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/