Longest obstruction encountered at sea

[jimi]

Sailing in the North Sea about 60 miles from land we spy a ship ahead making way slowly, then we get called up on the radio. Its a seismic survey vessel towing a 4 mile long array asking us to go round them ;-)

 

[colingr]

Some years ago we had the same thing between the Needles and Swanage. We decided to cross well ahead of the tug and got a rowlocking because the tug had turned and the sonar was about a mile ahead of the tug

 

[jimi]

Some years ago we had the same thing between the Needles and Swanage. We decided to cross well ahead of the tug and got a rowlocking because the tug had turned and the sonar was about a mile ahead of the tug

The best rowlocking I ever heard was in that area when a racing yacht shot under the boews of the seismic ship forsing it to slow down. The skipper was told he was'nt fit to be charge of a bar of soap , never mind a soapdish! ;-)

 

[sarabande]

In a motor sailer called Mary Gloag, which I was taking to Holland in the late 60s, we had unexpected leeway, and I ended up on the landward side of the Storm barrier under construction near Ziericksee. In those days flashing yellow lights had not been invented (well, that's my excuse), so all the navigation buoys began to disappear one by one into the encircling blackness behind the concrete walls. When we got to the end of the dijk, and found identifiable land again, I had to turn around and go all the way back - up wind.

About 8 miles there and back, but it doesn't really count for jimi's purposes.

 

[geoid96]

...... Its a seismic survey vessel towing a 4 mile long array asking us to go round them

Modern seismic vessels can tow 20 streamers in parallel, each 8 km long. As they only travel at 4-5 knots, it can take a long while for them to go past.

 

[ChrisE]

In the North Sea again, nearly t-boned the hawser that was between an oil rig and it's tow. They were about 3 miles apart and it was at night. Took me a fair while to work out that a. The two objects were connected and b. how to avoid given the whole thing was happening on the middle of load of other oil rigs and platforms.

I unreservedly hate the North Sea!

 

[bbg]

The best rowlocking I ever heard was in that area when a racing yacht shot under the boews of the seismic ship forsing it to slow down. The skipper was told he was'nt fit to be charge of a bar of soap , never mind a soapdish! ;-)

As I was racing last year, somewhere around Fastnet - in thick fog - I heard a seismic ship and its guard ship calling up one of the other boats (a friend of mine). A 15 minute conversation ensued, including a discussion of where my friend was in comparison to the array (due to the fog he had only been identified by radar), telling the yacht to turn right, then a few minutes later to turn left, and concluding with "you are in imminent danger", and eventually "you are clear". Very funny after the fact.

 

[peterandjeanette]

Off the coast of Portugal this year - during a quiet night watch - I was amazaed to hear our yacht name being called by a "guard" vessel. (Must have got details from the AIS we were transmitting)
They were guarding a cable laying boat and requested that I keep well clear.
That was obvious. Then they said that there was another vessel bringing up the rear - nine miles behind. Would I ensure that I pass astern of this boat too.
Fortunately we were on a parrallel course so no real difficulty at all. Just think they needed to brighten up their boring night watch. Certainly kept me awake too.

 

[colingr]

The best rowlocking I ever heard was in that area when a racing yacht shot under the boews of the seismic ship forsing it to slow down. The skipper was told he was'nt fit to be charge of a bar of soap , never mind a soapdish! ;-)

wasn't me, I was in a dive RIB

 

[prv]

We came across a survey vessel with the long tail, in the North Sea, during my first voyage in Prince William. They asked us to go round them. To do that would have required waking the whole crew, and losing many hours of windward distance we'd painfully gained (Tall Ships' Race, so no motoring). Obviously we couldn't insist, but the captain asked if it would be possible for them to avoid us instead. I can still picture him leaning into the near-gale saying into the VHF "we are a square-rigged sailing ship, hard on the wind". Fortunately the OOW on the survey vessel had himself sailed on some Dutch or German square-rigger, and he agreed to slow down and let us pass ahead. We turned on all our rig lights as we went past, and I heard from the VHF, sans callsigns, the words "Beautiful. Thank you!" as we did so.

Pete

 

[KellysEye]

>Sailing in the North Sea about 60 miles from land we spy a ship ahead making way slowly, then we get called up on the radio. Its a seismic survey vessel towing a 4 mile long array asking us to go round them ;-)

We had the same on passage from Trinidad to Grenada at night. They asked us to go round a white strobe that was at the end of the array. We coudn't see it and called them, they hadn't turned it on.