some that we make ourselves. One of our favorite recipes is Moroccan Spiced Chicken with Rosemary Oil. We also make blackened seasoning from one of Paul Prudhomme’s cookbooks. The Nantucket rubs are convenient to have on hand and have wonderful flavors. We particularly like boneless, skinless chicken breasts coated with their Rasta Rub and grilled.

The only thing worse than no backups is restoring bad backups. A database guy should get these things right.  But, I didn’t, and earlier today I made some major site-wide changes and, as a side effect, this blog was restored to December 4^th, 2007.  I’m working on recovering the content and will come up with something over the next 24 hours. However it’s very likely that comments between Dec 4^th and earlier today will be lost.  My apologies.

Update 2008.04.13: I was able to restore all content other than comments between 12/4/2007 and yesterday morning.  All else is fine.  I'm sorry about the RSS noise during the restore and for the lost comments.  The backup/restore procedure problem is resolved.  Please report any broken links or lingering issues. Thanks,

                        -jrh

James Hamilton, Windows Live Platform Services
Bldg RedW-D/2072, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, Washington, 98052
W:+1(425)703-9972 | C:+1(206)910-4692 | H:+1(206)201-1859 | JamesRH@microsoft.com

H:mvdirona.com | W:research.microsoft.com/~jamesrh  | blog:http://perspectives.mvdirona.com

Below is a reprint from the 2/2002 Safety Digest, published by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) of the British Department of Transport (www.maib.gov.uk). Although the vessels involved are quite large and the lojcale is distant, the lessons learned are applicable to craft of any size and are particularly relevant to boaters in the Puget Sound, who are very likely to find themselves sharing the waterways with ships of all speeds and sizes both within and outside the boundaries of the Puget Sound VTS lanes.

In US waters, the US Coast Guard security zone include passenger vessels greater than 100 feet in length, in addition to military vessels and tankers, giving boaters another reason to give these ships a wide berth. Craft passing within 500-yards of such vessels, which includes all but one Washington State Ferry, must reduce speed to the minimum necessary to maintain a safe course. (The one exception is the 94”4’ high-speed ferry Tyee, which typically runs the Seattle-Vashon route.)  An approach within 100 yards is allowed only after receiving approval from the protected vessel via monitored VHF channels. Violators can be fined up to $27,500, while egregious offenders may by charged with a felony, punishable by up to six years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000. We discussed these rules with the Washington State Ferry Customer Information Office, who indicated that their main concern was fast power boats underway within the 500-yard limit, but confirmed that the operator of any pleasure craft who must pass within 100 yards of a ferry in restricted channel such as Rich Passage should most definitely contact the bridge on channel 13. Do not assume that you can reach these ships on channel 16—VTS participants are only required to monitor 13 and the VTS channel. With respect to the ferries, the WSF representative said that the decision to monitor channel 16 is made by the captain—some do and some do not.

Every boater should read Safety Digest. The journal publishes accident reports and lessons learned as an educational tool to prevent future incidents. In many of the incidents, crews of large commercial ships made mistakes where lives and ships were endangered or lost. Groundings because a ship strayed well out of the navigable channel are surprisingly common. In the Pacific Northwest, we navigate with large vessels from all over the world. We take collision avoidance seriously and don’t assume the crew of ship bearing down on our boat sees us and will act according to the navigation rules, or that the ship will stay in the traffic lanes.

Safety Digest often contains reports of small boats sinking in minutes—many might have been saved had their captains realized water was rising in the bilge. These stories prompted us to install a high-water bilge alarm for early detection of excessive bilge water. We have also mounted an automatic EPRIB in case we don’t have time to make a distress call. We recommend that all pleasure craft carry both at a minimum.

Near Miss in Dover Strait TSS

Narrative

The 6,391gt reefer vessel, Saratau, was proceeding in the south-west bound lane of the Dover Strait TSS on a course of 227°. Another reefer vessel, the 4,574gt Polestar, was in the opposite lane and heading north-east, but bound for the pilot station off Dover . To achieve this she made her heading 350° to cross the TSS. It was not an uncommon situation.

Saratau first detected Polestar at a distance of 6 miles, and determined that a risk of collision existed. As the stand-on vessel in accordance with Rule 17 she maintained her course and speed. She was watching Polestar carefully and expected her to take avoiding action. By the time the distance between the vessels had reduced to approximately 1 mile, the bridge team onboard Saratau had become very concerned that the other vessel appeared to be doing nothing to give way. She tried, first, to attract the other vessel’s attention by using sound signals in accordance with Rule 34(d), and then by VHF radio, channel 16.

As the distance between the vessels continued to close, Saratau altered course to port. Polestar, the give-way vessel, eventually reduced speed and then stopped her engines. The vessels passed each other at a distance of 1 cable. Polestar passed ahead of Saratau.

The Lessons

The situation described above is all too familiar. Two vessels are approaching one another in such a manner that risk of collision exists. The watchkeepers on the stand-on vessel are watching the other one carefully, and start to become anxious when the other one appears to be doing nothing to give way. Too many of us have vivid recollections of such occasions. CPAs of about a cable tend to expedite old age.

1. In this instance, Polestar was the give-way vessel in accordance with Rule 15 and should have taken effective avoiding action. She didn’t. The Rules are quite clear: with Saratau on her starboard side, and a risk of collision existing, she was required to keep out of the way. She could have altered to starboard in good time, or even slowed down. She did reduce speed eventually, but it was far too late. And to add insult to injury, she passed ahead of the stand-on vessel.

2. Vessels obliged to keep out of the way must always consider what the watchkeeper in the stand-on vessel is thinking. Common courtesy and good seamanship demand that you make your intentions clear at an early stage. Rule 16 is, in the meantime, uncompromising in its bluntness. As the fourth-shortest Rule in the book, even the most inexperienced watchkeeper should know it off by heart: “Every vessel which is directed to keep out of the way of another vessel shall, so far as possible, take early and substantial action to keep well clear.”

3. The Dover Strait is one of the world’s busiest waterways, and the watchkeeper of any vessel crossing the lanes must have their wits about them. One of the most important priorities is to determine whether risk of collision exists. Needless to say, this requires a good lookout as the most basic of all watchkeeping duties.

4. Saratau’s watchkeeper was obviously becoming very anxious as the two vessels closed, but even he left it very late before taking action to avoid a collision. He had several options open to him and, with one exception, the Rules leave the choice to the watchkeeper. The exception is the directive not, “so far as the circumstances of the case admit, alter course to port for a vessel on her own port side.” It is not known why Saratau altered course to port but it only served to aggravate the situation.

5. There is always a temptation to look for some acceptable explanation for the actions taken in such situations, or to blame the ‘other’ vessel. There might well have been some unknown reason for the actions taken on this occasion, but the point is made that we all have a responsibility to avoid collisions. We must learn from incidents such as this, and realise that this close quarters situation was very nearly an expensive accident. Had there been one, there would have been no excuses.

Recently we started recycling food waste at home through the City of Bellevue’s food-recycling program. It turned out that most of our kitchen garbage is food waste. Instead of dropping a nearly-full thirteen-gallon garbage bag in the garbage bin each week, we now rarely fill a three-gallon bag. The rest is food waste that goes into the yard waste bin. We use three-gallon biodegradable garbage bags to collect the food waste.

Since we are out on the boat so much, we wanted to apply the same system there. We don’t have space for a three-gallon food-waste container—a one-gallon Rack Sack just fits our galley garbage cupboard. So for food waste, we line a 2-liter plastic bottle, top-removed, with a biodegradable dog waste bag. The bottle fits nicely in our galley garbage cupboard and is convenient to set on the counter to drop food waste in when we’re preparing food or cleaning up. We generally fill one bag each day. The bags are thin but sturdy—we’ve not ripped one yet.

Our food-waste ratio on the boat is similar to home. Rather than fill two one-gallon garbage bags on a typical weekend, we half-fill one, and the rest is food waste. Our marina has a recycling program, but not a yard waste program, so we transport the food waste in a sturdy canvas bag and drop it in the yard waste bin at home.

For us, the start of the winter boating season also means the start of our night boating season. We got a bit of a reprieve this year with the longer Daylight Saving Time, so this weekend likely will be our first night run since the beginning of the year. We don’t boat at night necessarily by choice. In winter, daylight is long gone by the time we get to the marina on a Friday evening after work. If we didn’t run at night, we’d be stuck at the dock. We don’t venture far, but by traveling after dark we can spend Friday night on the hook, wake up Saturday morning swinging gently at anchor, and later watch the sun rise as we eat breakfast. Nothing could be finer.

Our boat Dirona is moored at Elliott Bay Marina, near the Port of Seattle, and the closest anchorages are across the Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) lanes. Although the presence of large ship traffic adds stress to nighttime navigation, having VTS lanes nearby can be helpful. All boats larger than 40 meters (131 feet) must participate and check in frequently, and the VTS channel gives information about what big ships are out there and their positions. Any sized vessel can report to the VTS center and request information about traffic in their area. We turn the VHF radio on before leaving our moorage to be aware of nearby traffic as soon as possible. Day or night, at a minimum we scan channels 16, 22A and 13, plus the appropriate VTS channel for our area. By the time we leave the marina, we often know if any ships are moving nearby.

At night, we navigate from our unenclosed upper helm. The tinted glass in our lower helms restricts night visibility; height is a real advantage when looking for hazards in limited visibility; and sound perception is better outdoors too. Our radar is on to monitor other vessels whenever we are underway, but we especially rely on it at night. Near cities, navigation lights can disappear into background light. Small boats often run fast, and without proper navigation lights. Relying on sight alone means we might not spot these vessels. And the boats we can see, particularly big ships, seem to close more quickly at night because their visible range is shorter. For example, vessels longer than 50 meters must display a masthead light that is visible for 6 miles and side and stern lights that are visible for 3 miles. In other words, if a ship is approaching at 20 knots, the time between seeing its sidelights and a collision could be as little as 9 minutes. If the boat is moving towards that ship, the time will be less. Radar gives us valuable advance warning.

We know people who will use their radar only from inside the lower helm, despite the visibility restrictions, due to cancer concerns. According to the World Health Organization, these concerns are largely unfounded. In most situations, the exposure levels are a few percent of current public safety standards. Although a marine radar’s peak power may be high—up to 30 kW for large systems—the usual power is 25Watts or less, because radar emits pulses rather than continuous waves. Even this power level is not constant, because the radar beam is narrow and changes directions as the antenna rotates. Exposure levels outside the main beam are typically far lower than within. Our boat’s radar is mounted high enough that the upper helm is outside the main beam anyway. Although this mitigates the cancer risk, the main reason is that a radar’s range increases with height.

We are familiar with common navigation light configurations, and if in doubt, we leave lots of room and look it up. (We like Davis Instruments’ hard plastic “Quick Reference Navigation Rules.” For a more detailed discussion, we use Chapman Piloting, an excellent all-around reference that all boaters should carry). Tugs are a particular hazard at night because their tows are dimly lit, can be hard to see, and might be a quarter mile behind the tug. When a tug displaying towing lights is visible, we make sure the tow is too. The tows are usually visible on radar, but seeing them by eye is safer. We became even more vigilant about matching tug and tow, particularly in heavy traffic or with background light, after learning of an accident at the annual fireworks in Vancouver’s English Bay several years ago. A departing pleasure craft, a sister vessel to Dirona that was carrying a large family group, passed between a tug and its tow. The vessel caught on the tow line, flipped, and several on board drowned.

Fishing vessels with gear in the water are another potential, although less common, hazard. We got really good at spotting fishing gear after a night run through Johnstone Strait during a gillnet opening, but it’s not an experience we can recommend.

The winter boating season is upon us with the first big storm of the year: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2007/oct/27/no-headline---ferry/.

We’ve been boating year-round between Olympia and Port Hardy for years now. One publication that we have found particularly useful in navigating through winter (and summer) storms is Environment Canada’s The Wind Came All Ways. The book contains detailed wind pattern and wave height diagrams for specific localities of the Georgia Basin, including the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the San Juan Islands and Desolation Sound. The wave height diagrams are amazingly accurate. Whenever we’ve ended up in rougher water than expected and checked the book after the fact, the conditions were always as predicted. We are wiser now, and consult the wave height diagrams to plot a safer course before we get underway, or during the trip if conditions deteriorate.

The book uses “pressure-slopes” as a means of predicting wind patterns and wave heights. A pressure-slope specifies the rate of change, or slope, between a low and high pressure area and the direction that the wind will flow between them. A steeper slope means stronger winds. Pressure-slope steepness is indicated on a numerical scale starting at 0 for a flat slope. There is no upper limit, but the steepest slope recorded in recent years is 10.  This would occur only in the severest storms. A typical major winter storm has a pressure slope of 4 or 5.  Pressure-slope data for the past 13 hours is available at http://www.weatheroffice.pyr.ec.gc.ca/marine/pressureslope_e.html.

We monitor the pressure-slope during winter trips and find it a good predictor of sea conditions. Below is 24 hours of pressure-slope data from 0500 PDT on 01/01/2006 through 0600 PDT on 01/02/2006. (Read from right to left, top to bottom. We added the PDT row for readability.) This was a particularly nasty storm that we anchored through at Pender Harbour a couple of years back (read about it here.) We recorded gusts to 52 knots between 4:15 and 5:15pm that afternoon (see weather map at bottom) when the pressure slope was rising from 5.5 to 5.8.  The pressure slope eventually topped out at 7.1 at 8pm, then abruptly dropped.

Updated: 2006/01/02 00:25 UTC Easterly Pressure Slope

Updated: 2006/01/02 13:25 UTC Southeasterly