Containers -again

[ChrisE]

Has anyone hereabouts ever hit or seen one in the water?

In my circle of sailing chums, I know one person who knows someone whose boat who hit a sleeping whale, I've seen a whopping great whale about 50 yds from my boat but I, nor any of my acquaintances has ever seen, let alone hit, a container whilst cruising.

Clearly, the seas would be safer if containers weren't lost off ships, but are they more of a problem than the rare instance of hitting a whale and would hitting a container mean instant and certain sinking?

I don't know the answer but it is not something that I worry that much about, what does the team think?

 

[jimi]

I,Parahandy and JohnM saw one in the channel whilst returning from Cherbourg a year and a half ago

 

[mithril]

I think you are right not to worry unless

I think you are right not to worry unless they are concentrated in one spot and you are close to that spot.

Spread around the world they would be so far apart I think you have a better chance of hitting a lottery jackpot , but if 50 fell off in the English channel I would cancel the planned booze trip to France, well for a few days any way.

 

[claymore]

Re: I think you are right not to worry unless

I think it would be good if they wrote the contents in waterproof felt tip on the side and then you could decide whether to hit them or not.

 

[snooks]

Reminds me of the 89/90 Whitbread race when the yacht Charles Jordan hit a whale in the southern ocean, and the skipper balmed....Wait for it....wait for it......Greenpeace! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Talbot]

Have hit a whale in a grey funnel liner, and had a basking shark caught in minesweeping gear, but never seen a floaty container

 

[H4B]

Containers

I saw one years ago in the Atlantic. It was full of Marlboro tobacco. It was decided that it should be sunk Firstly we fired a 20mm gun at it then some 4.5 " which set it gently smouldering , evetually the divers went sent over in the Rib and blew the doors off and it eventually sank .

On another occasion a school of whales swam right into the side of the ship and hit us half way down the waist. Atleast one got mangled by the props, not a pretty sight .

 

[trouville]

Re: Containers

Ive seen one in PBO! along with other nightmares.

When she sailing and set up im realy not looking at the sea ahead if i did id soon sleep and far worse i just dont think of containers nor the night cargo ships without lights

I sail keep an eye on the pilot gps wind and keep the plot up, and think about what im going to eat for lunch,dinner -- and if its possiable to have a glass of wine between!!

When sailing i have to ration one half bottle of wine for 24 hrs without i fall asleep, more and i fall asleep!!

My self steerings very good? and there are the cargo passages marked and exact??

 

[Cruiser2B]

No containers, but just about anything else - crates, barrels, floating bloated animals of all description, even an old refrigerator. Ran down a whale in a destroyer once - lots of blood, smell was horrible; very sad. No damage to the steel hull, but the GRP sonar dome was smashed.

Kevin

 

[damo]

Saw a very large cylindrical object, about twice the size of a large container, barely awash. It was mid-Atlantic just N of equator. No sharp corners, so if you hit it right you might have slid over the top of it!

And no, it wasn't a whale, unless they paint themselves rust and yellow.

 

[bigmart]

Re: I think you are right not to worry unless

I would like to think that you're right but can you explain this. My boat is magically attracted towards anything that it shouldn't. I have sailed into buoys in the middle of an empty sea. If the buoys attract my boat like that, why don't the containers & whales etc.?

Martin

 

[harvey]

Never seen one washed up the shore either...

 

[jimi]

[ QUOTE ]
Never seen one washed up the shore either...

[/ QUOTE ]

You should have visited the Netherlands recently and you could have been kitted out in trainers for life.

 

[PIGLETSDREAM]

Have hit a dead wale in Lyme Bay many years ago, skipper came running up on deck to see what the problem was just as the smell rolled over the side decks, he continued through the cockpit to the push pit where he waved goodby to his supper.

 

[Gordonmc]

Dead things (not containers) regularly wash up ashore here. One of my fondest memories was seeing a bunch of weegie neds jumping up and down on the body of a big basking shark.
That wasn't the fond part. It came when the body cavity opened up with a bang and three of the schemie-suited fell into the guts and liver.
LOL.

 

[10tuskar]

I`ve been on a ship that picked up an empty helicopter fuel tank,a large tree trunk that had been in the water for many a month,ex mod training buoys,even an inflated liferaft in the Pentland Firth. There is a lot of rubbish now floating in our offshore waters.

 

[ChrisE]

jimi, that wasn't the, ahem, fridge incident, was it?

 

[moodycruiser]

Came across a dead whale in Biscay ...... smelt it before I saw it !

 

[Sailfree]

I know of a boat that had its saildrive sheared off last year outside Cherbourg. Marks on keel and rudder suggest it hit something but nothing seen.