Channel lights (again)

[rogerroger]

Crossed Channel and back this week (Solent - Cherb.), both times at night.

I'd say the shipping lanes were moderately busy, but we hardly saw any ships with just nav lights. Many seemed to have "banks" of white lights on the stern and many had all their deck lights on.

We passed behind a very large vessel that we concluded must have been pushing another - there was a group of white lights on the bow (maybe 4 or 5) - a single white light half way along the deck and then a plethora of white lights around the stern / bridge.

This all make identification very difficult - we even witnessed 2 large vessels heading west along the east bound shipping lanes.

Does anarchy now rule in the Channel?

Roger Holden
www.first-magnitude.co.uk

 

[ccscott49]

The more lights the buggers have on em' the happier I am! You can at least SEE em' I know the nav lights will be there somewhere and they will probably be correct, the coastguard in the channel are hot on it believe me! But if they are lit up like christmas trees, I don't mind as long as I can distiguish which direction they are going in and approx what course, I still maintain the rule keep out of there way! they are trying to make a living.

 

[ParaHandy]

I think number of lights is inversely proportional to attention being paid (to which way they're going). An LPG carrier passed ablaze in lights (thankfully) with some of the crew crawling over the tanks. Must have been a distraction to the watchkeepers.

 

[LadyInBed]

Re: shipping lanes

If you were in/near the shipping lanes/separation zone you must have been taking the seance route ;-)

God - I wish it would stop raining!

 

[tony_brighton]

I believe some really deep draft vessels can only go up one side of the Channel and hence occasionally need to stick to the wrong shipping lane. This is usually accompanied by a Securite.