Local Notice to Mariners - is there a less unwieldy solution?

[cdocsail]

Soon we will only have NOAA’s ENCs. But the Local Notice to Mariners is published by the Coast Guard so its info might not be included.
https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/local-no...by-cg-district
These are published weekly and are many pages long.

How far back does one need to go to get all the changes not in the ENCs?
Is there a quick trick to get the info needed to keep me safe where I am sailing?

[JBP]

The local notice to mariners contains info that is not generally on the ENC charts. Such info as lights and bouys out of position and ongoing construction. Each LNM is a complete synopsis of everything that is currently happening so you only need the latest. ENC charts are updated routinely so you can always check for the latest updates.

[boatman61]

In the UK they are broadcast on VHF...
Notice to Mariners are posted as they become live (weekdays only, excluding Bank Holidays). Listen for latest safety updates on VHF radio channels 12 & 14, weekdays and weekends. Our 6pm round up email sends any notices posted that day (weekdays only, excluding Bank Holidays).
Channels vary around the country, for example Bristol is Ch73..

[wrwakefield]

Originally Posted by boatman61

In the UK they are broadcast on VHF...
Notice to Mariners are posted as they become live (weekdays only, excluding Bank Holidays). Listen for latest safety updates on VHF radio channels 12 & 14, weekdays and weekends. Our 6pm round up email sends any notices posted that day (weekdays only, excluding Bank Holidays).
Channels vary around the country, for example Bristol is Ch73..

Likewise, the US Coast Guard [our USCG sectors in the NNE Pacific anyway] broadcasts the LNM typically 4 times daily [announced on VHF 16 with mention of channel to switch to- typically 22A or 23A.]

Perhaps they broadcast an abbreviated version listing light and marker changes, newly reported obstacles [e.g., logs, ice, etc.], announcements, etc. specific to the USCG sector coverage area.

Always worth a listen when underway, planning a transit, and in rough Wx- underway or not. Typically boring and of no immediate consequence to my travels- until they aren’t…

Cheers, Bill

[SailingHarmonie]

Originally Posted by wrwakefield

Likewise, the US Coast Guard [our USCG sectors in the NNE Pacific anyway] broadcasts the LNM typically 4 times daily [announced on VHF 16 with mention of channel to switch to- typically 22A or 23A.]

Perhaps they broadcast an abbreviated version listing light and marker changes, newly reported obstacles [e.g., logs, ice, etc.], announcements, etc. specific to the USCG sector coverage area.

Always worth a listen when underway, planning a transit, and in rough Wx- underway or not. Typically boring and of no immediate consequence to my travels- until they aren’t…

Cheers, Bill

f you think the USCG radio report is even possibly the full LNTM, you have obviously never actually seen your local LNTM. You might try it.

[JBP]

I was referring to the written LNM. You can get from the website https://navcen.uscg.gov/local-notice...by-cg-district or you can have the CG email it to you every week (well, they just email a link to a pdf really).

[wrwakefield]

Originally Posted by SailingHarmonie

f you think the USCG radio report is even possibly the full LNTM, you have obviously never actually seen your local LNTM. You might try it.

I absolutely don’t miss the days of combing the printed USCG LNM to update paper charts. In the day, downloading via SailDocs on a Pactor 1 modem was too onerous for the full LNM, making the abbreviated radio version the only reasonable accessible document to a full time cruiser not in port.

My casual response here was to add to Boatman’s mention of the VHF broadcast version in UK waters. I suppose if I had opened with ‘albeit’ instead of ‘perhaps’ it would have been more precise.

I did find the tone of your response enlightening, however.

Cheers, Bill

[requiem]

Originally Posted by JBP

The local notice to mariners contains info that is not generally on the ENC charts. Such info as lights and bouys out of position and ongoing construction. Each LNM is a complete synopsis of everything that is currently happening so you only need the latest. ENC charts are updated routinely so you can always check for the latest updates.

Yup! The nice thing is, the ATON discrepancies for the current week are bolded, so if you're keeping on top of things finding the changes isn't that hard.

Even if you miss a number of weeks you can refer to the LNM start/end column to identify those added after your last review. Similarly each entry in the other sections includes the LNM in which the entry was first posted. Once you're doing it semi-regularly you may find there aren't that many new entries and most of the items are rather long-standing.

[wrwakefield]

In case some of you don’t already know, an optimized, interactive version of the US Local Notice to Mariners [LNM] is scheduled to be released in a few days. [21-Oct-2024]

The interactive online version will replace the weekly LNM publications we are all used to.

Here is the link to the official notice:
https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/sites/de..._OCT_final.pdf

I have also attached a copy of the PDF linked above.

I look forward to this change, and hope they provide an API for 3rd parties [navigation software developers] to import relevant data.

Cheers, Bill

[requiem]

Looks like the new LNM app went up and came back down pretty quickly!

I only played around with it briefly, the main thing that jumped out at me was the number of different categories they had for the LNM entries (e.g. hazards were separate from naval activity, were separate from events, and so forth). Hopefully they make selecting multiple ones a bit easier.