Pirx
Well-Known Member
Back at the beginning of October I was sailing with a friend on his Moody 31. We left the mooring just South of the Barrow to Walney Island bridge at 04:00 and set off down the Walney Channel with a sluicing ebb tide under us. After being disconcertingly chased by a suction dredger just off the mouth of the Barrow Docks we motored happily down the channel in pitch darkness keeping an eye on the well lit buoys and posts.
I became aware of two bright lights some distance ahead. It wasn't clear what they were, nothing on the chart, so I assumed thay were deck lights on a workboat or some such. The lights began to get a bit bigger and brighter, but obviously this was to do with our rapid motion down the channel with the tide, it looked as if they were to the stbd side of the channel ... we motored on.
Suddenly, or so it seemed, the lights were very large and closing rapidly, and eventually when very close it was just possible to see a red nav light beside the white glare. It was one of the windfarm workboats travelling quickly with two powerful 'headlights'.
The skipper was a bit quicker than I was to recognise that this was an oncoming vessel and shoved the helm over. I worry that I might not have reacted in time and we could have had a problem.
What do people think? I can quite see that the workboat wants to see where it's going and doesn't want to hit unlit mooring buoys, seals, submarines, broken down fishing boats, escaped containers etc. And presumably (?) while it's doing this it's keeping a good lookout (?) , but it knocks a huge hole in the COLREGS and makes it impossible for other craft to see where it's going or how to keep out of its way.
I was doubtful about posting this until I came across a Norwegian AIB report into the collision between the frigate Helge Ingstad and the tanker Sola TS in a Norwegian fjord a year ago. If you remember the consequences for the frigate were somewhat terminal. It appears that a similar problem with bright lights was a contributing factor:
"When Sola TS set out on its northbound passage with the forward-pointing deck lights turned on, it was difficult for the frigate’s bridge team to see the tanker’s navigation lights and the flashing of the Aldis lamp, and thereby identify the ‘object’ as a vessel. The shipping company Tsakos Columbia Shipmanagement SA had not established compensatory safety measures with regards to the reduction of the visibility of the navigation lights due to deck lighting."
https://gcaptain.com/norway-releases-frigate-helge-ingstad-collision-report/
I became aware of two bright lights some distance ahead. It wasn't clear what they were, nothing on the chart, so I assumed thay were deck lights on a workboat or some such. The lights began to get a bit bigger and brighter, but obviously this was to do with our rapid motion down the channel with the tide, it looked as if they were to the stbd side of the channel ... we motored on.
Suddenly, or so it seemed, the lights were very large and closing rapidly, and eventually when very close it was just possible to see a red nav light beside the white glare. It was one of the windfarm workboats travelling quickly with two powerful 'headlights'.
The skipper was a bit quicker than I was to recognise that this was an oncoming vessel and shoved the helm over. I worry that I might not have reacted in time and we could have had a problem.
What do people think? I can quite see that the workboat wants to see where it's going and doesn't want to hit unlit mooring buoys, seals, submarines, broken down fishing boats, escaped containers etc. And presumably (?) while it's doing this it's keeping a good lookout (?) , but it knocks a huge hole in the COLREGS and makes it impossible for other craft to see where it's going or how to keep out of its way.
I was doubtful about posting this until I came across a Norwegian AIB report into the collision between the frigate Helge Ingstad and the tanker Sola TS in a Norwegian fjord a year ago. If you remember the consequences for the frigate were somewhat terminal. It appears that a similar problem with bright lights was a contributing factor:
"When Sola TS set out on its northbound passage with the forward-pointing deck lights turned on, it was difficult for the frigate’s bridge team to see the tanker’s navigation lights and the flashing of the Aldis lamp, and thereby identify the ‘object’ as a vessel. The shipping company Tsakos Columbia Shipmanagement SA had not established compensatory safety measures with regards to the reduction of the visibility of the navigation lights due to deck lighting."
https://gcaptain.com/norway-releases-frigate-helge-ingstad-collision-report/
