VIEW FROM THE TOWER!

 

This appeal came in to us recently.  Unfortunately we dont get to see much marine life from our lookout tower, so this is really for anyone who takes a boat out.    

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...

Bad Things You Need To Know About Falling Into The Sea   In December we published a blog article about Man Overboard drills. This article describes some of the consequences of a Man Overboard from a medical viewpoint.   Keep in mind that the day it was posted here, BrambleMet showed a water temperature of 9 o C… only slightly warmer that the inside of most fridges. Ed. Written by NCI Watchkeeper Dr Chris Aps FRCA UK waters are cold.   Around Portsmouth the coldest sea temperatures are seen in February and March and are between 7 and 9 degrees Celsius.   Although warmer in the summer, reaching a peak in September, it rarely approaches 20 o C.   Bearing in mind your normal core temperature is 37 o C, the difference between your temperature and the sea’s is huge, whatever the time of year.   The bigger that difference, the more quickly heat energy escapes from your body into the water. People think that swimming and thrashing about will help you keep wa...

 New 'Island' near Hurst Castle... Dont Get Caught Out ! There have been changes at Hurst spit at the western entrance of the Solent.   A new shingle bank has formed and is fully visible at low tide. The “island” has gradually built up over the last few months to the east of historic Hurst Castle. The new shingle bank is in an area where many boaters entering the Solent against the ebb tide, having successfully negotiated the Trap,   will turn north to get out of the strongest tides, particularly if heading   in to anchor or are destined for Keyhaven or Lymington.      It is believed that the shingle bank has formed naturally as a result of work to protect the castle from coastal erosion after one of its walls collapsed in 2021, since when many of tonnes of shingle have since been dug up from the seabed to bolster Hurst Spit. The excavations have altered the tidal currents and conditions which in turn has moved the shingle about, causing the new bank...

A Quiet Time Of Year You would be right in assuming that the activity of NCI Gosport slows down somewhat at this time of year.   The short days and poor weather of January and February drastically reduce the amount of leisure traffic in the harbour and the Solent.   But you would be wrong to think that we close down or become completely dormant during these months. To begin with, the NCI Gosport lookout station was fully crewed during this time; a total of 59 days, operating a daylight watch with two watchkeepers on duty amounts to 826 person-hours of work.   [About one third of our watchkeepers are female.] During that time our training team were involved with the training of seven new volunteers, and that included running three or four evening sessions for them as well as the ‘on the job’ training. Training doesn’t stop with new volunteers though, as every watchkeeper stands a watch with a trainer to do a ‘refresher’, ensuring that skills and knowledge are still...