Shipping Lane Stories. Real life experiences?

capnsensible

capnsensible

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How about some of the many on here who have lots of experience in dicing with Merchant Vessels of all shapes and sizes tell about their real life close encounters, moments of mayhem or simply the drama free spatial awareness encounters they have had?

Rather than a rule picky competition, how about showing that seamanship rules?

Never know, it may help others to share.

:encouragement:
 
I've nothing very scary and could have completed most of my Channel/North Sea crossings over the last nearly forty years with my eyes shut. One incident that comes to mind was in the Southern North Sea on passage from Harwich to Ijmuiden at night in company with a friend. Heading roughly due east under motor, our friend was a quarter of a mile ahead and a little to the south when a vessel with many lights approached from the north. Our friends carried on and passed ahead safely, while I turned north to let it pass. In the confusion of lights it was impossible to see what it was displaying, so I was playing safe. When it had passed, I resumed my easterly course and was shortly confronted by an enormous unlit hull being towed half a mile astern of the lit vessel and previously unseen by me. Luckily, the situation sorted itself out, but with less visibilty and a slightly greater eagerness on my part to get on we could have had a very close encounter.
 
A couple of years ago, I was crossing from Alderney to Portland. The weather was worse than the forecast, being around 25 knots on the quarter. There was also a heavy drizzle, limiting visibility to about a mile.

I could see from the AIS that there were ships heading towards me, but the boat was yawing from side to side, so that the heading was all over the place. This made it very difficult for the computer to work out the closest point of approach. However, they could obviously see me, because I could see them altering course, first by 10°and then by 20°, so they passed astern of me. Whether they saw me on radar, or whether they picked up my AIS signal, I don't know -but it was rather reassuring to know that they were out there and taking suitable action.
 
I've had perhaps a dozen drama-free spatial awareness encounters on Channel crossings.
I've had only one Collision Situation so far. We were becalmed ten miles or so south of St. Alban's Head about one night about 25 years ago, so under sail. We had a masthead tricolour lit. A really scruffy looking coaster approached. It became obvious that it wasn't going to avoid us; the two white lights remained alarmingly in line. Fortunately, our ancient outboard, our only propulsion on our Achilles 24, started first pull. The only other resort would have been a white flare, I guess.
 
My only vaguely near collision incident in 20-30 crossings was not in a shipping lane.

We were coming back from Ostend and a dredger was coming up on our port quarter (it was not dredging at the time). We were on a reach making about 7 kn and the dredger was doing 11-12 so the closing speed was quite low. It came up to about 1/4 mi without changing course so I put in a VHF call to ask his intentions. No reply to that or two other call so I bore away to avoid it by about 100yds.

I couldn't see whether there was anyone on the bridge.
 
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Just posted my actual track across the North Adriatic TSS when on passage from Venice to Rovinj on the other TSS thread.

Screenshot_20170112-141127.png


I'd had a couple of drinks at San Marco before we set off. :o

Richard
 
It was Spring 1986, I believe.
I date it roughly from the deafening stream of Boeings and A10 Warthog ground attack aircraft, presumably low on fuel, scraping in to RAF Manston, as was, at masthead height en route to Tripoli.
The 'Sir William McCann' , a Victorian ex-Hull gaff ketch sailing trawler, of about 100-odd tons, was departing Ramsgate for Belgium.
All the crew, having had the circumference of their craniums measured by the then owner and skipper Henry Irving, (who insisted he had the largest head diameter in home waters), proceeded to 'make ready for sea' which meant flashing the antique Burmeister and Wain semi-diesel, then, breaking out the vessel's enormous reserves of intoxicating liquor.

A successful departure was made, despite the crew's total lack of knowledge, skill or sobriety, from Ramsgate, we missed the Goodies by good fortune and set course for Nieuport, aiming to nip round the bottom of Sandetie Bank.

Obeying the threats of violence from the bosun, all eyes to port as we entered the SW-going lane, but ships were there none.

Suddenly a scream of terror jerked our heads round to face down-channel, to be confronted with the nightmare vision of a huge, rusty bulk carrier steaming at high speed the WRONG WAY up the traffic lane.

In our heavy sailing vessel we could do no more than pray, as she was bows on to us with a bone in her mouth. Some ran below to collect their belongings, some ran around the decks screaming and shouting, and others, believing our last moments were close, poured more spirits down their necks, I remember one lady crew member (how are you doing these days Emma ;) ) inviting all and sundry to immediate mating stations as she 'might as well go out with a bang'!

Well you can guess, since I'm writing this, the rogue vessel (a good 50,000 tons in retrospect) passed close astern of us, Chinese characters on the transom, nobody visible on the bridge.

After that, whenever any of us saw a ship, it was, "bring it on, call that close, come and have a go if you think you're big enough!" Etc, and I have carried that exact attitude into early middle age ;)

Stand on until you see the whites of their eyes. Paddy.
 
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Here's some from me.

Used to sail across the English Channel a lot. Few electronics, bit of RDF and then early Decca so used EP a lot. Little to report on the shipping front, lots of practise with hand bearing compass plus loads a racing can train your eye for distance and bearing changes. Anyway, in mid channel, the first time I heard Concorde go full ahead was a WTF moment.

Was heading back over early one January from Cherbourg, it was actually snowing. Poor viz. Two of us on a Westerly 37. I'd been ages plotting an EP because it was flippin cold and it was a good excuse to be below. After messing about a bit, I called up to my oppo to mention that we were probably quite near one of the EC buoys. Not ten seconds later, lots of swearing and boat manoeuvring plus the reply 'found that for you, Shipmate'. Neptune knows when to test you!
 
Sailed across the Gib Straits shipping lanes probably near A thousand times over the years. Again, avoiding traffic whilst complying with IRPCS is generally simple unless the visibility is poor. AIS and Radar have become such great safety tools for the small craft sailor.

However, some years back I was sailing North from Ceuta back to Gib, lovely clear skies. A fast moving group of vessels appeared to our port moving at speed towards us. Turned quickly into a U.S. Navy task group heading into the Med. So, inevitably, being an ex British Submariner, I held my course and sailed through them explaining to my crew how much a Submarine Skipper would love to be in that position. Don't think they were that impressed, nor were the Americans, or my wife when she saw the pictures......
 
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Last one as I mentioned my wife who is cool under pressure at sea.

Heading North West across the Mona Passage near Puerto Rico on our Liveaboard yacht, we discovered how busy it is with box ships whizzing to and fro from Panama plus as big as it gets tankers, and currents, and fickle wind.

Just after sunset, the wind died as we were well into the lanes. So, of course, the engine ran for about five minutes before giving up. You can get quite adept at changing fuel filters (three times) in the dark with a swell running knowing that your lights are pulling amps in tanker central.

My wife remained on watch throughout, ready on the VHF just in case whilst offering words of support like 'have you finished yet' in a womanly way. She does have a sense of humour.......
 
I've been doing trips across the English Channel trips for the last 10 yrs or so. Typically 2 or 3 return trips a years (so between 4 and 6 crossings). Mostly, but not exclusively, by day and mostly, but not exclusively, in good viz. Only bought AIS in September 2016 and only now in the process of fitting it, but always with RADAR.

Crossing shipping lanes, but not within any TSS.

Only vaguely hairy moments were in fog.

Once at night when viz all the way from Barfleur to the Needles was very bad (I'd estimate less than 100m at best, but that would be a bit of a guess as nothing to measure it by). Never saw anything, never heard anything, but RADAR said they were there. At one point decided to do a 180 to open up the CPA as I reckoned less than 0.5nm when you can't see them is too close for comfort.

The other time was last July coming back across the Channel in daylight. Entered fog when halfway across the eastbound lane, but we had already determined that we would be fine based on visual targets (before entering the fog bank) and what the RADAR was telling us. I was rather more concerned, as we approached the westbound lane, however, as RADAR identified upwards of 10 ships coming towards us with at least 6 of them being potentially of concern. Could see none of them. Then, just as I was considering a turn to run parallel to the edge of the "lane", we emerged from the fog bank and one by one they all came into view and, from their aspects relative to us, it was suddenly easy to work out which would pass ahead of us and which behind.

Once had a slightly amusing incident when the RADAR couldn't see another ship, but we watched a behemoth slide past 200m behind us. We had clocked it visually long before and then worked out that the RADAR must have crashed and it need to be rebooted. (Later on that trip I had real power problems, leading to both domestic batteries having to be replaced. If I had been more switched on, I would have realised that this was an early warning sign...)

Everything else has been pretty benign. I had a magical moment last summer, on the helm alone in the cockpit, crossing the eastbound lane at about 02:00 heading south and watching a cruise ship lit up like a Christmas tree slide past about 0.5nm ahead. I so wanted to wake the crew to come and have a look, but decided that might not have been a popular move.

In the early days of my Channel crossings I used to give way quite often. I am now much more inclined to stand on, in the knowledge that the quality of seamanship on big ships is generally much higher than scare stories on here would have you believe.

Only once have I felt the need to hail another ship on VHF to check its intentions. Primarily because, if they turned to starboard or sped up to avoid me, that would almost certainly put them on a collision course with another yacht about half a mile off my beam sailing an identical course to me. They responded to say they would duck below my stern, which they duly did.
 
November 1994, and I was crewing on a friend's boat Stormy Weather (54' S & S yawl, built in the early 30's) from Douarnenez to Porto Santo, and then onwards to Antigua via Tenerife.
We had crossed Biscay, and were hove to under storm jib and reefed mizzen in our second gale since leaving Brittany, about 30 miles outside the shipping lane going around Cabo Finisterre. It was daylight, early morning, good visibility but a large swell with lots of white caps, and we saw a large bulk carrier heading towards us.
We tried calling them up on VHF and on SSB, but no reply.
As they came closer we tried to start the engine, but of course that was the time when it decided to be objectionable, and wouldn't start.
We let off a white flare, and still they were heading straight for us.
The only thing we could do now was to try and gybe the boat around, which was quite difficult with just the storm jib and small mizzen up (no roller furling on Stormy!), but we managed it.
We even had the liferaft in the cockpit ready to toss overboard as it approached us. Fortunately the bow wave pushed us to one side. If we hadn't managed to gybe around, we would probably have been t-boned.
The ship was in ballast, hence very high freeboard. We could see up to the bridge, and nobody appeared to be on the bridge.
As she passed by we saw that she was registered in China.
A ham radio friend later issued a formal complaint on our behalf to (I think) Falmouth MRCC re how this vessel did not appear to have anybody on watch.
 
We were southbound, going downwind under sail in near perfect conditions, clear vis, in western Channel to Chenal du Four from Dartmouth. A ship appeared from astern headed straight at us I called several timeson VHF Ch16, giving our position, course and speed and got no response This was before AIS sets, but we had a good radar reflector in use. Which way to go to avoid it? started engine just in case and turned 90' left onto a reach away. the ship called lloyd Pacifico passed only 50 yds away down our stbd side, nobody visible on the bridge. I called Brixham CG and reported the incident, they called back an hour later and said they would be passing my report on, to add to several others already received about the same vessel since it had left from IIRC Plymouth. SWMBO at the time was in the cockpit reading a book called 'Ship Killer' about something similar.

One that amused then worried was watching and plotting from radar in thick fog a target going wrong way against traffic flow in the lanes mid Channel. THEn the 'rogue did a 360 turn like a race yacht doing a penalty, sadly that then put him on a course to hit us instead. and we had to get gone quick, TGF a biggish motor ( 50hp in a W33) There then followed some amusing Pidgeon English comments ship to ship on Ch16 from the others in the musical chairs chess game, I was still choking on my indignation and stayed off the air. .

Last example was a target on collision course with us ((not in lanes but maybe 15 mls out of Poole southbound as give way in fog. I tried stopping to let it cross ahead, it stopped, I started off again, so did it, I stopped again, it stopped again. Then something big arrived , probably the Poole Cherbourg ferry and all of a sudden our antagonist found some speed and sped off. I Think it may have been the customs cutter tailing somebody maybe or just practicing cat and mouse, with us as the squeaker.
 
Sailing two handed overnight from Chichester to Cherbourge my crew became incredibly sea sick so couldn't stand his watch. I was so tired after a full day at work that I fell asleep on watch just before the southern shipping lane. Woke up on the far side very relieved to still be alive!
 
I can only think of one mild drama, and that was coming across a sailing school boat (with a well-known skipper) in pretty thick fog that had run out of fuel in the lanes between the CIs and Needles. No radar etc. We passed him a can and took them in tow until they had the engine bled through. Later he told me that the bridge wing of a ship had passed above his head shortly after the tow line tightened.

Until this evening it never occurred to me to wonder what might have been had the ship appeared between us. Nightmares for me tonight.
 
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On passage from Bembridge to Chichester, fog closed in about half way out to the Ship channel. I knew from monitoring QHM that there was a big tanker inbound round the Nab, and could hear its foghorn as it came round Dean Elbow. So question. make a dash across the ship channel, or wait? No brainer really i vis of around 100 yds, so hung around keeping close to one fo the channel marker buoys, on the basis that anything else big on the move would be keeping clear of the channel markers.. Vis was considerably less than the length of the ship, and it was an odd feeling watching that steel wall sliding past in the fog. A quick dash across her stern as I knew from listening to QHM that there was nothing else coming out. Even so, not an experience I would want to repeat. The fog bank lifted ten minutes later, and gave me a clear run in to Chi
 
I've crossed the Channel hundreds of times and sailed thousands of miles across oceans but only one real close concern comes to mind.

In the days before AIS we were heading South from Plymouth towards Brittany and motor sailing with cone up (very proper!) when a ship appeared to port. It appeared to be on a steady beating and as we were stand on vessel, I watched and waited. I then watched and waited some more until eventually when it became obvious it either hadn't seen us or didn't care about running us down so I did a smart 90 degrees to starboard and slowed right down to allow it to pass along our port side a few hundred metres away. I also called Falmouth CG because it was nearly flat calm, a bright sunny day and we must have been visible for miles. Our radar reflector is permanently rigged. As the ship came past a man came running out onto the bridge wing shaking his fist at me. If he hadn't done that I probably wouldn't have filled in the near miss report! I still hope he got a rollicking from the captain and the company.

I think the important thing to understand that this is one incident in many many crossings. Mostly ships obey the rules. (It's in their interest to as running yachts down is not career enhancing.)
 
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capnsensible said:
How about some of the many on here who have lots of experience in dicing with Merchant Vessels of all shapes and sizes tell about their real life close encounters, moments of mayhem or simply the drama free spatial awareness encounters they have had?

Rather than a rule picky competition, how about showing that seamanship rules?

Never know, it may help others to share.

:encouragement:
Click to expand...

Sure? Defining seamanship, should cause even more arguments :cool:
 
I was going to write a scary story of mayhem and near misses crossing the Channel. Unfortunately I have never had a trip across the channel which fits the bill. Its been a long time since I crossed the channel approximately 30 years.

So I will write about an early one. Which I really enjoyed and is a happy memory.
I got a call from a friend. He was skipper of a sail training vessel. I had been bosun with the previous year. He was short crew. What remained of his crew had been, Shanghied to other vessels. He was looking for volunteers, to help him deliver the vessel to its next destination. The Boat was in Plymouth, we had a week to get to South Hampton.

I jumped at the chance it was new territory for me. So I took the Bus from Fort William to Glasgow then Down to Plymouth.
I met my friends boat, just after she arrived on the key at Plymouth. The crew who showed up were mostly quite experienced, regular volunteers with the organisation, some more experienced than others.

The first question asked was would you like to be the Mate. My answer was a very definite no. I just want to be crew. Pull ropes grind winches. You got lots of Mates.

We pretty much had a boat load of Bosuns and Mates. All of who had the same idea as me. The end result. we selected the two least experienced. A couple of Bosuns of other boats. Promoted them to Mate. And set of along with a sister boat for Cherbourg.
Part of the deal being I had to keep an eye on them. And make sure they knew how to do what was required at any given time.

I explained what was required to plan our trip to Cherbourg and how to create a plan. I was put in charge of cooking dinner. Most people who have sailed with me. Will confirm I am a much better navigator than cook. I produced something hot and almost edible. While our Mates prepared a pretty good passage plan. Probably significantly better than one I would have produced.

We set of next AM. Had a really nice sail out to windward, until just after we passed the Eddystone Light. Where the wind died off and the vis closed in. I got demoted from chief cook to assistant cook. Peeling potatoes and washing up was more appropriate to my skill set, or so I was informed.
The cook and I. She had a similar experience back ground to me. Being excused from regular watch duties. Explained how to keep track of or position and how to keep our EP up to date.
The Mates. Used the walker log, the compass, the ships clock and took a few fixes with the old hand held RDF. We sailed the whole way, just because. We were on a sailing trip. Our course and speed varied as we sailed for the best course and speed the relatively light winds allowed.
The western end of the channel the Traffic starts to spread out. Our route if I remember correctly was clear of any actual TSS. Even so the traffic tends to follow clear routes between the TSS's. The Mates had a pretty good Idea, when we would be near, crossing west then east bound traffic and when likely to be clear. Ether the skipper the cook or I was around through the night.

For most of the night we didn't see or hear much. What we did hear was engine noise. Its is surprising just how far the low thuds of a big diesel can be heard. We saw and felt a few wakes. One of the advantages of sailing. We could hear what was around. Even though the visibility was poor, It was not restricted so they were not sounding fog signals. I think we may have seen the looms of some nav lights a couple of times. So long ago I can really remember.

By the early hours of the morning just before dawn we were hearing fog signals. Most sounded far off. Its hard to tell distance and direction, you do get a feel for it as it starts faint, gets louder and if its passing when it starts fading again, A couple of times we could hear more than one.
We just had a couple of air horns and did want to use them all up, We had a little brass trumpet as well. We answered when we heard a signal. Rather than keeping 2 minute timing of our own.
Only when a whistle sounded close, We let the sheets fly and changed our tune to 2 hoots on the horn, I think we only did this once. It soon started to fade and we sheeted in and went back to the original tune. and stopped when we couldn't hear any more.
The vis was never less a couple of cables often half a mile or more, hard to say really.

By mid morning it had lifted a bit and the wind was a little stronger, Still couldn't see much. Cant really recall what if anything we saw vessel wise as we neared the French coast nothing sticks out in my mind now.

The Mates plan rather than heading directly for Cherbourg. Was to head for a big light. The name of which long escapes me. I think it was off to the west but again my recollection could be a bit off.
Much to my surprise we picked up the light as planned pretty much when we expected to.
What I was really surprised and impressed by. The Mates EP. After a 36 hour trip slowly sailing across the channel. Was less than a mile out. Can't swear to it but I think it was around half a mile.
They had very diligently plotted our EP every hour all the way. I doubt if I would have been as diligent.

It was a very enjoyable trip. We went from Cherbourg to Guernsey followed by Alderney. And back to Cowes then to South Hampton on the day we were due.

The main thing I recall about the trip from Alderney to Cowes. We thought we were being cleaver. Left early heading up the Channel a bit expecting a wind shift which would be more favourable. It never materialised. Our Friends on the other vessel left after breakfast and took the best course they could with the wind they had.
We spotted them as we approached the Needles. We were now to wind ward, so a slight advantage. We Beat our way up the Solent together. We arrived in Cowes just a few minutes ahead of them.
Traffic wise on the way across the channel I cant recall anything special, It was a beautiful day and a nice fast trip much of it on a close or beam reach. I am pretty sure we set our course for wind and best speed under sail, not giving much thought to a being at 90 degrees to the flow.
Whatever it was I figured was close enough anybody could have figured out we were under sail and crossing. Pretty sure we just stayed clear of any ships we saw. I cant remember any particular alterations if any. We would have eye balled some and taken bearings of any which looked close to steady, Born of till they passed. While they were still a ways off.

No one complained.

I never sailed further up the Channel than that voyage. We pretty much retraced our steps on the way back. I went home from Bristol.
Back to sailing remote Northern Waters. and eventually to Canada.

My memory might be playing tricks on me, For some reason I am sure we went to Cherbourg first. Then the Channel Islands, logically we should have done the channel Islands first. I might be mixing it up with the return trip. Which was from South Hampton across to France the Channel Islands and back to Plymouth.
 
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