Vessels that are not in critical trouble but with problems they can survive often call TowBoat US for assistance. The calls are usually made on channel 16, which the Coast Guard monitors.

Listen in as a vessel near Portsmouth, New Hampshsire, gateway to the offshore Isles of Shoals, calls the commercial tow service TowBoat US for assistance. The local Coast Guard breaks in and takes command.

Key to the call are that the skipper is able to both identify his location by navigational aid, the bouy 2KR, and by gps latitude and longitude coordinates.

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A roughly five-minute podcast on a few particulars related to paddling at night, including the use of SOLAS tape, glosticks and a new compass designed specifically for night paddling.

If you’re more a reader than a listener, head on over to my blog, Sea Kayaking Dot Net,for a couple hundred posts on sea kayaking on topics ranging from safety and fitness to building your own boat and paddle.

Incidentally, with Boaters World in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, there are some very good deals out there in cyberspace on submersible vhf radios. Amazon retailers are selling Standard HX600s submersibles for $199.00.

There’s also some good deals on Icom M34 Submersibles.

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