I see no ships!

[Keith]

You thought our roads were busy - here is a screen shot from the A.I.S. (Automatic Information System) plot at lunch time today and shows vessels in the English Channel. Ships carry a transponder which gives out a low power VHF transmission every minute and shows COG, SOG, destination port & can also be tracked from where it's been.

Green is General Cargo, Blue is Passenger, Yellow are high speed craft, grey are "Special Purpose" including military and purple are private craft which is not mandatory to carry the transponders as it is for commercials.

What I found especially interesting is that red icons are tankers transporting oil & gas. There's an absolute shedload of them.

Even though I have been a lifelong boater and have been across the channel in all kinds of craft, this plot really surprised me and is a microcosm of the amount of trade we do day in day out. This plot will be just as busy at midnight so spare a thought for all the mariners out there on the marine equivalent of a super highway!

The Channel Separation Zone can clearly be seen: Westbound British side, Eastbound French side. Crossing can only be done at right angles - oblique angles are not permitted. It looks crazy - but it works! Collisions are few...

The ships depicted here range in size from a few thousand tonnes to over 200,000

 

[Keith]

Night. It's quitened down a bit, but not much..

 

[Charlie Farley]

Good God...

One must be a DUKW as it's heading full steam for Reading !!

 

[Keith]

Hahaha.. that's a private vessel and it's on the Thames so yes, Reading is an option. What's interesting is that the whole of Northern Europe use their waterways far more than we do for much of their commercial traffic whereas we just sling it on the roads. You can just see it on the AIS display. Compare the Seine with the Thames for example.

The fantastic Thames is now virtually commercial free above Teddington..:thumbsdown:

 

[Charlie Farley]

Too right Keith.
We had a fantastic network of workable canals left to us by the Victorians.
To fully utilise them would greatly alleviate traffic on the road network &...
cost far less than the proposed high speed rail line, which will do nothing to
get the lorries off the road.

 

[Stephen Ducker]

Night. It's quitened down a bit, but not much..

Busy here !

 

[Robert May Eng.]

Night. It's quitened down a bit, but not much..

Tiz busy for sure but not perhaps as hectic as the flags would lead you to believe. The flags are proportionately a gazillion times bigger than the ships and there is a tidy distance between that lot. Probably just as well with the turning circle and stopping distances of these monsters :stunned:

Bob

 

[Keith]

Having crossed the separation zone many times in small fast boats, I can attest to the proximity of thses traffic lines. The ships are virtually nose to tail down the channel, and when I say that, I mean within 800 metres which is close enough when you consider they can take a few miles to stop. On more than one occasion, I've had to circle about and wait for room, as you cannot cross obliquely. They have you on radar the whole way and offending ships are routed out in short order.

Especially scary is when you tuck under the stern of some of the monster tankers in ballast with the tips of their props thrashing the water, there is hardly any sign of a human being on the bridge or anywhere else. It's like a giant convoy of ghost ships and in a sea mist, it's a downright spooky sight in your 10 metre boat..

Rum Runner 2012

(The 'Pirate' flag reads: "Time Flies when you're having Rum") :drunk: