Finding a spot when you've past it

[Salar]

Is there a special trick to this? You are in your own boat chugging around looking for a likely mark, a bank, wreck, reek or similar, and on the echo sounder you spot a lump with loads of fish round it. You immediately swing round and try and go over it again, but its not there. You've probably drifted a bit in the tide/wind, and if the viz is poor and you can't see the land, buoy or other boats, there's no point of reference. How can you poinpoint the spot so you can drop the anchor just uptide? I have seen the markers people in the US drop (used more in shallow/fresh water I think) but in 100ft+ of bumpy water that too could be way off. Any tips from a professional perhaps, Alan?

[Davy Holt]

Hiya,

 

thats what the man over board button is for

anyway 8 knts is hardly shooting about so I got plenty of time to mark the mark :-)

[Salar]

Davy Holt:

Hiya,

 

thats what the man over board button is for

anyway 8 knts is hardly shooting about so I got plenty of time to mark the mark :-)

Do you find that's accurate enough? I put a new GPS in last season, I'll have a fiddle with the zoom button to see if I can make the track bigger on the map page.

[chris parker]

As Davy says hit the MOB button on the GPS. I do it twice before I turn. When you zoom in the two waypoint markers will give you a course line to backtrack and make finding the spot a bit easier.

[Alan Taylor]

Salar:

Imagine you are chugging along and your mate falls overboard, the correct procedure is to turn the boat a few degrees to the side that the man has gone overboard so you miss him with the prop, you then turn the opposite way and follow back in your own wake, that should take you back to your man in the water, enough time should have elapsed for the bubbles to clear so your fish finder gives a decent picture.

 

If you have a bilge pump switch it on when you see a possible mark, there is usually oil in the bilge and this will show up on the waters surface.

 

As mentioned hit the MOB button.

 

You can also throw some bread over the side, the Gulls will mark the spot for you

 

If you have room onboard you could have a small grapnel type (soft metal) anchor handy for just this sort of situation.

 

If the 3 above dont work, throw your mate over the side and proceed with above

 

Alan(nl)

 

[ 18. February 2004, 12:34 PM: Message edited by: Alan Taylor ]

[Salar]

A couple of really good tips there - thanks. The double MOB is a great idea as its the direction that is so important when trying to find a reef, in the past I thought I had missed completely only to find I was travelling down the side of it rather that across it.

 

Alan - is that the Williamson Turn? I remember that from by boat handling course but had fogotten it as I havent had a MOB situation for the last 9 years! The bilge water idea is excellent, however my new engine doesn't leak so the bilge water is lovely...maybe a scrap of someting that would float for a while then disintegrate would work as well.

[RobT]

I find the easiest way is to just read the last bit of the numbers.

 

Have in your head the direction you are travelling. As a bump or whatever pops up on the sounder look at the set and make a mental note of the last couple of digits North and West. Simply alter course and steer back towards em'.

 

I think a Williamson Turn is a little drastic for mark hunting....!

[Alan Taylor]

RobT:

I find the easiest way is to just read the last bit of the numbers.

 

I think a Williamson Turn is a little drastic for mark hunting....!

I based my reply on the original post, no mention was made of track plotters, gps or any other navigational aids, in fact as there were no points of reference due to visibility I assumed (wrongly) that there were none of the above, just a fish finder.

I did not know it was called a Williamson Turn, it was just what I was taught as crash crew on the N.sea standby boats and in the Navy. In this particular instance he was not "mark hunting", he had already found the mark and just needed to get back to it, hence my interpretation of the problem and my off the cuff solution to it.

You will also see that I edited my reply twice, once was when I read Davy's reply and the mob button and the second when I (eventually) remembered that his fish finder could be blanked out by the bubbles in his wake. OK

 

Alan(nl)

[Newt]

RobT:

... I think a Williamson Turn is a little drastic for mark hunting....!

Ahhh - but it keeps you in good practice for when someone does fall over the side.