call-in-points

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  • #17387
    Daniel Del Vecchio
    Member

    Quick question:

    on maps there CIP numbers. What channel do you listen on when near them?? How many does when kayaking?

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  • #17409
    Maureen Benzon

    and a quick addition to Ellen’s rule 10. (Please correct me if I am wrong)

    If you are travelling across current, it is preferable to keep your boat pointing at a right angle to the opposite shore. This will be the quickest route across even if you are pushed by the current, and your track is not perpendicular, so make sure you start the crossing at the appropriate place, or you might overshoot your destination. Attempting to adjust for the current, may keep you in the danger zone for longer. Crossing a shipping channel is not the place to practice paddling to a range, or transit, which I recently heard referred to as parallax

    🙂

     

    #17408
    Maureen Benzon

    You asked if kayakers listen.

    Yes if I have before crossing Johnstone straight, or crossing to the Deserter group North of Port Hardy, or approaching Victoria. Otherwise no. I prefer to paddle with my radio off, and only switch it on when I need to listen or communicate.

    If you are crossing a major channel, Coast Guard do not mind if you contact them and they will advise of shipping movements, but be sure to state that it is not an emergency, and that you contact them again once you have crossed safely. They will move you to a secondary channel, and you may need to wait while they deal with more pressing communications.

    Daniel, I love the threads you start. They usually get a good conversation going.

    Keep safe, but get out and explore.

    #17395
    Nick Heath

    Ellen’s info is perfect, and what I’m about to write will be inferior. Sorry about that.

    Ship movements are monitored and controlled by Vessel Traffic Services – there are  2 main centres – Victoria and Pr Rupert, but they operate using remotely-controlled local transmitters using various frequencies, which are not so easy to determine. For the Vancouver area Ch 12, is the one to listen to, and in the Gulf Is it is Ch 11. You can listen in to help to decide when a big vessel might be coming by, but then you would need some idea of that vessel’s speed and heading,  which are not given. Also those vessels which are not required to call in (but might also be big and/or fast) will be missing entirely, so it is doubtful how valuable this would be to us kayakers.  That said, I have called VTS on a hand-held radio a couple of times, to find out in poor visibility what ship movements were known in that area and also to warn them that kayakers were about to  attempting a crossing, where there might be a possibility of collision (although wipe-out would be the more correct term, since the ship’s crew would never known that it hit us).  VTS seemed quite willing to transmit a warning about potential traffic conflicts even involving paddlers, but I would not do this routinely for fear of being considered a nuisance. It is best to not make those kind of hazardous crossings!  Still, it can be useful to know that no BC Ferry is due down a particular channel for another 2 hours or whatever, so it can help with the timing of some channel crossings.

    Having access to AIS info on a mobile phone app might be more useful overall, however!

    #17391
    Ellen Wood

    Call in points on charts are used by large vessels travelling in shipping lanes or along Shipping routes. See Rule 10 of the Collision Regulations for the rules for shipping lanes. The Canadian Collision Regulations can be downloaded for free. The best source is the laws-justice website. As kayakers we should stay away from shipping lanes. As per Rule 10, if we are crossing them, we must do so at right angles to the shipping lane so as to get across and out as quickly as possible. As a kayaker, if I were planning to cross a shipping lane, I would first make a call to Vessel Traffic Services on the appropriate channel to determine the traffic and to let them know of my intentions so that they can warn vessels in the area.

    The call-in points are used by Vessel Traffic Services (operated by the Coast Guard) to monitor the movement of ships. It is compulsory for some vessels and voluntary for others to call in at each CIP. What this means for us as kayakers is that we can, if we like, monitor the appropriate channel to determine which ships are in the area based on their calls at the various call in points.

    The channel differs depending on the area you’re in. From what I’ve seen, the only channel that remains constant across all locations is channel 16. The Canadian version of the publication “Radio AIDS to Marine Navigation” will tell you which channels to use for a particular area. It is available in Marine stores or downloadable for free from the Canadian Coast Guard.

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