By Michael Carr - “All boats, comms check, report when ready.” Three Riverine Warfare boat captains respond with “loud and clear”, and then four green and brown camouflaged boats slowly and quietly head out into the muddy river. There are no lights, no sounds, and barely perceptible ripples on the river’s surface. Twin water jets linked to turbocharged 500 HP diesel … [Read more...]
Editorial – Did I Understand You Correctly?
By Captain Grant Livingstone I have learned a lot about relationships over 30 years of marriage. The learning curve was not easy. Initially I had the idea that our relationship would be successful through love and good intentions. I would uphold my commitments as would my spouse and we would live happily ever after. We were two people with very … [Read more...]
In Double ECDIS Failure what good is a Sextant?
By Jaquelyn Burton (Coeval, Inc.) ECDIS is becoming ubiquitous - and that is a good thing. However, as we move towards more and more vessels relying wholly on ECDIS and heavily on its integration with GPS, some new problems are of growing concern. At a time of an ever-increasing amount of automation, the U.S. Navy is going back to teaching celestial navigation after an … [Read more...]
Training Forecast: Short Waves Of Terror In A Vast Sea Of Boredom
[su_pullquote align="right" class=""]Could a new system of training prevent incidents by teaching watch officers how to achieve a state of flow?[/su_pullquote] By Jaquelyn Burton (Coeval) - Land, a line on the radar, a steady light off the port bow. Only the radar doesn't match the chart or compass bearing. Something is off. Drawing … [Read more...]
Slipping Through The Safety Net
By Jaquelyn Burton (Coeval) The thing with Navigation Warnings is - are you sure that you have received all of the ones you might need? There are times when as an officer of the watch you receive a NAVTEX message that is corrupted or unreadable. When you have a message come in where the only thing that you can’t read about a firing exercise zone is it's … [Read more...]