AIS is a wonderful piece of technology which is fitted to all commercial boats, and to many non-commercial craft too. It transmits the current position of the boat, its speed and direction, and often its port of departure, destination and cargo. This can be seen by all other boats in the vicinity, which is a great safety feature. Approaching boats can be called on the VHF radio to check and agree that they won’t collide!
One of the fun advantages of having AIS fitted to Drama Queen, is that we can follow the boat on a web-site called Marine Traffic, which displays the position of every boat on the planet which has AIS fitted – amazing!
So it was that we watched our wee boat sail off one weekend away from Kip. through the Crinan Canal, the Caledonian Canal, and onwards down the East Coast of Scotland towards Edinburgh, its final destination. The trip took several weeks, with stops to avoid passing hurricanes.
Along the way, they used Peterhead as a port of refuge, and were snapped by a local photographer, who posted the picture to Marine Traffic.