Shore overwatch-keeping family sane.

[Tmacmi]

I'm not sure "shore overwatch" is the right term of art, but how do you have someone on shore keeping general tabs on your comings and goings without going crazy.

Here's the background.

Our son is our shore contact. We tell him where we are going, when we left and when we arrive. We aren't super specific about time, because its not predictable down to the hour (or even 4 hours)

We recently sailed across Lake Michigan, about a 70 mile trip. We had simple close reach all the way across and it took 11 hours.

The way back east was different and we knew it would be. The wind was NE and we would have to do some tacking. The wind shift more easterly at one point and then an expected strong N shift never materialized. The ride back took 18 hours.

My sister-in-law, by her own accord, decided we were taking too long and got anxious. She decided she would call our local USCG station for "an update on weather conditions where we were". USCG was quite gracious, told her the weather conditions and then offered to give us a call by cellular. When we didn't respond, they kindly offered to hail us on VHF. Thank god we heard it, verified our location and safety. BTW, she lives in Arizona.

OK, putting aside the fact that I have a crazy sister-in-law, what are the best suggestions you have for managing your shore contact, if you have one.

Do you set some broad bandwidth of arrival times?
Do you say if I'm not in contact by x time, call USCG.

How do you set your expectations. While I didn't do the math of the anticipated tack distances and speeds into prevailing wave height and wind speed. I had estimated 14-15 hours. It was actually 18.

If I had told my son 14 hours, when is he supposed to start worrying, 15 hours, 16 hours?

I'm looking forward to your ideas.

[chrisr]

do you have AIS ? if not, why not ?

with this (and marinetraffic.com) friends & family know where you are at all times.

no more worry

cheers,

[Sailmonkey]

We just got an inreach so shore contacts could see if we were moving and ask questions. One of my friends is also a sailor so we set him as someone our parents would contact if they were getting antsy.

[maine50]

I have done several offshore trips- 3 days to 20+ days. I have instructed all crew members that since we have several (many ) ways to notify emergency
services if we have any problems and make sure their relativesdo do NOT call the coast Guard under any circumstances. We have 2 epirbs (one in ditch bag, SSB, 2 fixed VHF, Inreach, 1 PLB, 2 AIS personal, I fixed full AIS). While on major trips the inreach is showing position but what if it stops working or it fell into water.
I have known more than 1 person who the Coast Guard was searching for, and the boat owner was not in any trouble and didn't know about the CG's efforts.

[Shrew]

Was your sister-in-law the person entrusted with the float plan and to be the point of contact with the CG?? If not, then that person really has no business getting involved.

[boatpoker]

Nice to have a sister-in-law that cares enough to be concerned.

[Tmacmi]

Originally Posted by chrisr

do you have AIS ? if not, why not ?

We do not. There are several reasons. The first being 90% of our sailing is day sailing on weekends. The other 9% is coastal cruising, stopping each night in easy jumps. We sail on Lake Michigan. Occasionally, we will jump across the Lake to Wisconsin or Chicago.

The other is that it would be part of an entire electronics upgrade that I don't want to jump into right now.

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

We just got an inreach so shore contacts could see if we were moving and ask questions. One of my friends is also a sailor so we set him as someone our parents would contact if they were getting antsy.

Originally Posted by maine50

make sure their relatives do do NOT call the coast Guard under any circumstances. We have 2 epirbs (one in ditch bag, SSB, 2 fixed VHF, Inreach, 1 PLB, 2 AIS personal, I fixed full AIS).

This give me an idea of either getting an epirb and telling people "we have it under control" or getting the inreach. The reason I don't like the inreach idea is that it gives others an opportunity to invade our experience. And what happens if we forget to check the thing. Not sure on that one.

Originally Posted by Shrew

Was your sister-in-law the person entrusted with the float plan and to be the point of contact with the CG?? If not, then that person really has no business getting involved.

No she wasn't and I'm thoroughly pissed off. Not only about the CG thing, but the idea she had a right to be watching over us like that.

[thesaltytar]

There is a handheld option called a Spot messenger. Information can be found at www.findmespot.com but the short of it is they offer satellite messaging and tracking solutions fairly affordably which may suit for intermittent use.

This way they can see where you are sailing (or hiking) via website and know that you have full communication easily available.

I prefer the model that just has a preset message you send (with GPS coords) because like you I really have no desire to be "on the grid." It's one reason I go to sea. I have no qualms about turning my phone off past business hours and am generally unreachable beginning with the serving of dinner. I would inform family and friends that it is for emergency use only and simply not entertain check-in attempts if you opt for the model that can send and receive messages.

https://www.amazon.com/Spot-Satellit...2493273&sr=8-3

I see no reason for AIS for this purpose as it is also limited by VHF signal and, where you need it for "float plan" purposes it isn't the best tool to serve you.

Remember also EPIRBs aren't instant. It takes time to get the machinery rolling. A Spot device is as instant as the person receiving the message can pick up their phone. And it sounds like you have a volunteer for the position.

[Mike32]

I think the Garmin Inreach can send location data automatically so that your position can be monitored ashore without having to actually communicate back and forth. You won’t have to watch it.

[JPA Cate]

I'm very old fashioned about this. Although you could try using your sister-in-law as your shore contact.... if she will agree to accept your conditions.

1) sailboats are not over due on passages of up to 100 miles till they are 24 hrs. past the time window they thought they'd make.

2) passages thought to be 1 week, 3 days late

3) passages thought to be 2 weeks, 1 week late

Your part of the bargain, to text, e-mail, or phone 1 hr. or so before departure, and upon arrival. They have to trust you to ask for help if you have an EPIRB and need to use it. Reassure him/her that you will, AND remind them that the call is yours to make.

What we used to do was tell our family the expected length of the voyage, with 50% more time added to it, and they learned to not worry, because we always let them know on arrival that we had, in fact arrived, and of course, that only we could deal with a "situation" aboard: that they are, essentially powerless to help. In the "old days" people's loved ones might go years without hearing from them, and the ones left behind coped with it.

The potential downside is that if you were in trouble, unless you asked for assistance, you'd either solve the situation or drown, if you didn't give the potential rescuers time to get to you. We were once extremely embarrassed by someone telling the CG we were overdue, and we were 4 hours past our predicted arrival time because we had sailed into a wind shadow (Hawaii Is.), and our boat speed kept dropping. Four hours on a trip from Bora Bora to HI! And by experienced cruisers, too! At that point, our experience had been one trip from SF Bay to Tahiti and return, plus a few years of coastal cruising, and one SF-HI and return, and Jim with a few years of singlehanded ocean racing. Extremely embarrassing.

Ann

[Tmacmi]

Originally Posted by Mike32

I think the Garmin Inreach can send location data automatically so that your position can be monitored ashore without having to actually communicate back and forth. You won’t have to watch it.

Does anybody know if the inreach needs to have sky visibility or will it work in the cabin.

I suspect it needs sky visibility.

[Mike32]

Seems to me that I have used it from inside the cabin. I’ve seen another mini unit lashed to the Bimini. Another friend with a trawler just keeps it on the flying bridge.

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by Tmacmi

Does anybody know if the inreach needs to have sky visibility or will it work in the cabin.



I suspect it needs sky visibility.

Ours was mounted on a charging cradle inside the companionway beneath the cabin top and below the dodger. Occasionally it would have trouble sending a message, but would eventually get it out, typically within less time than it took to notice a problem.