In a statement, a spokesperson for the Meta founder said that “Mark and his family were not on board at the time of the incident,” the superyacht was using a different radio channel, and the skiff was not in distress. “By the time the crew reviewed the Coast Guard contact on a different radio channel from the one they were operating on, the assist was already underway,” the spokesperson said. “We’re grateful all parties are safe.”
"In general, any vessel equipped with a VHF marine radiotelephone (whether voluntarily or required to) must maintain a watch on channel 16 (156.800 MHz) whenever the radiotelephone is not being used to communicate."
The only exception is if in a Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) area, then must be monitoring the VTS channel.
(But even cheap handhelds VHFs will monitor two channels at once)
Comments
"Different radio channel"? The emergency channel is pretty standard in all mariner activities. They just didnt want to help.
Are sailors as busy meowing at one another as those pilots on guard frequency 121.5?
Yes this is true.
"In general, any vessel equipped with a VHF marine radiotelephone (whether voluntarily or required to) must maintain a watch on channel 16 (156.800 MHz) whenever the radiotelephone is not being used to communicate."
The only exception is if in a Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) area, then must be monitoring the VTS channel.
(But even cheap handhelds VHFs will monitor two channels at once)
https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/radio-watchkeeping-regulations
Article says this was in Farragut Bay which is not a VTS area. So, yes, every boat around was required to be monitoring VHF channel 16.
Yep. Constantly monitoring VHF 16 and 70 (when DSC enabled) is pretty much required.