VIEW FROM THE TOWER!

Watchkeepers at NCI Gosport very recently heard a mayday call on Channel 16.   A vessel somewhere in the locality had smoke coming from their engine compartment.   Solent Coastguard of course answered very quickly, got some details, and dispatched Gafirs to assist.   A pilot boat that was returning to Portsmouth also responded. The watchkeepers used their binoculars and high power telescopes to try to locate the mayday vessel but were unable to do so; there were a handful of vessels that might be the one in trouble, but they could not see smoke coming from any of them, and none were behaving in a way that suggested the boat had a problem.   This meant that they were unable to provide extra details to Solent Coastguard, nor keep track of the crew if they had to abandon ship and enter the water. As it happened both Gafirs and the pilot boat found the mayday vessel quickly and were able to render the necessary assistance.   No-one was harmed.   But the eve...

  I and my watchkeeping partner were on the Morning Watch on an overcast, and otherwise pleasant morning, but with only moderate visibility, and with not much in the way of traffic movements and I, as is frequently my choice, was standing on the West side of the Watch Tower thus enabling me to keep an all round lookout whilst also monitoring the AIS traffic movements as shown on the Ship Plotter. On one of my routine assessments of what AIS traffic was showing up on the screen I spotted the AIS data of a yacht on the Swashway apparently entering Portsmouth Harbour. Nothing unusual in that except that I could not make out any yacht in that given position even with the aid of my high power binoculars However, on my next and subsequent checks of this AIS target of a yacht on the Ship Plotter I observed that the AIS target had apparently altered course to the North. This gave me no cause for concern as I just assumed that the Skipper had decided to change...