Radar Training

Went out training last night - a bit cold but a great evening regardless. This was another RADAR orientation exercise for some of the newer crew and thanks to a passing tug and tow was a great exercise.

We left the Dock at About 1700h for one of our standard 2h training runs. It´s been getting pretty brisk these days when the sun goes down so everyone was well bundled against the cold. Kellei and I have been working to share as much of the great RADAR information we gleaned during our SEN/L Course with our crews and tonight´s run was a great chance to do more.

After a RADAR basics briefing dockside, we meandered out of the harbour while closely watching and resetting the RADAR as the range to land opened up. Timing for tonight´s run was perfect because just About the time the crew was getting very comfortable with the RADAR a tug and tow could be seen Heading down the strait and coming into range. At the start it´s nav lights were tricky to discern because from our angle we could see both Port and Starboard lights from the tow - but only the Starboard light of the tug. It almost looked like two different vessels.

As the range closed up and we adjusted our aspect to the target everything became clear and by comparing the visuals to the RADAR image the crew got a really good sense of what to look for at night.

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