Boot Key Harbor
"Marathon- the Heart of the Florida Keys"

An On-Line Cruising Guide for the Florida Keys & Cuba
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Radios - Installation & Use

You have two radios onboard that are extremely important for boating safety - especially here in the Keys: your marine VHF and your cell phone. Having both is best, but never rely on a cell phone alone without the VHF. When you’re fishing the hump 15+ miles offshore from Marathon, or even further out in the Gulf Stream, you’ll probably not have any phone service, but your VHF still works. You can simply call *CG on the cell phone for the Coast Guard. This is quick and convenient, but the downside is that if you’re in a real emergency, no other boats in the area can hear or respond to you, and the coast guard can’t triangulate your position. (The cell phone is best when you innocently and softly go aground in something like sand, and want to call a friend to help you without calling undue attention to yourself.) When you call, either by phone or VHF Ch 16, you should describe your position as accurately as possible - preferably with GPS coordinates - but at least with an approximate bearing and distance from a known location. I’ve heard mayday calls come through where the caller could only describe their location as something like: “I can see a tower in the distance!” Make sure everyone on your boat knows how to operate the radio and read the GPS coordinates. In order for it to work, you of course have to have “juice” to your radio. This is a common problem. You go out to sea to fish, maybe cut off your engine to drift, and then the batteries go dead for some reason. Not only can’t you start your engine, but you can’t even use your VHF radio. Maybe you’re out past the “hump” and you can’t use your cell phone. Do you realize how far the Gulf Stream will carry you out to sea over the next 2-3 days before someone finds you!? - if at all!? A backup battery is the answer as long as they are NOT wired together in parallel. If one goes flat the other will too. You need to isolate them with a battery selector switch and ensure that they both can be charged underway. If you’re having problems starting, make sure you put in some type of call before you suck your second battery flat. This really is important and often overlooked. On our cruiser we even keep a spare battery (with switch) at the helm so that if the boat starts to sink and shorts out the house battery banks below, we can switch to the emergency battery for the radios before we’re totally wet. You can look up the correct radio procedures in your original boating course materials, but remember that a MAYDAY is only for immediate danger to life and property. It’s not to be used just because your engine won’t start. A fire, man overboard, or aground and pounding on the reef are MAYDAY Calls. If you’re lost (and think getting into danger) or having problems that could become more serious, a PAN-PAN (pronounced Pahn) call is in order. If you want to alert other boaters in the area that a large deadhead is adrift in the channel, or other hazards, you use a SECURITE (say-cure-ah-tay) call. For normal calls, hail on 16 then switch to another channel to talk. Remember too that the marine VHF is not a CB radio - so no “Breaker-Breaker 16” for a radio call. OK good buddy? J