A little too close?

Solitaire

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Independence of The Seas was coming down Southampton Water last evening - so thought they would see how close they could get to her.

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I can understand that they might want to wash ride - but it is unlikely to go fast enough to produce a wash in those waters & the dick in the last picture must think it is jet powered like his ski rather than prop powered!
 
How bizzare.

We had just come off Independence that morning and had been in the Port seeing it off as it set sail around 5.00pm. Followed it out at a safe distance for a while and then sped up to go ahead of it (towards P&O's Ventura).

The jet skis were lurking around a bouy on the North side of Southampton water and one shot out straight towards us to fly across our wake. They obviously then went to bother Independence.

You must have just missed us. White Princess 42, well tanned finely honed individual at the flybridge helm along with his equally elegant family ;)

Henry :)
 
Because of new anti-terrorism laws in this country, recreational craft are not allowed within 200 metres of commercial shipping.

Your laws seems different, or are those guys just defying the laws of common sense?
 
Dave - you must have seen us too, we were just entering the Hamble when the second of the 3 liners was passing fawley.

They seem to do these group departures on Sunday's often.
 
Dave - you must have seen us too, we were just entering the Hamble when the second of the 3 liners was passing fawley.

They seem to do these group departures on Sunday's often.

Ben - this was on Saturday actually. I did see a Fairey coming into Hamble on Sat. pm but it was not you.
 
There are rules in this area but jet ski's probably are not aware of them! There is an "area of concern" that states clearly how close you can get. The link below shows the area.

http://www.southamptonvts.co.uk/images/mypictures/maps/mapcaution.jpg

I've often wondered how much security there is these days comparative to trying to get on a plane. A suicide bomber on a jet ski in this or similar situation would cause havoc, especially if he/she did it at the Solent/Southampton water junction.
 
It would be quite easy to set a powerful warhead onto the front of a jetski & simply ram a big ship in a narrow channel like that. :eek:

It would take a fair bit of time & effort to rescue everybody & then refloat the wreck. Could close a port for quite a while. It would also severely discourage the yankee tourists for some years - especially if a few of them had been killed.

Definitely a significant terrorist risk, and thus enough for any jetskiers to be locked up for a month or two while enquiries are carried out. :D
 
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