After M/V Thunder’s summer cruise of the Canadian Maritimes, it became apparent that to enhance our ability with zero visibility navigation a serious look at thermal imaging was in order.

Our first pass led to several vendors, some of whom seemed to be out-of-the-garage, backyard operations. What I have found over the years is that there are individuals dancing on the periphery of the yachting industry who will box up a technology, call it "marinized," artificially create a high price, sell several dozen or a couple of hundred units • then disappear. This leaves the captain and owner searching for someone to fix the box, which often becomes yet another boat anchor or a float test device.

My research of thermal imaging brought me to a military, homeland security provider of one of the world’s finest thermal cameras. EMX is located in Melbourne, Fla. In business since 1989, it is a Raytheon (now L3) Original Equipment Manufacturer, getting its start in covert electronics for law enforcement.

Today EMX has a very serious, worldwide footprint in military installations including Pearl Harbor, Guantanamo Bay, and Korea. Additionally, Oakridge Nuclear Facility, the Alaskan Pipeline, and the NASA launch facility, along with a host of search and rescue ships and helicopters, all use EMX’s thermal imaging equipment.

These were the serious, no-nonsense guys I wanted to work with to, as the U.S. military says, "Own the Night."

It is important to point out that conventional night-vision equipment magnifies ambient light to give the green view. This is not in any way thermal imaging. Thermal imaging does not require light. You can use this equipment in a pitch black cave and see perfectly.

Everything gives off heat. Humans and all living things emit their own heat. Inanimate objects such as boats, navigational buoys and even weapons absorb light energy throughout the day and emit that energy as heat.

Thermal imaging cameras use this heat in the 7-14 micron range to "see" someone or something. This technology uses thermal signatures or the difference in the heat temperatures of objects down to as little as 0.01 of a degree. This heat signature is then changed into an electronic signal at 320 x 240 pixels for the image to be seen on a yacht’s computer monitor. As thermal energy waves penetrate through environmental conditions quite well, an image can be seen through snow, smoke, dust, haze, fog and rain.

On most yachts today we have an Elbex (or other manufacturer) switcher for our security cameras that allow crew to punch a button and choose a particular security or engine room camera to watch • or set up a scan of all the cameras. The digital signal from EMX’s MidWatch-75XR Marine Thermal Imager simply plugs into the back of the Elbex switcher via an RS170 video connector, so scanning with the thermal camera is effortless and can be incorporated into an existing system with minimal cost or major wiring. A small box incorporating a joystick to pan the camera was the only addition to the bridge of M/V Thunder, a 70-foot Delta expedition yacht. That kept the installation neat, tidy and ‘non-gadgetry.’ The entire installation on Thunder took only four hours to complete.

The concerns of Thunder’s owner were three-fold: 1. Security at anchor, in port and while underway; 2. Man-overboard situation; and 3. Navigation.

With a thermal camera we can see an approaching person, car, aircraft or boat from more than 2 miles away. A human is clearly detectable at 1 mile. Radar assists in telling the crew that we have an incoming "something." Thermal imaging can show us quickly how many are on the deck of that vessel, whether the vessel is wood, metal or fiberglass, and any weapons they may be holding (all depending on the heat emitted). With that information we can ascertain if they are friendly or of a nefarious intent.

In a man-overboard situation at night, nothing can assist like thermal imaging. To be able to locate a floating person in pure blackness is extraordinarily difficult. With thermal imaging they stand out even better than in daylight as there is no glare from the sun.

Using thermal imaging to navigate at night is somewhere between unreal and unbelievable for the first couple of hours. We found floating logs to be easily recognizable on the monitor. Ground clutter makes it tough to locate navigation buoys and to pick out small fiberglass boats with radar alone. For example, going up the ICW at night, the unlighted markers just leap out at you on the Thermal Image Monitor.

Furuno and Raymarine have a seamless integration with EMX’s equipment that provides a slew-to-que functionality. That feature uses the radar’s track ball to click on an object on the radar screen, and then a signal pans the thermal camera to that object for viewing on the thermal monitor. You know in a second what is really going on with that unknown blip because you can actually see the vessel and her crew as clear as day.

It is beyond awesome to use this technology!

With the camera’s 360-degree continuous Azimuth rotation and 45 degree tilt, I can scan the sky and see birds flying well over a mile away, even at night. While docked at Sunrise Harbor Marina in Ft. Lauderdale one night, I looked out at Hugh Taylor Birch State Park and noticed a large iguana walking along the breakwall more than half a mile away. He was as clear as day … at 2 a.m. on a moonless night.

This equipment has the potential for making our industry one heck of a lot safer, not only from a security standpoint but as a serious navigation aid as well.