31 Jan 09 - First day practical Day Skipper

12 nautical miles

This is the navigation station from the 40 foot Juneau yacht that Andreas of True North Yachting uses for the Day Skipper practicals. The left hand panel is fuses and switches for power. In the middle is chart plotter/radar and VHF radio and then on the right is Navtex.

The SOLAS [Safety of Life at Sea] Convention has a chapter called GMDSS [Global Maritime Distress and Safety System] and part of that system is the Navtex system. Navtex provides text messages to boats within 250 miles of a coastal station. In our case the coastal station is on mount Olympus in the centre of Cyprus.

You can also download many of the Navtex messages from the Internet. Looking forward to the course all week I had been watching the weather forecasts and reading the Navtex messages. Navtex gives out many types of alerts - one type being 'Nav warnings'. Mid January there was the following series of warnings about a sunk yacht to the west of Cyprus that was still partly on the surface and so a danger to shipping and in the south-west of Cyprus.

ZCZC MA02
100200UTC JAN 2009
CYPRUSRADIO NAV WRNG NR 02
FOLLOWING RECEIVED FROM CYPRUS PORTS AUTHORITY

QUOTE:
YACHT 'JOHARA' HAS BEEN SUNK IN POSITION 34 54N 032 02E WITH HER PROW NOT COMPLETELY SUNK AND CAUSES A DANGER TO NAVIGATION ALL SHIPS ARE REQUESTED TO BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN AND IF THEY ARE PASSING THROUGH OR NEAR THIS POSITION.

UNQUOTE

CAUTION ADVISED
CYPRUSRADIO/5BA
NNNN

They updated it to show the drift a few days later. Note how the Navtex reception for this message was not perfect, but still understandable.

ZCZC MA31121200UTC JAN 2009
:6047'4-$89 ,-= 24,& 4 03
FOLOWING RECEIVEDFRO CYPRUS PORT AUTHORTY

QUOTE:
YACHT '9#-4-' WHICH HAS BEEN SUNK IN PSN 34 54N 032 02E NOWDRIFTED IN POSITION 4 31.12N 032 44.59E WITH APAT OF HER OF APPROXIMATELY 1,5 MTRS ABOVE TH SURFACE OF THE WATER AND CAUES A DANGER TO NAVIGATIO. ALLSHIS AND VESSELS ARE REQUSTED TO BE VERY CAREFUL WHN AND IF THEY ARE PASSING THROUGH OR NEAR THIS POSITION.
UNQUOTE

CAUTION ADVISD
CYPRUSRADIO/5BA
NNNN

There were also Navigational warnings about the UN force in Lebanon doing live firing exercises off the coast of Cyprus. These were about 40 nautical miles east-south-east of us.

ZCZC MA08
241200UTC JAN 2009
CYPRUSRADIO NAV WRNG NR08=
FOLLOWING RECEIVED FROM NOTAMS:
UNIFIL NAVY WILL CARRY OUT LIVE ARTILLERY EXERCISE
FROM: 07:00 UTC 25TH OF JAN 2009
UNTIL 17:00 UTC 31ST OF JAN 2009
BETWEEN CYPRUS AND LEBANON
AT AREA BARBARA 1
34 37,00N 034 00,00E
34 25,00N 034 20,00E
34 00.00N 034 08,00E
34 10,00N 034 00,00E
EXERCISE WILL BE CONDUCTED THROUGH FULL COORDINATION WITH NICOSIA
ACC. SFC - FL200 JAN 25TH 0700-1100 UTC, 1300-1700 UTC, 26TH 0100-0500 UTC,
28TH 0700-1100 UTC, 1300-1700 UTC, 1900-2300 UTC, 31ST 0700-1100 AND 1300-1700 UTC
AT AREA BARBARA 2
34 23,00N 034 24,00E
34 15,00N 034 36,00E
34 00,00N 034 33,00E
34 00,00N 034 14,00E
EXERCISE WILL BE CONDUCTED THROUGH FULL COORDINATION WITH NICOSIA
ACC. SFC - FL200 JAN 28TH 0530-1030 UTC, 1200-1500 UTC, 29TH 0700-1000 UTC,
AND 31ST 1300-1700UTC
CAUTION ADVISED
CYPRUSRADIO/5BA
NNNN

I plotted all those onto Google Earth to see how relevant they might be to sailing in the course. Actually we would be nowhere near the relevant areas, but it was a good exercise.

The weather forecast for the first day was questionable, [Navtex forecast shown below] but we did manage to get out for a couple of hours sailing.

ZCZC ME62
311600 U.T.C. JAN 2009
CYPRUSRADIO WEATHER FORECAST
FOR THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN

PART 1 : NO GALE

PART 2 : SYNOPSIS OF SURFACE WEATHER
CHART 311200 U.T.C.
BAROMETRIC LOW 1006HPA OVER TURKEY FILLING

PART 3: FORECASTS FOR 24 HOURS
311800 TO 011800 U.T.C.
WIND IN BEAUFORT SCALE

SOUTHEAST KRITIKO:
--------------------------
RISK OF LOCAL SHOWERS
WEST TO NORTHWEST 4 TO 5 LATER 4
SLIGHT TO MODERATE
LOCALLY MODERATE

DELTA:
--------
LOCAL SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS
WEST 4 TO 5
MODERATE
MODERATE

CRUSADE:
-----------
LOCAL SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS
SOUTHWEST TO WEST 4 TO 5
MODERATE
MODERATE

TAURUS:
----------
LOCAL SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSORMS
WEST 4 LOCALLY UP TO 5
SLIGHT TO MODERATE
MODERATE
NNNN

We could not do many of the exercises needed for the Day Skipper course since the conditions were too inclement. But just being out there and feeling what its like steering a much bigger boat than mine in a blow was worth it.

Everything on a yacht is much slower - she responds slower and so all movements of the helm must be slower and anticipate how the boat will move before she does. I found the wheel steering somewhat more difficult than a tiller.

It was interesting to see how she sailed up and down the swells. I tried steering like I would on the dinghy, and the way Daniel [my son who is lifeboat cox] recommends - turning into each approaching wave and back on course down the back of the wave, but that made us zig-zag more than would maybe be necessary on a yacht compared to a dinghy.

During the time we were out sailing there was a Navtex Search and Rescue alert about an EPIRB set off about 80 nautical miles to the south-west of us. And that is plotted onto the chart above too.

ZCZC MD01
31 1245 UTC JAN
CYPRUSRADIO URGENCY SIGNAL NR1=
THE FOLLOWING RECEIVED FROM RCC LARNACA

QUOTE
DISTRESS ALERT HAS BEEN RECEIVED FROM UNKNOWN SOURCE ON FREQUENCY 243MHZ ON 31 JAN 2009 AT 12:29 UTC AT POSITION:

33 30.0N 032 20.6E

ALL SHIPS SAILING IN THE AREA ARE REQUESTED TO KEEP A SHARP LOOKOUT AND RENDER ASSISTANCE IF NECESSARY INFORMING CYPRUS RADIO AS APPROPRIATE

ALL SHIPS SAILING IN THE AREA ARE REQUESTED TO CHECK THEIR EQUIPMENT AND IF ACTIVATED TO SET IT OFF, REPORTING TO CYPRUS RADIO SOONEST WITH ANY ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
UNQUOTE
CYPRUSRADIO/5BA
NNNN