Southace(or others), what do you think is the reason for the large aggregation of ships off to the South West of the Western Australian coast on your post? Maybe a rich fishing-ground/nutrient upwelling?...Who are they?
Looking again at Southace's map post, what strikes me most is the huge number of AIS signals coming from the area immediately north of the Gulf of Carpentaria (why???), compare this with the area of the South China Sea off Vietnam which is renowned as one of the busiest sea-route areas on the planet, or the Straits of Malacca between Malaysia and Sumatra which appears to be nowhere near as busy...???
I have been wanting to ask the same. I guess it's a gas rig not sure seems deep But busy all the time
I think AIS is a good thing, on my wish list.
No im not stalking you SA, interested in why listed as "pleasure craft" (which I know she gives you great pleasure) not a "sailing vessel"
Last year during the military exercises in QLD I could see all the Aus navy on AIS but not the US and others!
I suppose the bottom line here is, is that whatever has precluded the crew from making a call on VHF is the same as what would prevent an AIS signal to be set considering most rec boaties would just simply split the VHF antenna giving the AIS the same range as a voice radio call, and even less would have subscribed to the satellite service of the system.
One of the reasons I don't want AIS transmission to be compulsory is just the idea of being tracked all the time. It's publicly available information. Who knows how the data can be used. It wouldn't be acceptable on land.
That's not to say I don't think it is a good idea to have AIS on, as I do, just not compulsory.
I believe if you have your mobile phone with you on land, you can be tracked via the phone's 'fingerprint'.
This thread got "hijacked" onto a debate about AIS.
What I think is a bigger issue, is a very common story of buying a boat away from home base, and immediately setting sail for home. So often the boat has serious flaws, which are only discovered once at sea. Also the new owners don't know the boat very well. All of which add up to a disaster waiting to happen.
So please, sort out a new boat locally, with short shakedown outings, before starting a serious trip home.
They would have had to be lifted out of the water at the nearest harbour and trucked to Goolwa because the mouth of the Murray isn't navigable, yes?
Apparently last night they did the ET thang and called home.
Extraordinary...is what ABC Lisa called it this morning.
Police Boat approaching the area:
I think they might have been drifting and got within phone reception.