Uricanejack
Well-Known Member
For those of you who are content to sail single handed offshore and sleep instead of keeping a lookout relying on other vessels to see you.
It’s your choice your life on your head be it. At least if you are hit by a big ship your are only risking your own life.
Oddly I believe free society allows the freedom for people to do things I believe to be less than wise so long as you do not harm or risk harm to anyone else.
As it happens a couple of decades ago. I was a junior ship driver. I might even have been the prankster who saw your little boat on the horizon altered course to have a closer look sneaked up behind you and when only a couple of cables away blew my whistle. Crossing oceans can be a bit dull.
Or I might have been sailing with an old timer who used to come up on the bridge and complain about all us youngsters who relied to much on modern tech. And make me turn the radar of so as not to wear it out. I would try and explain I could keep an effective lookout by sight without needing the RADAR during the day and it was actually more harm to the bits inside it to keep turning it on and off.
Unfortunately a lot of the old chaps wouldn’t believe me.
So contrary to popular belief big ships do not all ways have their RADAR on.
Even when they are on you have to actually look at them. Most big ship drivers back in my day would not use auto acquire and guard zones or alarms. The Alarms are annoying and most captains used to think you were shirking your duty if you relied on them.
Along with getting remarkably upset if they ever found you sitting down in the pilot chair.
Even so from time to time your attention wanders when you are staring for days on end at an empty horizon.
You are think of your next port ,beer, girls, football almost anything except ships.
Funny thing its harder to keep a good look out far out in the ocean on a bright sunny day with clear visibility than it is an a foul day in the channel.
Nowadays ships a bigger have way more electronic gadgets climate controlled full width air conditioned bridges comfy Captain Kirk arm chairs for you to sit in.
Back in the day Id be out on the wing in my shorts and sunglasses working on my bronzy at least I had my eye on the horizon. Nowadays you get skin cancer.
As for lookout I would be alone with auto during the day. At night I always had a lookout with me.
Some guys used to correct charts at night when their lookout was on the bridge relying upon him to report a sighting.
I knew a few 2nd mates who would correct charts during the day if they could see ahead from the chart table. I was never comfortable with that
A full BA world folio had about 3600 charts updated weekly. A never ending job like painting the Forth Bridge. If you were lucky you also carried a folio of American charts for the entire US
Fortunately for the single handed sailor its been decades since anyone was foolish enough to leave me in charge of a tanker. Perhaps they pay better attention today.
There again I used to take evasive action for an other large ship which hadn’t seen mine or didn’t give a toss at least once or twice a month.
The OOCL President is a container ship I still get shudders about. I came within about 50 feet of that one.
As far as I know I never ran over a small boat.
It’s your choice your life on your head be it. At least if you are hit by a big ship your are only risking your own life.
Oddly I believe free society allows the freedom for people to do things I believe to be less than wise so long as you do not harm or risk harm to anyone else.
As it happens a couple of decades ago. I was a junior ship driver. I might even have been the prankster who saw your little boat on the horizon altered course to have a closer look sneaked up behind you and when only a couple of cables away blew my whistle. Crossing oceans can be a bit dull.
Or I might have been sailing with an old timer who used to come up on the bridge and complain about all us youngsters who relied to much on modern tech. And make me turn the radar of so as not to wear it out. I would try and explain I could keep an effective lookout by sight without needing the RADAR during the day and it was actually more harm to the bits inside it to keep turning it on and off.
Unfortunately a lot of the old chaps wouldn’t believe me.
So contrary to popular belief big ships do not all ways have their RADAR on.
Even when they are on you have to actually look at them. Most big ship drivers back in my day would not use auto acquire and guard zones or alarms. The Alarms are annoying and most captains used to think you were shirking your duty if you relied on them.
Along with getting remarkably upset if they ever found you sitting down in the pilot chair.
Even so from time to time your attention wanders when you are staring for days on end at an empty horizon.
You are think of your next port ,beer, girls, football almost anything except ships.
Funny thing its harder to keep a good look out far out in the ocean on a bright sunny day with clear visibility than it is an a foul day in the channel.
Nowadays ships a bigger have way more electronic gadgets climate controlled full width air conditioned bridges comfy Captain Kirk arm chairs for you to sit in.
Back in the day Id be out on the wing in my shorts and sunglasses working on my bronzy at least I had my eye on the horizon. Nowadays you get skin cancer.
As for lookout I would be alone with auto during the day. At night I always had a lookout with me.
Some guys used to correct charts at night when their lookout was on the bridge relying upon him to report a sighting.
I knew a few 2nd mates who would correct charts during the day if they could see ahead from the chart table. I was never comfortable with that
A full BA world folio had about 3600 charts updated weekly. A never ending job like painting the Forth Bridge. If you were lucky you also carried a folio of American charts for the entire US
Fortunately for the single handed sailor its been decades since anyone was foolish enough to leave me in charge of a tanker. Perhaps they pay better attention today.
There again I used to take evasive action for an other large ship which hadn’t seen mine or didn’t give a toss at least once or twice a month.
The OOCL President is a container ship I still get shudders about. I came within about 50 feet of that one.
As far as I know I never ran over a small boat.
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