'1000 days at sea' hits freighter...

[Didereaux]

http://1000daysatsea.blogspot.com/2007/ ... ision.html

Barely 15 days into their 1000 days at sea(May 6), they kissed a freighter. Incredibly lucky they weren't sunk!

Read the log and see if you come to the same conclusion as I. Soanha was on watch, she states that she was in the pilothouse and was scanning every 15 minutes or so for ships and such. Yet they hit a freighter. Was she asleep, and only thought she was awake?

She very easily may have been fully awake because as the damage report shows the it was a glancing blow, also she states that when she looked up she saw the stern of the ship passing. That implies she saw it to the side. So how could she have missed it?

Without knowing exactly by having been on that boat, I would bet some pretty good rum that looking forward from that pilothouse you have a restricted view dead ahead. If that was the case it once again substantiates the need to get out on the deck or rise up in the cockpit in order to truly see everything around you.

Another liitle side note, Moitessier had his bowsprit bent as badly off the south coast of South Africa at the very beginning of his round the world race. He was able with the help of a jury-rigged gin-pole and big tackle to eventually bend it back into place. Sounds though as it these people are going to remove it, or at least bypass and simply guy the foremast somewhere near the very front and make do with less than a balanced sail plan.

We'll see...also wonder if they will effect the repairs in time to weather that big low that is sitting southwest of them?

Ah well, learning from others mistakes is what gives one their opportunity to invent new ones! <grin> It has certainly fine-tuned my creativity over the years. aaagh

[John Vigor]

Didereaux, how can you say the lady was on watch? The gentleman must take the blame. She was asleep down below. He was on watch, but obviously not watching. Read the blog again, more carefully this time.

Cheers,

John V.

[Didereaux]

Yes, John! That was indeed an egregious and possibly a misogynistic sounding error on my Part. Soanha...FORGIVE ME!

Now back to the thrust, did you find anything in my conclusions to discuss?

[Russell]

Keeping watch from a pilot house must be difficult and I would not be suprised if that was the problem. Far too many dead spots in your vision, especially at night when what your looking for is some lights not much bigger then stars. And heeled over the vision would be very impared on one side. I know I have been taken by suprise by ships appearing out of nowhere suddenly less then 3 miles from me at night, even the dodger has enough dead spots to be suprised like this. Even doing 15 minute checks is spotty, 15 minutes can put a fast ship from not visible to pretty darn close and they admit to doing 15 to 30min checks. 30 minutes is just plain irresponsible and badseamanship. As a single hander I never even wait that long, a boat with 2 crew members has no excuses to go 30 minutes without anyone looking. I am positive this is what the failure was.

[jerryaxler]

I wouldn't be too fast to condemn this couple. The lights at night on a large ship are much smaller than most of us understand. I was traveling down the C&D canal with a friend. I went below to make coffee and when I returned I said to my friend to move over to the side of the canal to give us more of a safety margin because of the freighter coming at us. His response " What freighter?"
We were in a lit canal and he was looking in the wrong place for those nav lights. Needless to say for the rest of the night on our way to Cape May his head was spinning looking in all directions at once.

[Neil Gordon]

Don't the Nav Rules require a full time lookout? I know you can only do what you can do if you're alone, but if someone is on watch, they should be watching, right?

[chase]

Dider, et al,

Would one not hear a freighter under full power? Perhaps because of the pilothouse? No judgment here, just another vulture feeding off of others experience. Maybe that was a good wakeup call. I’m uninspired by the” lets stay out longer than anyone mentality" to break records. I'm all about personal challenges and if I survive my learning curve I will ply the worlds oceans for adventure myself, but not for the recognition . Different strokes….. On the other hand, we all get inspired when others accomplish these great feats. Perhaps I should actually look at the website and see what they are about.

As I recall, Moitessier collided with the freighter trying to slingshot a "press package" over. That said, he wrecked plenty of other boats but still remains an inspiration to me. Sinking a ship likely makes you a better sailor in the end......if you can swim long enough.

Chase

[Andy Denmark]

Well, our own Scott MacReady ran into a freighter that was anchored in the holding zone outside Beaufort Inlet and awaiting high tide. Actually, Scott ran under the stern of the freighter if I remember correctly. It was late in the night, he was sleep deprived and had his focus on the chartplotter instead of the world beyond the dodger. Of course, one lesson with Scott's experience is not to be so dependent on electronics that you lose sight of the "real world" around you.

My take is that when one is tired, cold, exhausted, and needing sleep or food then almost anything can happen. When we aren't functioning with any of those factors at play then ways to avoid those situations seem apparent and the mishaps seem to be beyond reasonable explanation. When you're the one in the situation things seem complicated and more difficult to ascertain.
When sailing singlehanded it's easy to fall into this "out of it" mode. Staying rested, hydrated, well-fed, and warm is the way to avoid incidents such as these.

"A collision at sea will ruin your whole day." (I forget who uttered this sage statement)
________
THE DEARBORN INDEPENDENT

[David van den Burgh]

Now back to the thrust, did you find anything in my conclusions to discuss?

Frankly, I believe John Vigor was addressing the "thrust" of your post: mistakes happen.

[Didereaux]

Dider, et al,

Would one not hear a freighter under full power? Perhaps because of the pilothouse? No judgment here, just another vulture feeding off of others experience. Maybe that was a good wakeup call. I’m uninspired by the” lets stay out longer than anyone mentality" to break records. I'm all about personal challenges and if I survive my learning curve I will ply the worlds oceans for adventure myself, but not for the recognition . Different strokes….. On the other hand, we all get inspired when others accomplish these great feats. Perhaps I should actually look at the website and see what they are about.
Chase

Well, I heartily concur with your '” lets stay out longer than anyone mentality" opinion! Intentional record breakers are no inspiration for me and I can't really think of an instance where they actually provided any good lessons, other than the obvious one that going after records is self indulgent nonsense that usually ends up causing problems for everyone around them.

Yes, Moitessier I admire and as you say he sunk a few boats, but as you also implied he was one helluva sailor. But then for whatever reasons the period of the 50's thru the 70's produced probably the greatest number of great sailors(that includes women) that we will probably ever see again. Almost without exception although they broke records and such, when you read the tales they did it more the personal challenge...and like you I feel that is the only goal that means anything in the end.

Oh, yeah, that 'noise'? Really depends upon circumstance as to just how far away you can detect it, and more importantly how tuned in you are. Personally I find that if the seas aren't too rough I can feel the 'thrum' of big diesels through the hull quite a bit sooner than my ears hear it. But that may simply be a result of early on enjoying too much CCR, Cream and such. heh

[s.v. LaVida]

In my experience, ships can come out of nowhere even when your looking for them..

Case in point:

Back in '03 we were outbound to Newfoundland, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. A late afternoon, misinterperted French language, weather forecast caused us to carry on into very squally night. Durning one particularly nasty line, we came way to close to shipping.

Even with a fairly well tuned radar the watch still didn't see the down bound freighter until they almost ran us over. Moving (with the tide and outflow of the St. Lawrence River) at a high rate of speed (as fast as the squall line).

The ship was missed until the dark mass loomed out of the night and was closing rapidly. Jeannot whipped the wheel over and all of us fairly tumbled out of our racks to see the receeding stern light of a huge ship.

In a morning review we found that we had been out of the downbound shipping lane. Jeannot thought the ship must of hid from the radar and his visual lookout in the intense squall line.

Thankfully LaVida did not get rundown by this potential collision/accident.

As for hearing them.....In the Great Lakes, under certain conditions, we sometimes feel the laker ships engines through the hull, long before they come over our horizon or hearing range.

FWIW.....Its been our solo watch keeping habit to wind the egg timer for a 10 minute reminder/wake up in areas of traffic, 15 minutes farther out.

If I'm solo, then I pull the watch until I can heave to or find a port.

I applaud this guy's adventuresome spirit and hope he makes it!

rit