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Puerto Natales During the morning of yesterday it was carried out in the Maritime Zone Patrol OPV Marinero Fuentealba dependent on the Third Naval Zone the inauguration of a new navigation aid installed by the Navy and that can be used by all boats that cross in the Angostura of the Kirke Channel. It is a correntometer installed on Merino Island that transmits voice information in real time with VHF output and in real time fundamental information for navigation such as meteorological and current data at least 20 kilometers in advance which will allow for greater security when navigating the Angostura del Kirke.The event was attended by the Mayor of the Magallanes Region and the Chilean Antarctic S Eduardo Schiappacasse accompanied by the General Director of the Maritime Territory and Merchant Marine Vice Admiral Ignacio Mardones the Commander in Chief of the Third Naval Zone Rear Admiral Ronald Baasch and the Director of the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service of the Navy SHOA Rear Admiral Patricio Carrasco.The Mayor S highlighted this important initiative because we know that this navigation aid delivered by the Navy today has an incalculable value to guarantee the safety of all types of navigators and people who pass through this step forced to the Province of the Last Hope . For his part Vice Admiral Mardones said that we have made an important investment in improving the safety of the navigation of the vessels that pass through this step in order to ensure that they perform it in a straight and non-sinuous manner as it happened before.The Angostura Kirke is a step where there is practically the greatest presence of currents in the southern channels they reach almost 8 knots that makes the ship moved to the side generating possible accidents such as those unfortunately we have seen in previous years he explained.How this tool worksThe installation of this signage was carried out by the Maritime Signaling Center of Punta Arenas. It is a self-sustaining signal that will be powered by wind and solar energy and has two important innovations the installation of a weather station and a current meter a modern state-of-the-art oceanography instrument that allows to know the speed and direction of water currents in real time.Both instruments will allow navigators to know details such as wind direction and intensity temperature currents water temperature and sea conditions among others. Not only through the image in the AIS but also by audio making it accessible to any ship from smaller to larger to access real-time information which until yesterday could only be obtained from through the nautical charts.New Nautical Chart of the Kirke ChannelAnother of the important navigation aids delivered in this activity was a new nautical chart of the Canal and Angostura del Kirke which can be obtained both electronically and on paper and was prepared by the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service of the army.Rear Admiral Patricio Carrasco explained the importance of this new instrument by pointing out that this new letter comes to replace an old one the previous one had a local datum of reference that made it incompatible with GPS. It has an accuracy of less than one meter in addition a multi-beam survey which allows information on more than 98.9 coverage of the entire seabed. This is complemented with the issue of maritime signaling and particularly with the current meter since one of the major problems that this area has is that of currents concluded the Director of SHOA.
