Stu Hochron is founder and author of the truly excellent sailing online newsletter News From The Bow. He and his wife Shana sail their beautiful Freedom 45 in the Northeast mainly. The image is care of Bowsprite. You should definitely check out this truly original blog. Fantastic water colors. Adam New York’s East River is home to ferries, tankers, tugs (pushing and towing) and all sorts of commercial traffic. The safety of these working boats depends, to a significant degree, on their ability to communicate with each other while underway. Their captains are required to monitor channel 16, and so too should all pleasure craft. However, many pleasure boaters are unaware that nearly all commercial vessel VHF radio communications, including some calls to pleasure craft in their area, are NOT heard on channel 16. Consider this scenario: You are traveling on the East River (or Hudson River, or NY Harbor,... Read more →