Tragedy strikes (close to home for me)

[John Nantz]

A Couples Dreams - Gone Forever

A Coast Guard news release or a news media version of the CG news recycled comes across as very impersonal and without feeling. A more recent news article, however, brings out the hopes and dreams of the individuals involved. It's very sad how one's life can go from being "on top of the world" at one moment to being wiped out the next. The article "Yacht Job Was Essence Of Dreams, Young Woman Dies After Boat, Freighter Collide In Sound" September 22, 2006 By JESSE HAMILTON, Courant Staff Writer, 'brings to life' this tradgey and tells how peoples lives were turned upside down in an instant: http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-ctboatcrash0922.artsep22,0,5608740.story?coll=hc-headlines-localIt would be interesting to know what the sky conditions were at the time of the accident - foggy, clear, or reduced visability. Also, was "Essence" was under power or sail?Night Lights: it can be very, very difficult to understand what one is seeing at night when there is light pollution. I don't know what the shores of Conn. or Long Island look like at night but since it is a very populated place I can imagine there are lights everywhere. From a viewers perspective, viewing the lights 'out there' from a moving boat can be a real challenge because everything is moving. Near shore the stoplights can really show up.Also, noise from another boat or ship is probably below the ambinet noise on board your own vessel. Whether the engine is running or I'm under sail, there is enough noise onboard that you can't hear another boat or ship until they are almost on top of you. When at anchor and down below at night that's totally different, I can hear the ferry, for example, from a pretty fair distance.This is a very unfortunate incident and, unfortunately, it looks like there will be lots of lawyers involved for a long time.

 

[Franklin]

a good link

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[tagalong]

More questions

More questions, fewer answers. Well first Rich asked if they were all qualified, which it would seem at least two of them were if they had a 100 ton masters. Of course maybe they didn't have sailing experience. Also the question was akded if a night passage was wise since they were short handed. They were not short handed if it was only like a 12 hour or so deal. Did anyone ask how long they had been on the water. I don't know that area well enough to know the time from where ever they left to where they crashed. But the biggest question is this. I know that both of them must have had radar. But no mention has ever been made of an alarm on the radar. Even if someone is dozing at the wheel with the autopilot on, the alarm should arouse them. On my boat, when single handing, normal practice is to do all my sleeping in the daytime, and never sleep at night. On a recent Gulf crossing, from Tampa to Houston, we were off the La. coast at night. A shrimper was bearing down on us from our starboard side. We were in the oil fields and quite a few rigs around. This shrimper was obviously running on auto pilot, and no one was in the wheel house. The only way to avoid a collision was to get out of the way. While it was not a close call, without someone on our boat paying attention, there would have been a collision.

 

[sailortonyb]

Tagalong.....

I am not a big fan of shrimpers. They have the right of way if they are actually dragging nets. If they arent dragging at the time, they give themselves the right of way. What I'm geting at is that not always, but in most cases they are the worst offenders of all rules. In addition, KEEP IN MIND, oftentimes they are shorthanded and when dragging, the captain is also on the back deck working. That means no one is at the wheel to drive or even pay attention to where they are going. When I was crew boat and supply boat capt, the shrimpers thought nothing of leaving their outriggers down when in a channel. Is that illegal, you bet your ass it is. Did they ever get stopped when going past the Coast Guard Station?. Nope.Getting back to the Radar thing, I never used the alarm nor do I know of any commercial Capt's. that use it within 100 miles of land in La. and places in Tx. The boat traffic and amount of platfporms and rigs would keep the alarm on permanently. Anyway, the sailboat should never have allowed herself to be that close to a freighter in the first place. The freighter can neither slow down quickly nor hang a sharp turn. Its almost kinda like when a train hits a car, its hard to hold the train at fault.

 

[Bill Roosa]

Clear nigne and rising cresent moon

I do not know the area so there may have been some sky glow from a nearby city(s) but just a little bit of light from behind from the moon and inky blackness ahead I've seen these big guys just look like a pair of white lights. The running lights are mounted toward the rear of the ship and if you are expecting to see them on the bow it is quite confusing the first couple of times you see them. With out the running lights for a referance you can't tell which way he is going. 1-2 minutes is not that long to make the assesment. If you don't know how fast these ships move they are upon you before you know it.I have seen this a lot of times out on the Bay at night and it takes a good eye to pick the running lights out from all the ship's lights unless you know to look toward the back of the ship. We are lucky as they have a dredged channel they have to stay in so we know when to start looking and in which direction. Still they sneak up on you once in a while.

 

[nick maggio]

What happen to radar

What happen to radar I can't believe that these big boats did not have radar,both boats should have had some radar warning but it will be awhile before we here what went wrong.