Danny, yes very scary situation. These are the experiences that change our operating procedures and reduce the assumptions we make about other boats. I'm sure you have been close to other boats many times and just exchanged a wave.
We keep an air horn at the helm at all times. I like it in a marina especially where a boat can back out in front of me.
We had a scare this past spring in the Bahamas. The preferred routes on the banks are marked on the charts with a magenta line. Most boats run on these lines like highways. It not uncommon to pass another boat port to port close enough to say Hi.
We were sailing and decided to head into a harbour with a large resort. Lots of boat traffic, the entrance is a very long, narrow dredged channel with a dogleg halfway point. A magenta line stops just outside the channel. About a mile out we turned to the channel and into the wind, started our motor, dropped our sails and began motoring along the magenta line to the harbour entrance. I noticed a sailboat coming out. The channel is big enough to easily pass 2 boats side by side in most places. The wind was not strong but on our nose. The sailboat turns at the dog leg and deploys his Genoa to starboard. I'm not sure if he is now motorsailing or sailing. I slow down so I won't be in the channel with him if he is sailing. We will pass port to port just outside the channel. When he gets about one and a half boat lengths in front of me he gybes across my bow. I turn hard to port, hit the air horn. We passed about 10 ft behind his stern. He was lounging on the starboard side of the cockpit with his wife using his autopilot remote to steer blind. He just looks at me and shrugs ? If we had a full keel I'm sure he would have been T-boned, if it had been one of the many power boats here someone would have been killed, they don't slow down much to come in the channel.
Like you I learned a lesson that day ! I wonder if he did ? He was an older sailor, didn't appear to be concerned with what happened.
Bob
We keep an air horn at the helm at all times. I like it in a marina especially where a boat can back out in front of me.
We had a scare this past spring in the Bahamas. The preferred routes on the banks are marked on the charts with a magenta line. Most boats run on these lines like highways. It not uncommon to pass another boat port to port close enough to say Hi.
We were sailing and decided to head into a harbour with a large resort. Lots of boat traffic, the entrance is a very long, narrow dredged channel with a dogleg halfway point. A magenta line stops just outside the channel. About a mile out we turned to the channel and into the wind, started our motor, dropped our sails and began motoring along the magenta line to the harbour entrance. I noticed a sailboat coming out. The channel is big enough to easily pass 2 boats side by side in most places. The wind was not strong but on our nose. The sailboat turns at the dog leg and deploys his Genoa to starboard. I'm not sure if he is now motorsailing or sailing. I slow down so I won't be in the channel with him if he is sailing. We will pass port to port just outside the channel. When he gets about one and a half boat lengths in front of me he gybes across my bow. I turn hard to port, hit the air horn. We passed about 10 ft behind his stern. He was lounging on the starboard side of the cockpit with his wife using his autopilot remote to steer blind. He just looks at me and shrugs ? If we had a full keel I'm sure he would have been T-boned, if it had been one of the many power boats here someone would have been killed, they don't slow down much to come in the channel.
Like you I learned a lesson that day ! I wonder if he did ? He was an older sailor, didn't appear to be concerned with what happened.
Bob
