I recently contacted Seattle Traffic about how as a kayaker I could best mesh with commercial shipping when having to cross a shipping lane. His reply posted below indicates at least Seattle Traffic is willing to communicate with us to let us know of shipping that we might interfere with and to pass information on to shipping that we are making a crossing.

I let him know we already monitor the local VTS channel and channel 16 when paddling in the vicinity of shipping lanes. His response follows.

"As a vessel traffic service operator I would encourage you to give us a heads up at least 30 minutes prior to crossing the lanes and then again when you are starting to cross. I would also appreciate a follow up call once you get across the lanes.

Nice to know that you are listening and participating with us when operating in or near the lanes."

One thing I've noticed about the ship traffic on the Columbia River is that it increases exponentially whenever I need to get back across the river.

Has anyone else had a ship give them 5 blasts when you are well out of the lane and only a few yards from shore? This usually occurs when the ship is approaching from my stern. I always know they are there, but I guess they might be warning me that they are about to send me some nice waves. It has only happened a few times and it always leaves me wondering what all the tooting was about.

That would be one of the advantages of being able to check in with VTS. The captain and pilot would be aware of the fact that you were making the crossing and would know where you were headed. Having that knowledge they might not feel the need to sound the danger signal.

Working as a mate on tugboats, well before sea kayaks were around in any kind of number and before VHF radios, it was the sailboats we had the hard time with. The biggest problem was not knowing where they were headed. Just to be sure, they were often given the 4 or more blasts of the horn. Much easier to make sure they were aware of us than to try to avoid collision a few minutes later. I would guess that's the reason you receive the warning blasts.

The pilots and skippers of tugs and ships must find real entertainment in dealing with the jet skies and wave runners that buzz around looking for ship wakes like flies around a cow pie.

kayakers and SUP paddlers do the same thing. I've caught some great rides from container ships and their tugs.
From a local(seattle) SUP paddler AKA 'tugwakesurfer'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8G6Yi7mybw

And they do occasionally have their own fun. We were running light one afternoon (no barge in tow) and had a ski boat with water skier buzzing close to us to play in the wake we were kicking up. The skipper being a bit annoyed with how close they were cutting us said "watch this" and gave the tug full throttle. Running light at full throttle we pushed a bow wave that nearly came over the bow of the tug. The next pass they made had the boat airborne and skier thrown so hard he went down in a rather spectacular manner.

Not nice on our skippers part but I'm guessing they thought twice about buzzing a commercial boat again.