WPB Rpt Oct26- Auto Pilot Yacht's Suck!!

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Johnoly

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A nice shopping day today in West Palm Beach. Went both North and South of the inlet running up and down the grocery aisles and finding a nice selection. With the the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show this weekend and every big shopping cart yacht on autopilot, they are just aiming to sideswipe our divers. I don't care how big the captain's checkout coupon is,, hurt my friends and you're going to pay dearly. I blocked their path with the boat so they're going to have to smash that first to get to them. Boats are replaceable with bigger & better,,,,,,,Dive friends are not !!

North of the inlet and triple digits deep was 2knts current but going south of the inlet was Zero current. Fifty feet of viz and 78 on the bottom temperatures. It was nice to grab a hog the last couple days of season. Big Thankyou to SB member @Steve Roquemore !!

20211026_130442.jpg
 
A nice shopping day today in West Palm Beach. Went both North and South of the inlet running up and down the grocery aisles and finding a nice selection. With the the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show this weekend and every big shopping cart yacht on autopilot, they are just aiming to sideswipe our divers. I don't care how big the captain's checkout coupon is,, hurt my friends and you're going to pay dearly. I blocked their path with the boat so they're going to have to smash that first to get to them. Boats are replaceable with bigger & better,,,,,,,Dive friends are not !!

North of the inlet and triple digits deep was 2knts current but going south of the inlet was Zero current. Fifty feet of viz and 78 on the bottom temperatures. It was nice to grab a hog the last couple days of season. Big Thankyou to SB member @Steve Roquemore !!

View attachment 688459
What?
 
Dive ops and recreational divers are often guilty too. Divers are strung over a mile in some cases and the flags may not be visible. Some boats drop divers with floating orange balls, which have no standing and are no more than debris in the water. Some boats drop divers with no markers and rely on a sausage to find them for pick up. It's not uncommon to see vessels with inadequate, improper on no dive flag at all.

Most large vessels in transit will try to stay clear of depths where most divers and boating traffic are located.
Let's just say no one is blameless.
 
A nice shopping day today in West Palm Beach. Went both North and South of the inlet running up and down the grocery aisles and finding a nice selection. With the the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show this weekend and every big shopping cart yacht on autopilot, they are just aiming to sideswipe our divers. I don't care how big the captain's checkout coupon is,, hurt my friends and you're going to pay dearly. I blocked their path with the boat so they're going to have to smash that first to get to them. Boats are replaceable with bigger & better,,,,,,,Dive friends are not !!

North of the inlet and triple digits deep was 2knts current but going south of the inlet was Zero current. Fifty feet of viz and 78 on the bottom temperatures. It was nice to grab a hog the last couple days of season. Big Thankyou to SB member @Steve Roquemore !!

View attachment 688459
You are a machine John. Nice catch as usual!
 
Delivery captains going south will often hug the shore to avoid the prevailing north bound current. With the boat show, there was an unusually large number of captains in the area that lacked local knowledge & did not know where to expect divers. For big boats, 100' deep is hugging shore in the Palm Beaches. It's also where one of the more popular reef tracts is located.

On the dive boat, keep a sharp lookout & keep VHF 16 handy. Calls on that frequency are recorded by USCG & they will identify habitual offenders, then have a chat with them.

When surfacing, listen for reved up engines before you go up from the safety stop.
 
keep VHF 16 handy. Calls on that frequency are recorded by USCG
And just for future readers of your post>>>>ALL VHF CHANNELS around S.E. Florida are recorded 24/7 by CG(ch6 to Ch88). At the Blue Wild trade show seminar with CG's they confirmed this and said that it is usually kept for 30days on computer servers and then over-written unless pulled off separately. So when you hear all that trash talking on Ch78 which our local dive boats use, it's 100% saved.

But most importantly saved are conversations with illegal activity. Some famous ones in the past have been boats getting right next to pilot whales or asking if the fish they caught is 'in season'>{which it wasn't & then busted at the ramp}. In the last 5yrs, I've change both my procedures and what I say when driving the boat.
 
And just for future readers of your post>>>>ALL VHF CHANNELS around S.E. Florida are recorded 24/7 by CG(ch6 to Ch88). At the Blue Wild trade show seminar with CG's they confirmed this and said that it is usually kept for 30days on computer servers and then over-written unless pulled off separately. So when you hear all that trash talking on Ch78 which our local dive boats use, it's 100% saved.
...
This is new information for me. In the past, I have noticed that USCG will occasionally issue a warning to people using 16 inappropriately, followed by a notice that it is being recorded. I have also had USCG ask me to switch to 22A to clarify & explain a discussion that was had on 16. I assumed that 22A (the USCG working frequency) was also recorded, but this is the first claim I have encountered that the others are also recorded. It does seem likely in today's surveillance-happy world.
 
https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

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