Safe Navigation Guide online

NSW Maritime has launched a new online resource designed to improve safety afloat through better understanding of the water-traffic rules.
The Vessel Navigation Interactive Guide is accessible via the NSW Maritime website and includes a wide range of practical navigation information such as how to recognise and understand navigation marks and signs in daylight and at night, as well as a guide to waterway rules.
Viewers can choose to view navigation marks from a variety of angles and views and then adjust the visibility to see these marks in both daylight and the darkness of night.
Viewers can also manipulate images of a variety of vessels, including motor boats, ships and sailing craft, to view their navigation lights and profiles at any angle.
Boaters can test their knowledge of the basic safe boating rules by responding to a series of different scenarios in the interactive quizzes, which are linked to full explanations of the boating rules in the NSW Maritime Boating Handbook.
The online navigation guide is the result of a partnership in safety between NSW Maritime and Britain’s Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
The Vessel Navigation Interactive Guide was adapted from online education modules developed by the RNLI and reproduced on NSW Maritime’s website with their permission.
Initial feedback to NSW Maritime has been very positive, judging by the following comments received via email:
“It was very educational, easy to use and refreshed my memory. Thanks.”
“I found this an excellent idea, it gives you the opportunity to refresh and reacquaint yourself with the laws of boating. Thank you.”
To view the Vessel Navigation Interactive guide, visit http://www.maritime.nsw.gov.au/vessel_navigation_tool/nav_home.html

HMAS Adelaide comes into the City of Adelaide for the last time before her decommissioning in early 2008.Scuttling of ex-HMAS Adelaide

The scuttling of ex-HMAS Adelaide to form an artificial reef and dive site off Avoca Beach on the NSW Central Coast is scheduled for the morning of Saturday, 27 March.
A 1,000 metre exclusion zone will be maintained around the ship prior to and at the time of scuttling, scheduled for 10am, and then until all post scuttling checks have been completed and navigation aids installed.
Many spectators are expected for this event; NSW Maritime advises skippers planning to view the scuttling from afloat that this section of coastal waters can be very rough and caution is required for any offshore boating.
Skippers need to ensure their boat is suitable for offshore conditions and that all of the required safety equipment is onboard and in good working order.
Keep checking the weather, and if in doubt, don’t go out.
For further information about offshore boating, visit  http://www.maritime.nsw.gov.au/campaigns/offshore.html

Alpine boatingAlpine boating

NSW Ports and Waterways Minister Paul McLeay (right) spent a day getting firsthand experience of alpine boating conditions during a recent visit to the Snowy Mountains.
As well as trying a range of small boats to understand their capabilities and limitations, the Minister gained insight into the key alpine lakes issues of rapidly changing weather conditions, navigation hazards emerging as lake levels vary, and the heightened risk of hypothermia associated with cold water boating, even when the air temperatures are warm.
Mr McLeay also spent a Sunday afternoon on Lake Jindabyne on NSW Maritime’s new Predator patrol boat equipped with twin 150hp Suzuki outboards and built to operate in and withstand the harshest alpine boating conditions.