C.A.R.D. stands for Collision Avoidance Radar Detector. As the title suggests its aim is to prevent collisions between ocean going craft.

>> IT WORKS by detecting incoming radar from other ships rather than sending out radar itself. However, instead of bouncing the radar waves back like with The Ocean Sentry and the Lensref radar ball (see Radar Reflectors - Active and Passive), it sets off an alarm – either visual and/or audio – to alert the Moksha crew of an approaching ship. It will even indicate the direction the ship is heading and the speed at which it is approaching. This unit - along with the Ocean Sentry - provided great peace of mind for Jason on his solo voyage from Hawaii to Tarawa.

One of his greatest fears was to be run down by a ship in the middle of the night while sleeping - all too easy when no one else is on look-out!

For more information about this system check out Survival Safety Engineering or email sse@norfolk.infi.net or call (1) 757 480 5508 or fax (1) 757 480 5683.

* A note on anti-collision equipment: the only grey area with these kinds of devices is the assumption that the other ships have their radars actually switched on. Very often ships will switch off their radars once away from land to avoid false alarms from whales or other objects floating in the water. There is never any substitute therefore for a pair of eyeballs scanning the horizon during both daylight and nighttime hours. However, during a solo voyage faith has to be placed in an all-round white light that one hopes the other ship will see in time!

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