'Message in a bottle'

[bilbobaggins]

I'm asked to post the following by our peripatetic friend Stingo, who is apparently tapping away on a Morse key - or summat similar - in some far-flung corner of the Atlantic. In one sense I'm glad to see his trubbles are become once again only 'boaty'.....

He's inviting comments - apart, I should imagine, from the obvious.....

There are lessons to be learnt here, and I made some fundamental mistakes. What do you think you may have done in a similar situation? I am all ears so that I know for next time.

I am currently approximately 75 NM off the coast of French Guyana and single handing it to Trinidad. It was 23:00 local time, no noon with a very consistent 10 knots of wind. I had the spinnaker up on a port tack and was sailing to the lee (ie I should have gybed the spinnaker but didn't want to do so at night - the aim being to get further offshore [to starboard] and away from the 100 metre contour line, where the fishing boats no longer venture). There was a very well lit fishing boat (I have no idea which way he was going because I couldn't see any nav-lights because of all his illuminating lights) ahead of me and on my starboard bow. This means that I couldn't really turn slightly to starboard to miss him (pass port-to-port??), because I was already flying the bag to the lee. So I turned a few degrees to port (mistake no 1) because at this stage it looked like he was holding his course and I could pass him. As I got close, he started to head across my bow, so I hardened up to port (mistake No 2). I had started both engines when I was getting too close to the wind to keep the spinnaker flying. That didn't work; I was nearly head to wind with the bag flogging itself to death when I decided to turn sharply to starboard, which worked, because I finally put some distance between us.

I think that the moment I was able to work out that he was crossing my bow, I should have gone hard to starboard. Anyway, my spinnaker is now in two parts and my nerves are in as many tatters. Out with the sewing tomorrow
morning....

Dropping the bag at sunset may have been a good start, but I would also have dropped 2 knots. Hmm, conflicts of interest...

Constructive comments please.

Thanks

The Gringo on Stingo

I think we've all done that at some time. Having a fair few encounters under my belt with beam trawlers out of Newlyn, Looe and Concarneau - and Spanish long-liners from La Corunna - I now treat all trawlers/vessels engaged in fishing as '500m. hazard zones' and eye them them with lots of suspicion until they've dropped over the horizon. It's a form of 'Murphy's Law' - if they can blugger-up your day ( night ), they certainly will.....