Let's play Dodge Boat!
07 February 2014 | South China Sea
Bill
I thought and thought about what title this post and settled for "Let's Play Dodge Boat". It was that or "Thank God for AIS" or Asshole of the Sea". I'll let you decide once I tell the story. Last night about 2100, the AIS screen on our computer stated chiming bells to let us know of an approaching boat. I checked the screen and did indeed find a boat called Sara 1 on its way straight toward us from the North North West. We were on a collision course. Tracy was already in bed so I did what I could do while under full sail. I changed course to port to take us farther away from him even though it took us off our intended course. A couple of minutes later, Sara 1 changed it's course to Starboard and was again on a collision course! Alright, I changed course again, this time to starboard since he had changed his course to starboard. A few minutes later, I saw on the AIS that he had changed his course to Port, again putting us on a collision course! This same thing happened again when I changed course. He was playing games with us. No matter where we went, he changed course to come straight down on us. He was now just 5 miles away and closing in. I went below and turned on all our deck lights to try and make it clear where we were though our radar reflector is one of the best in the world. I then grabbed the VHF radio and called his boat by name. After two calls(all the while getting closer to us) he finally responded. I identified our boat and asked him to change his course to Port so I could still have maneuvering room being under sail. I told him I wanted to pass him Starboard to to Starboard side. His answer was to say "You want me to change course to Starboard and pass Port to Port". I again told him to please alter course to Port so we could pass Staqrboardt side to Starboard side. He finally agreed and when I went on deck to correct our course, I finally saw him change his course. Now by the specks on his boat that the AIS tells me, he wasn't a big boat but he sure would have sunk is in no time flat. Just before he was to pass us, he changed his course again to Starboard and was about to head straight for the stern of our boat or to pass a few yards off our stern. Luckily, a brief gust of wind hit the sails and propelled us far enough away from him. He finally passed just .6 miles off our stern. Once past us, he again corrected his course to Port so that he was back on his original course. He didn't need to turn as much as he did to Starboard other than to scare the heck out of me. He slowly slid into the night. Later in the night, we were again passed by two more boats. One of which we radically changed our course for as he was a HUGE ship and would have difficulty changing his course. The second passes just 2 miles off the stern. He was close to 1,000 feet long and over 100 feet wide. It was a night of "Dodge Boat". It's now the next morning and we are back under full sail and heading west again having done another 119 miles in the last 24 hours. We have about 365 still to go so we hope to be in sometime on Wednesday. So far(other than the ships we keep dodging) it's been a nice trip with decent winds. Let's hope they continue.