Thanks to Thomas W Shwab, Captain of S/V NANETTE in Greece, for his testimony about his use of MaxSea Moule Tracking (AIS-ARPA)
Saturday September 15, 2007 10:00PM
Having sailed down the coast from Dubrovnik, Croatia we are arriving at the entrance between Corfu, Greece and Albania. The entrance is only about 1 mile wide and there is a sand spit jutting out from Corfu just after the entrance. The wind was blowing a force 6 from the stern quarter (NW).
When you enter at night the Corfu coast line is filled with the city lights. The radar is cluttered with many fishing boats, charter boats, small islands and Cruise Ships.
This night was very dark, as there was no moon, and we were a little apprehensive. We entered the passage, having found the appropriate lights, and MaxSea was right on target. We then proceeded to avoid the sandspit and looked, once again, at the radar and then the Computer screen. The radar showed a lot of targets with one very large target off of our bow. I did not have time to go to the radar and identify it as a MARPA target. However, I looked at MaxSea and the blip was an AIS target identified as a very large Cruise ship headed our way. We had just installed a Class B AIS transponder, interfaced with MaxSea, and I was sure that the Cruise ship saw us. However, we were getting squeezed between the ship and the sand bar. Then I noticed that the heading vector for the cruise ship showed that he was maneuvering to his starboard to avoid me. What a relief. By this time we could see a difference between his lights and those of the city – the ship was huge. Without the AIS, and MaxSea to show it, we might have made the wrong decision. Thank you again – MaxSea.