"Capt. JG" wrote:

"Roger Long" wrote in message
.. .
Say, did the right of way rules for commercial passenger vessels change
when they became official terrorist targets under the protection of
homeland security?

The ferry crews in this part of the world have always seemed very
competent and courteous to me and I've had a number of professional
dealings with them. We were finishing up a day sail today in shifty and
increasing winds that shortly after turned into a squall. There is a large
anchorage that has a pair of red and greens in it that used to guide the
largest vessels up to a long abandoned navy oil depot. It isn't a channel
in the normal sense but marks the deepest area in the center.

We were close hauled and I was alone on deck with everyone below cleaning
and straightening up. One of the little 65 foot ferries was proceeding
down the bay through the buoys as if it were a channel. The ferry was
going slowly, we were converging, the bearing didn't change. There was
plenty of room for a minor correction that would take them astern and I
really didn't want to tack. I started looking for a head in the pilot
house and couldn't see any faces so I finally luffed up which took some
finessing in the shifty conditions as we slowed down and began to lose
rudder authority.

The ferry passed about 50 feet in front of us and a lady who looked a lot
like she might be the captain stuck her head out and studied us intently
without waving as if she was trying to read the numbers on the bow.

As I sailed on over the next half mile of 20 + foot deep and unobstructed
water, I found myself wondering if she could really think that the rule
about vessels in a channel and constrained by their draft really applied
to her.

No question that we would have hit if I hadn't luffed or taken some more
dramatic action. She proceeded like she was on autopilot. Just coming up
to normal speed or a 10 degree course change early on would have avoided
any possibility of contact. This was quite out of character for the
outfit. I wonder what she was thinking?


Roger, despite what the others have said so far, Don and Tom, there are no
special rules that I'm aware of regarding ferries. There are some for
approaching large vessels, but I can't see how they would apply to a ferry
that can have twice or three times your speed on open water. If there are,
I'd love to see a link. We sail with ferries all of the time in the SF bay,
and they know the rules and obey them. We do not change course to avoid
them, unless they're either in front of us and it's an overtaking situation
(damn rare) or coming into or out of a restricted spot, such as the short
channel near the ferry dock.

If I were you, I would have gotten her numbers and given them or the CG a
call.

I had an encounter with a fishing boat coming back to port that was somewhat
similar. We were sailing, they were overtaking and had plenty of room to go
around. Their skipper decided that not being late for dinner was more
important that following the rules, and we barely were able to avoid the
boat, taking evasive action as a last resort after signalling (no time for a
call on the VHF, but I doubt they were listening). I knew who they were and
where they were berthed and discussed the situation with the harbor master
upon our arrival. He had had other complaints about this particular boat,
and promised to look into it. We've seen them out there after this happened
in somewhat similar situations, and they have not failed to give way.

We have had similar situations, although we were almost always under
power but we were being overtaken.

The first one was in mid 2000 - a menhaden boat coming into the
Greater Wicomico to Reedville. We were under sail, but were in the
process of turning on the engine to go into anchor in Mill Creek off
the Great Wicomico. As we were coming in, a large (abt 100 feet) grey
boat came boiling up behind us on the port side. We were on the
starboard side of the channel, but thought since he was overtaking
that he would go around us.

NOT. We finally made a panic circle to the starboard out of the
channel so that he wouldn't ram us. At that point he made a whole
bunch of rapid blasts of his horn.

The second incident was the first time we went down the ICW when we
were on the Elizabeth River in Norfolk in November 2000. The
Elizabeth River ferry paddle wheel came out from his dock and turned
down the river along our port side. He started to pass us and got
almost all the way past, and then decided to come over to the other
side of the river, and turned almost right into us. I thought we
would be skewered. We speeded up so he went behind us.

So a little later on in the trip, when we encountered the Fort Fisher
ferry, we tried to stay out of their way, because these ferries
apparently don't deviate from their track, and the route isn't obvious
on the charts (although it is on the road map)
..