I (illegally) keep my VHF off when in busy waters most of the time unless I need to use it for a specific communication. On the ICW, if I have not seen it approaching, I hear the bow wave of an overtaking vessel when it is just about the right distance from my stern for me to chop the throttle. Then I pull over slightly (not much room when you have eight feet of draft) and put the engine in neutral, (not dead slow) for an easy passing. I have done this for ten seasons from Florida to Norfolk and it works very well so I have never felt the need to keep the radio on all the time. The reason I don't listen continuously in busy waters is because the radio is so much of a distraction with traffic that has nothing to do with me I find it detracts my attention from what is happening around me greatly decreasing my safety. My engine is quite noisy (it's a Detroit), so I have to turn up the radio quite loud to hear anything, even then it is mostly noise. In order to hear clearly I have to put the mic (which doubles as a small speaker) up to my ear. Thus it is virtually impossible to screen every communication to find out if it pertains to me and any attempt to do so detracts my attention from the situation around me so much that I feel our safety is severely degraded by the distraction of the radio. >From time to time the dilemma between obeying the rules or doing the safer thing comes up. Like the speed limit when driving a car. The fact that everyone seems to drive at five miles per hour above the speed limit on roads with speed limits below 60MPH is a good example. If one drives at 45 when everyone else is at 50 then one becomes the "rock in the stream" and therefore becomes a safety hazard by obeying the law. Inshore there are so many other radios on around me that I feel certain someone else will hear anyone in distress. But I have been concerned about the possibility of missing a distress call when offshore and have sometimes kept the radio on then. Since reading the recent story about the motorboat CO problem (was it a gas powered boat?) my concern has been confirmed so I will very likely keep the radio on when offshore. Norm S/V Bandersnatch Lying Julington Creek FL 30 07.72N 081 38.4W _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
