January 31, 2017
I was checking up on some friends on MarineTraffic.com (OK, snooping) and was shocked by this image…
I filtered out all but pleasure boats and this is what I got…
Keep in mind that these are just boats with AIS (Automatic Identification System – kind of like air traffic control for boats), with their AIS on in the recent past, and within range of a shore station or picked up by a satellite. This is a tiny fraction of pleasure boats worldwide.
Here are the pleasure boats in Australia and New Zealand…
And Tasmania…
I’m surprised at how many pleasure boats there are with active AIS in Tasmania. I guess I shouldn’t be. The Wooden Boat Festival starts in ten days and there are a lot of boats that come down here for that – in the order of 300 registered boats plus a lot of spectator boats.
We were going to go, but we think we’ve changed our minds. We look at it this way: We could have a couple of days of fun – great fun, I’m sure – at the show, or weeks of quiet, beautiful anchorages to ourselves since everyone else’s gone to the show.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about…
There’s only one boat right now in Wineglass Bay on the Freycinet Pennisula, and that’s us! Just a few days ago, we heard there were ten boats here. Our devious plan seems to be working! -Rich
