Two Ships Passing in The Night

Oswego John · Post by **Oswego John** » Feb 18th, '10, 01:22

I have always been fascinated with two ships passing each other port to port. When passing at night, the silent, eerie feeling is compounded. Actually this picture was taken in the shipping lane south of Long Island, NY early in the morning

The other ship is the Cunard Line's QM II returning from Europe

O J

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/p5 ... directlink

Neil Gordon · Post by **Neil Gordon** » Feb 18th, '10, 08:02

Oswego John wrote:I have always been fascinated with two ships passing each other port to port.

It only gets ugly when one ship tries to pass port to port and the other goes for starboard to starboard.

Steve Laume · Post by **Steve Laume** » Feb 18th, '10, 11:08

Hey, at least the running lights are very clear on the other vessel with no other illumination to add clutter or confusion.

Even if it would be hard to tell the ship from a metropolitan island it would be hard to miss seeing it at sea.

I suppose it is pretty much a floating island, Steve.

Oswego John · Post by **Oswego John** » Feb 18th, '10, 14:57

Some of you may be wondering what ocean going liners have to do in a sailing forum. It is, simply put, a diversionary tactic to throw you off guard. Maybe it will ease the pangs of winter and get your minds off your baby that is sitting, all huddled in its winter protection, out in the frigid wind and snow.

I found out, to my surprise, that there is only a very brief photo op to take a picture such as this. I took three shots as the QM II sped past. Yes, sped. Both ships were probably travelling at better than 20 knots, which results in a cumulative speed better than 40 K/P/H.

Of the three shots that were taken, the first was at about two oclock. I wasn't really ready to take a photo. The hastily taken picture turned out very blurry. The second shot was taken at a twelve oclock angle, dead aport. Alas, because of the darkness of the night combined with the moving speed, added to the frenzy of my haste, I didn't allow enough time for the camera to automatically adjust the lens and exposure time to take a proper picture. As is expected, the shot came out terribly poor.

"Okay John, you have one more opportunity to get a picture". The other ship was now at about ten thirty. "Aim the camera, count to five, take a deep breath and snap. "Voila, a picture, in my humble estimation, worth showing to others. I am pleased with the outcome.

The brilliance of the other ship, framed by the surrounding night's darkness commands one's attention. At that distance, obviously, the flash had no influence with illuminating the picture's subject. Surprisingly, the flash did light up the teak rails and other things in the immediate area to compliment the overall picture.

At this point in life, I am driven by the obsession to write a book, maybe two. I shall be in touch with some of our published authors on this board for guidance. Maybe I will start out with a lengthy tome titled "All the things I don't know about computers". Then a follow up named "All the things I don't know about digital photography". Perhaps I'll drop "digital" from the second title. We'll see in due time.

Sorry to ramble on so, but I'm all out of the Sunday crossword puzzles and it has been snowing for the last several days. (So what else is new?") I can't seem to locate my copy of "Computers For Dummies" Hmmm, maybe there is a need for a sequel in a simpler format.

In closing (who said thank goodness?) I'll mention something that I discovered by accident. When looking at the picture of the ship, if you look a little higher you will see a tab called John's Gallery. When you click on that, it reveals several other photos of various subjects that, I was told, were never put away in proper albums. (Hmmm, what's an album?) I sure am glad that there is nothing embarrassing showing up in there. Hmmm, I never did learn how to erase pics. That might be in my new book.

Think spring. Oh lookie, it's still snowing.

O J
PS: I'm surprised that no one has made comment on the four flying saucers following the QM II.

Cathy Monaghan · Post by **Cathy Monaghan** » Feb 18th, '10, 15:24

If you squint hard enough the QMII should come into focus. Ahhh, there she is.....

<a href="http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c349/ ... 262283.jpg" target="_blank"><img width="500" src="http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c349/ ... 3.jpg"></a>
The Queen Mary II leaving New York Harbor.

Cathy
CD32 Realization, #3
Rahway, NJ
Raritan Bay

Warren Kaplan · Post by **Warren Kaplan** » Feb 18th, '10, 16:20

Cathy,

Looks to me from where you took that photo, if you were closing in on her, you should have the right of way. Oh yeah. The rules are different for behemoths like that.....they gave them the right of way because if they didn't, they'd just take it anyway!!

Dean Abramson · Post by **Dean Abramson** » Feb 18th, '10, 17:49

The sloop has the right of way, but, if it were me...

[img]http://www.mainephoto.com/AircraftCarrier+SailboatX.jpg[/img]

Klem · Post by **Klem** » Feb 18th, '10, 20:04

That is a scary picture. I came from the world of larger vessels and it was appalling to see how some people treated right of way. The fact that some large ships have emergency stopping distances of 5+ miles never occurs to them.

In my mind, one of the issues is that many people(luckily I haven't observed this to be true of the CD owners I know) don't understand right of way. The idea is that the less maneuverable boat has right of way. Often people in sailboats just assume that they have right of way over all powerboats when some of those vessels might be engaged in commercial fishing or a CBD (okay, not in the US) and actually have the right of way.

Those cruise ships pictures certainly are impressive. Anytime something that big is moving I am fascinated. I have always heard that one of the scariest things is the Houston ship channel at night but I haven't been there to see it yet.

bottomscraper · Post by **bottomscraper** » Feb 19th, '10, 14:20

With a displacement of 102,000 T, a speed of 30+ kts and a turning radius of miles, I for one don't really care if the carrier technically is the burdened vessel. Not only that but you really don't want to get real close unless you think the Marines onboard need some target practice. Just saying...

"The law of gross tonnage is un-relenting. It is a fact of life. "

http://www.auxguidanceskills.info/press/bigger.html[/b]

Neil Gordon · Post by **Neil Gordon** » Feb 19th, '10, 15:26

bottomscraper wrote:... unless you think the Marines onboard need some target practice.

I'm thinking they no longer have Marine detachments on board Navy ships.

Oswego John · Post by **Oswego John** » Feb 19th, '10, 16:06

To the best of my knowledge, sea going Marine detachments were cut way back some. I understand that they still have a few on each nuke sub., and some of the larger ships.

The genius powers that be now in office wanted to do away with Sea School altogether. More intelligent heads, along with the power of proven tradition prevailed and got rid of that nonsense (for the time being).

This topic could easily become a political land mine. There are a lot of very disallusioned people out there. All I will say on the subject is people in charge, with no experience or knowledge, should not be making extreme decisions on matters that they haven't the foggiest clue about.

That's all. 10/4, 3 breaths, over and out.

O J

Dean Abramson · Post by **Dean Abramson** » Feb 19th, '10, 16:46

Apologies to Paul Harvey.

I mainly posted the photo for the fun of it. I do not really think that the sloop has the right of way, because the carrier is "limited in its ability to maneuver." But the sloop's port side is showing to the carrier, and I have seen some boats press their "perceived rights" in some dumb situations. The post primarily was just to entertain and to make a point.

Here's the deal. I am standing at Portland Head Light, and the carrier is heading towards the light, in the channel. But it will soon begin, or already has begun, a slow turn to starboard to head into Portland Harbor. It's moving slowly.

The photo was shot with a 500mm lens. So the foreshortening makes this look dicier than it really is. I don't think that that skipper necessarily was being boneheaded, IF he was paying attention. The carrier ("JFK") has to turn before he gets to where the sloop is headed, I am pretty sure.

But since the sloop is a silhouette and unidentifiable, I figured I might as well publicly humiliate him on the World Wide Web. That's fair, right?

Speaking of Portland Head Light, please go to my blog at http://www.mainephoto.com/maine-photographers-blog.html. There is a point I want to make there re the lighthouse. I am a compulsive nut, you see. It's the second post from the top.

Dean

mgphl52 · Post by **mgphl52** » Feb 19th, '10, 17:23

I seem to recall that ALL pleasure craft are supposed to maintain a minimum separation from ANY Naval vessel, unless explicitly requested otherwise.

But I enjoy beer so I may be wrong...

Dean Abramson · Post by **Dean Abramson** » Feb 19th, '10, 17:33

But I enjoy beer

Is Niceville FL an actual place (I mean, c'mon...), or just your state of mind?

Annie Ward · Post by **Annie Ward** » Feb 19th, '10, 17:39

Although my better judgment says to keep quiet, based on past responses to my posts, I can't help myself here.

Not only, as was rightly pointed out at least once so far in this thread, are ships unable to stop "on a dime" they are also constrained by draft. In general, depending on the location of the shipping channel, and the ship's draft, it cannot just duck outside of it (like we can in our sailboats) without running aground. If they are taking the middle of the channel it's because they need it, not because they're being arrogant.

Case in point: a few years ago in the shipping channel in Charleston harbor, two ships approximately a half mile apart had set up a passing situation, with no room for error due to the width of the channel, just south of the Cooper River bridges, and another ship was heading south getting ready to transit under the bridge to meet the inbound ship on a "one whistle" pass -- once again, with no room for error -- when a small sailboat came out from a nearby marina, stopped in the MIDDLE of the shipping channel and proceeded to begin to raise his sails. All three ships and multiple tugboats in the area all laid on their whistles and called him on the radio. He responded with: "all you big ships stay clear, I'm a sailboat!" The whistles sounded again, and thankfully for all, a coast guard vessel was nearby and immediately got the hapless sailor out of the channel (just barely in time) and then proceeded to board him and explain things to him. While I'm not a fan of being boarded, nor do I wish it on others, in this case it most likely saved his life.

The "rule of gross tonnage" always supercedes all others. Of course, y'all already knew that.

The Cape Dory Board