Big Brother's Watching...and so can you

You can now track Firebird's current location online:
http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/default.aspx?oldmmsi=235099834&zoom=10&olddate=lastknown#

That link should show you our boat on a map.  If you play around, you might figure out how to display our track and other things, although I haven't had much time to play with it myself.

Firebird's track into Falmouth

A word of warning: Although possible to view the MarineTraffic web site on my phone, it works incredibly badly, so you're best off using a big computer.  The conspiracy theorist in me thinks they have made it this way on purpose, to push you towards using their mobile app (available on Android and iPhone), which is quite good, but costs around £3.

The technology that makes this possible is called AIS (Automated Identification System) which is a brilliant system that allows ships to share their location, speed and course with surrounding ships by sending out small bursts of data every minute or so over a VHF radio.  There is a worldwide network of people (i.e. computer geeks), who have installed AIS receivers on top of their houses and plugged them into their computers, so that they can receive the AIS transmissions from passing ships and put them online for everyone to see.  When we are out of range of one of these shore-based receivers, our location will not be updated on the MarineTraffic web site.  This will almost certainly be the case when we cross the Bay of Biscay in the near future, so don't think that we have sunk when we move out of range and disappear from the map!

It is compulsory for large commercial vessels to have an AIS transponder installed, which makes it really easy to keep clear of these huge, fast container ships.  As a pleasure vessel, we aren't required to have any AIS equipment installed.  These days, though, lots of yacht skippers have installed AIS receivers, so they can keep track of the large vessels.  We opted to pay a bit more, though, and install a full transponder, rather than just the receiver, for the peace of mind it would offer us.  Any ship with an AIS receiver will be able to see us on screen, which is important as, for example, in bad weather, we might not be able to move fast enough to get out of the way of a large container vessel bearing down on us.  He may well not be able to see our small fibreglass boat on his radar, nor our nav lights, way down from his towering bridge, hidden by waves and spray.  Even in these conditions, however, he will be able to pick up our AIS transmissions from many miles away and will more than likely receive an automated collision warning if there is any risk.

This investment has already paid off.  While making a night passage in thick fog, I could barely make out a light off our starboard bow as we motored slowly forward.  I altered my course to steer clear of the other vessel, but soon afterwards got a call on the radio from a friendly fisherman who could see us approaching on his AIS display.  He warned me that my course alteration was not sufficient to clear the long length of fishing gear that he was trailing behind his boat and suggested a further course alteration that would see us safely clear of it.  He wished us a pleasant trip and disappeared off into the gloom.

In days gone by, I could easily have run into the fishing gear and jammed up our prop.  I guess Kate should be the thankful one.  After all, it's hardly a captain's job to dive down under the boat, in the cold English Channel, to chop a fouled rope off the propeller.