Atlantic Crossing - Ships that pass in the night - we hope
Stargazer of Southampton
Susie and Adam (both think they are skipper)
Tue 4 Jan 2011 10:56
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04:01.11, 13:26.47N 38:44.93W
Very dark again last night - no moon, no stars -
just warm and cloudy. Another (or the same) floodlit factory fishing ship
appeared again straight ahead of us at pretty much the same time as yesterday
about ten thirty at night. It was impossible to see which way he was
moving as the floodlights obscured any other lights and he was tracking in
straight toward us. .. . .. . . the VHF conversation went like this. . . .
.
Me: Ship at position blah North, blah
West, this is Yacht Stargazer, over.
Me (again): Ship at position blah North
blah West, this is Yacht Stargazer, over.
Someone else: Stargazer this is Wild Rose, we are near the position you
stated
Me: I am looking at a large floodlit vessel 4 miles on our port
bow are you that ship and, can you see a sailing yacht
Wild Rose: I am a sailing yacht, I have no lights on at all.
Me: . . .errrmm. .. .OK, so you are not the Ship that I am trying to avoid
that is floodlit
Wild Rose: We're a yacht but we are sailing nearby
Me: OK Thanks for your help, we will continue to take action to avoid
the ship
. . . About 10 minutes later. . . .. . . ..
Wild Rose: Stargazer, Stargazer, this is Wild Rose, we can now see a
ship and a yacht near to it - we assume you are the yacht and can confirm that
we are not the ship that you are trying to avoid
???? Very confusing, we never did hear from the ship itself, probably too
busy fishing - but we were baffled as to why a yacht with no lights should think
we could mistake them for a floodlit ship. think they were just paranoid
of people running into them as they had no lights on - good idea would be to put
some on I suppose.
Four dead flying fish had to be removed from the decks this morning, poor
flying fish. |