I honestly don't remember if I hailed the one during the bash. In my experience, hailing cruise ships always elicits an immediate response. Almost as though the guy is sitting there with the mic in his hand just waiting for your call. Hailing a freighter along the coast has about a 50/50 chance of getting a response. Fishing vessels never respond (this is so consistent that I'm guessing they are monitoring their own working freq. instead of 16), so I rarely even try. And I NEVER bother wasting my breath trying to hail a panga.

I've yet to cruise with an AIS (this fall will be my first), so my normal routine is to rely on the Mark 1 Eyeball when under sail (and conserving electrical power is an issue), then turning the radar on whenever a light is sighted. When under power, the radar is always on at night. Once I've got a radar fix, if it's a freighter or cruise ship, I'll give them a shout and ask them what kind of a target I make on their radar.

"Cruise ship at about 30 degrees 43 minutes North, 117 degrees 6 minutes West, this is the sailing vessel Tricia Jean about 9 miles off your starboard bow, over."

"Go ahead Tricia Jean, this is the Pacific Princess."

"Good evening sir, I was just wondering what kind of a radar target my little boat is making tonight."

"Good evening to you skipper, we see you clearly and it looks like you are only making 2.3 knots. Can that be correct?"

"Yeah, I'm afraid there's not much wind out here tonight."

...

I then might ask them if they have a weather forecast for the area and if he seems talkative, chat awhile.