Looming danger....

[Jim Walsh]

Took these photos a couple years ago at 2:00am about a hundred miles before landfall in Bermuda. I’d been keeping a close eye on my AIS receiver (I now have a class B AIS transponder) so I knew this big guy was vectoring in on the island just as I was. Even with that knowledge it’s always a little unnerving to be in close proximity, less than a mile, to one of these thousand foot cruise ships when you know your radar image might very well be lost in the sea surface clutter when the seas are six feet or better.
So much spray was flying that everything is drenched including the inside of my dodger.
You can barely notice the ship on the horizon in the first photo but the second photo shows the closest angle of approach before he moved off into the night.....only a few minutes transpired as he was doing twenty knots.

[John Stone]

Excellent. Looks just like that too. It’s unnerving when you have big ships in close proximity. Did you have radio contact? What was the CPA?

[Jim Walsh]

That ship was the Celebtity Summit. We were on a collision course so I radioed her at 4 miles. She asked me to maintain course and speed and would alter course to stay clear of me. She got within a mile. It was blowing 30 knots so I was likely indiscernible from the sea clutter on her radar.
This is what convinced me it was time upgrade to a class B transceiver.
This year no one came within 2 miles of me....very comforting. Just checked my log to verify...never had to hail a ship this year.

[John Stone]

That ship was the Celebtity Summit. We were on a collision course so I radioed her at 4 miles. She asked me to maintain course and speed and would alter course to stay clear of me. She got within a mile. It was blowing 30 knots so I was likely indiscernible from the sea clutter on her radar.
This is what convinced me it was time upgrade to a class B transceiver.
This year no one came within 2 miles of me....very comforting. Just checked my log to verify...never had to hail a ship this year.

Jim
Concur. My Vesper Watchmate 850 Class B AIS was worth every penny, especially singlehanding. I tend to transmit only at night or when I’m sleeping or napping and receive only during the day to conserve power but it does not use much either way.