"Capt. JG" wrote:

"Rosalie B." wrote in message
.. .

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)

Interesting.. out here they definitely go around all sailboats. I have yet
to see a ferry not follow the rules - although they occasionally hit the
docks pretty hard :-) What you're describing really sounds dangerous. I mean
how do you know what to do if commercial vessels don't follow the rules of
the road? Strange.

In the case of both ferries, we were not sailing, we were under power.
But in all three cases they were overtaking.

In any case, for large commercial vessels of any kind, we get out of
their way (if at all possible) before it comes up to following or not
following the rules. If necessary, Bob will circle the boat -
especially if the ship in question is a tug and tow.

We did have a close call once when crossing the Savannah River (motor
sailing). The ICW cuts across while large ships are going up and down
the river. (The same situation applies for the river in Jacksonville
FL, but the sight lines are better.)

There was a German warship coming in the river, and we could hear the
very southern pilot on the radio warning sailboats in the ICW. I saw
the superstructure of the ship (mostly the mast part) through the
trees, but did not immediately recognize it as a ship - I thought it
was just some funny kind of tree. There was another sailboat ahead of
us, and I thought the pilot was talking to them. He could only see
our mast, so he couldn't tell that the boat ahead of us was a
catamaran. [When I called Bob's attention to the funny 'tree', he did
recognize it as a ship.]

But when we came out into the river, we saw the warship a very short
distance away, and consequently we put on the power to get out of his
way and onto the other side of the channel.