Freighter encounter, Nov 27

Sea Saga with a Frantic Freighter

Nov. 27, 2007

8:00 pm Atlantic Ocean Lat 26°02N Lon 21°37W

Lee the Captain of World Wide Traveler is on watch and he notices a double set of lights on our port horizon. Since these were the first sailboats we saw all day Wendy got on the VHF and hailed them to find out what has been going on with them. We get an answer back from Blue Destiny, a 65 foot boat, that they were doing pretty well except that early this morning they had blown a spinnaker, and now were sailing on a gull wing, which may mean 2 gennakers out. He gave us his position and Lee calculated that he was 35 miles away from us. Then we looked out again and saw that the 2 lights from earlier were closer and that it was a large container vessel and then confirmed it on the radar and now we know that we weren’t talking with the 2 mystery lights.

After awhile of watching the container ship, we become concerned that we are on a collision course. First we try shining a flash light on our main sail to get his attention. No Luck. He is traveling at least 10 knots, and bearing down on us fairly fast. Now we are more than a little concerned and so Wendy hailed the container ship and asked him if sees us and what are his intentions? He reply’s that he has already changed course by 20 degrees to port. However, looking at him visually and on the radar we can see that we are still on a collision course only much closer than a few minutes ago.

The Captain of the ship asks Wendy where we are from and how many are on our boat and is trying to make small talk and possibly even flirt? At the same time Lee is getting out the one million candle power light and now has asked all of us to close our eyes so that he can flash it at the ship. Again, we frantically run back to the VHF and Wendy asked him again what his intentions are and he assures us that he changed course to port but it looked to us like he changed to starboard and now is close enough for us to see his bridge. He is still trying to talk to Wendy and telling us he is from India. We all agree that maybe Lee should get on the radio and ask him to take action to avoid us and again he asserts that that is what he did. I guess he wasn’t looking out his window because our mast light must have been at eye level for him and right in front of him. Lee gives up and starts the engine, we pull in the jib and turn hard to starboard. Now the ship is so close that we can smell his curry dinner. The ship then narrowly passed in front of us, possibly as close as a long par 5, and moves away. We all feel as if we have cheated death.

For the next few minutes we are trying to figure out what might have really happened with this Indian Captain and catching our breath when at 9:21 we hear the same freighter from 7 miles away hailing another sailing vessel off his ‘starboard port’ and asking them repeatedly to give way. “Please give way, Please give me a wide berth.” We can only wonder at how close he came to that ‘port starboard’ sail boat.

We have been puzzling over the fact that he wants us, a 47 foot vessel under sail, to give way to him. Because past experiences had taught us that most ship captain’s will try to avoid us by at least 2 miles we are assuming that we have the right of way when in fact he really does. The biggest boat can always win. We wish that instead of telling us that he had changed to port that he would have simply told us to give way. The whole situation was made worse by his poor communication of telling us one thing, when in fact he may not have done anything or worse yet may have changed to starboard, thereby worsening the situation. Sebastian, a retired Swedish Navy Captain, feels that by looking at his light configuration during all of this that he really never changed course, all the while telling us that he did.

After a few more minutes one of the other sailing vessels, who had overheard the previous exchange with the second sailboat, hailed the freighter and reminded him that there are 250 boats out here in the ARC and that it would be best if the Captain were to keep a watchful eye out for all of us.

Lee is now theorizing that the Indian Captain is overwhelmed by the number of boats out here and a bit out of control. His comment is “Don’t trust a freighter in the center of a beehive.” After 40 years of sailing this was Lee’s one and only close call with a freighter and we now have a new watch rule. If a freighter comes within 3 miles of us, Lee must be awakened if necessary, to make any course changes if necessary.