"Bart" wrote in message
...
DOES ANYONE HERE KEEP A COLLISION AVOIDANCE FLARE,
DRY AND HANDY, JUST INSIDE THE COMPANIONWAY?

http://www.pangolin.co.nz/jetsam/view_article.php?idx=7

This is the reason I started this thread. I was curious if anyone
carried one of these in a handy location. On my last trip between
Gibraltar and Malta, I once counted six ships visible at the same
time. I've never seen so much shipping traffic on open
waters.

I also noticed each of the two yachts I sailed, based in the UK,
and used for commercial training, were fitted with collision
avoidance flares.

How often do you need them? Perhaps never, but it is a
comforting thing to have and a worthwhile piece of equipment
to have handy.

When I was sailing out of UK I always carried about 3 whites in my flare kit
since I often crossed the main shipping lanes in the English channel on the
way to France, sometimes at night..
At night especially this is something to be taken seriously and although my
primary objective has obviously been to keep well clear of everything I
have used white flares on several occasions just to increase the chances
that some of them were aware that I was there.
Container ships can be coming at over 20 knots and sometimes one can see 6
ships coming down the lane at the same time while you are trying to sail
straight across.. The lanes are 2 miles wide so the ships are not all dead
in line astern.
It is not easy at night to be totally sure that avoiding one does not put
you in the path of another and I once used two flares in 30 minutes.
Cannot imagine sailing anywhere at night without them.