"Sal's Dad" wrote in message
...
You should read the full report
http://www.maib.gov.uk/publications/.../2007/ouzo.cfm -
it's very sobering, with good information on night vision and
ship-to-yacht interactions.

Thanks for the link, it's a very educational read, but also sad, would much
rather have them be telling their cautionary story themselves..

A personally carried EPIRB, check, but didn't realize a crotch strap could
be that important, and will never look at a radar reflector the same way
again. And hydrostatically launched life raft, hmm, looks more appealing
now.

BUT, what I still don't get, is why couldn't the three gents onboard the
Ouzo just avoid the Bilbao altogether?

I mean the question is literal, what would cause them to NOT be able to
avoid her, I'm not blaming the victim here.

Assuming they were on watch and not below, in clear conditions (though
night), would it have been that difficult to see the hugely larger Bilbao
before getting so close? Even if all her running lights were off, there
were thousands of passengers on her (or a lot) so there would have been at
least the common area lighting on. Why couldn't the Ouzo see her?

Of course, if they did see her, I guess I can understand if they had lost
steerage, but that doesn't seem likely given the scenario outlined. Or does
it?

Those three gents had way, way more experience than me, so I'm trying to
understand the missing piece: I know the factors that contributed to
Bilbao's actions (or lack thereof before and after).

Why did Ouzo allow her to get so close in the first place?

John

--

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----------

If you forget about your dreams you die.
Live for them, & they will live for you.

In article ,
"John Reimer" wrote:

"Sal's Dad" wrote in message
...
You should read the full report
http://www.maib.gov.uk/publications/.../2007/ouzo.cfm -
it's very sobering, with good information on night vision and
ship-to-yacht interactions.

Thanks for the link, it's a very educational read, but also sad, would much
rather have them be telling their cautionary story themselves..

A personally carried EPIRB, check, but didn't realize a crotch strap could
be that important, and will never look at a radar reflector the same way
again. And hydrostatically launched life raft, hmm, looks more appealing
now.

BUT, what I still don't get, is why couldn't the three gents onboard the
Ouzo just avoid the Bilbao altogether?

I mean the question is literal, what would cause them to NOT be able to
avoid her, I'm not blaming the victim here.

Assuming they were on watch and not below, in clear conditions (though
night), would it have been that difficult to see the hugely larger Bilbao
before getting so close? Even if all her running lights were off, there
were thousands of passengers on her (or a lot) so there would have been at
least the common area lighting on. Why couldn't the Ouzo see her?

Of course, if they did see her, I guess I can understand if they had lost
steerage, but that doesn't seem likely given the scenario outlined. Or does
it?

Those three gents had way, way more experience than me, so I'm trying to
understand the missing piece: I know the factors that contributed to
Bilbao's actions (or lack thereof before and after).

Why did Ouzo allow her to get so close in the first place?

As I recall, they were in Southampton water, which is a (relatively)
small area with lots of shipping/cruisers etc. Makes it even more of a
puzzle in that they didn't seem to have a lookout despite their
experience.

Molesworth

SV Captive
39' NDMorgan

You should read the full report
http://www.maib.gov.uk/publications/.../2007/ouzo.cfm
-
it's very sobering, with good information on night vision and
ship-to-yacht interactions.

BUT, what I still don't get, is why couldn't the three gents onboard the
Ouzo just avoid the Bilbao altogether?

I mean the question is literal, what would cause them to NOT be able to
avoid her, I'm not blaming the victim here.

Assuming they were on watch and not below, in clear conditions (though
night), would it have been that difficult to see the hugely larger Bilbao
before getting so close? Even if all her running lights were off, there
were thousands of passengers on her (or a lot) so there would have been
at
least the common area lighting on. Why couldn't the Ouzo see her?

Why did Ouzo allow her to get so close in the first place?

As I recall, they were in Southampton water, which is a (relatively)
small area with lots of shipping/cruisers etc. Makes it even more of a
puzzle in that they didn't seem to have a lookout despite their
experience.

"The crew of Ouzo were thought to have been skilled and conscientious in
their approach to navigation and watchkeeping, and, if they were conforming
to their usual practices, they will have set watch routines with two crew
members in the cockpit at all times...A million candela flashlight was kept
ready...to warn ships of their presence...As regular sailors in those waters
and with local knowledge, the crew might even have realised that it was the
Pride of Bilbao, bound for Spain.

"The quality of the lookout on Ouzo as Pride of Bilbao approached will never
be known, however if the crew were alert to her approach it would have
appeared that she was going to pass well clear. In fact, up until 0101, she
was steering a course to pass them at a distance of about 0.5 nautical mile.

"On reaching the waypoint position at 0101, Pride of Bilbao began a slow
turn to starboard. We do not know if the Ouzo's crew noticed this but, if
they had done so, with no other obvious reason for the course alteration,
they might have thought the ferry was altering course to give way to them in
compliance with Rule 19 of the COLREGS. This, in turn, might have led them
to believe that the ferry's bridge team had seen them, thus possibly
relieving them of some anxiety.

"The alteration of course took more than 3 minutes to complete...such a slow
manner can lead to doubt and indecision on board other vessels..."

The officer "saw a cluster of bright white lights before moving to the
steering controls and losing sight of the yacht. It is possible that these
lights resulted from the use of the flashlight, which the yacht's crew kept
at hand for such emergencies"

On 2007-04-15 21:06:33 -0400, "John Reimer"
said:

BUT, what I still don't get, is why couldn't the three gents onboard the
Ouzo just avoid the Bilbao altogether?

I mean the question is literal, what would cause them to NOT be able to
avoid her, I'm not blaming the victim here.

Which way do you turn when a big ship is altering course and may be
turning to pass you on the "far" side?

We're based on the Chesapeake just about on a channel. I mean, we
literally have to look left and right as we clear our breakwaters, and
the ships aren't going nearly 19 knots (most times). Avoiding the heavy
metal is a fact of life for us.

Down by the Annapolis Bay bridge, we had one of those "pucker" moments:
We'd been sailing down out of the channels, but had to cross a channel
at one point to get to another safe area. Just then, a ship came up
through the bridge.

And they started turning.

Towards us.

Which channel would they take? The one in front of us or the one behind?

Being chicken, I fired up and steered directly across the channel to
shallow (for them) water at the edge of the Bay. After a few minutes,
we could see they were steering towards the channel behind...

but we didn't know for quite a while what their intended new course would be.

Ouzo had no such santuary in open water. It could well be that they did
as I would do and beat a path as far west as I could -- and Pride of
Bilbao kept on turning --west-- which meant that Ouzo did exactly the
wrong thing in 20-20 hindsight. Holding their course may well have been
their best option, or maybe beating a path east was right.

But the report sure has me re-thinking my choice of photo-grey lenses
if I'm sailing at night. I'm lucky that my distance vision is lightly
affected by age, so I'll likely take my glasses off when the sun goes
down.

--
Jere Lull
Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD
Xan's new pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI pages: http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/