Yes, Navigating an Offshore Wind Farm is Safe – and this simulation video of Navigating an Offshore Wind Farm will prove it.

I was recently invited to participate in an offshore wind simulator at the US Maritime Resource Center (USMRC) in Middletown, RI. The USMRC is an independent, non-profit marine operations training center used by the USCG and others.

Pretty much like what the airlines use for training pilots but this is for boats and this shore video of Navigating an Offshore Wind Farm as as real as it is going to get until construction has been completed.

For our program, the Revolution Wind Farm being developed by Orsted was selected as the model. They used computer generated data collected by other vessels and build into it the exact size, scale and location of the coming turbine structures and for a little excitement and reality, they included other boat traffic in the mix.

We had sailboats, sport boats, other commercial fishing boats and Coast Guard Vessels.

We had a choice of vessels to operate, either a 80ft commercial fishing trawler or a 30 foot center console sport fishing boat.

I took a handful of random videos on my phone and strung them together in this video.
I did not edit the video clips whatsoever except to take out a little salty language.

We got to experience pretty much everything they could throw at us, high winds, big seas, rain, darkness fog etc.

The simulator was realistic enough to make you seasick! So I want to warn you – if you’re prone to seasickness, you might want to consider not watching .
What was really interesting is, as soon as the simulator went live, all of the mariners amongst us began swaying back and forth as our sea legs kicked in and the land-lubbers placed their hands on the wall to keep their balance.

The floor in the room was stationary and it was your eyes and ears that put you in motion and it was very realistic!

Regardless of the conditions given it was clear to me that if you can’t navigate through a windfarm, you don’t belong on a boat.

Even under extreme conditions, every one of us in the room were fully capable of navigating safely between the turbine legs a nd other boats.

Add to it the simple fact that all of the turbines are clearly market on the navigation system which I personally found easier to use than anything.

Overall, it was a great learning experience that I highly recommend. I recommend turning off the lights and all surrounding interference so you can get the full experience.