I have maybe given this too big a build up but it was significant in a sailing context. Overnight Thursday into Friday we were as usual rotating watches. One on watch the other asleep. About 3a.m. I was on watch. I am making sure the boat is sailing well, not needing more or less sail and keeping watch for ships many of which are large cargo ships and dangerous if within miles of a small yacht. I am doing 360 degree scans of the horizon looking for lights. The lights give information about the size and type of ship and the direction of travel. In addition we have electronic aids. AIS which most but not all big ships have and many smaller ships have it too. If a ship is transmitting an AIS signal it shows on our electronic chart as a small ship. When I touch the screen over the Mark I get info on the ships name and direction. I also get a CPA figure. This is the closest point of approach calculated at that time using the speed and direction of the other vessel and us. I get time to CPA too, and the speed. In addition we have radar. This scans and identifies a “mass”. If we are near shore it shows the shore. In the early hours I had checked AIS and seen one big ship the Plana. The CPA was 12 miles in 36 mins and her course meant we would see her starboard side (green light) in our starboard side if we saw her at all. All good, I kept up my watch and about 15 mins later checked AIS again. All good CPA still 12 niles now 23 mins. Great. Back on deck quick 360 degrees and.... almost sick on my boots. Massive white boat lights fine on the starboard bow not 12 miles away I was certain. My legs turned to jelly I am terrified of being run down. We have an agreement that if anything concerns the person on watch they involve the other. I asked Tim to get up to check things with me. Tim came on deck, saw the lights that occasionally vanished in the big rolling sea. He checked the two data sources AIS and radar. In his freshly awake state Tim’s brain applied logic. He saw on ship on starboard 12 miles away which was the plana. There was nothing closer on AIS radar. He concluded the lights must be the Plana. He explained away my perception that it was closer by the swell. Having looked at the situation for a bit longer I was convinced that this “ghost ship” with no electronic trace was nearer and was a real danger to us. Suddenly as I watched it I saw a port light. Tim came on deck and saw it too. Now he knew we had a problem. The ghost ship wasn’t the Plana. It didn’t seem to be getting significantly closer but was close. What was going on. Suddenly Tim saw a tiny radar blip. Not a strong signal but a wee hint of something about 2.5 miles away. We took compass bearings and watched again. We could sometimes see a port light, sometimes starboard. We were over a bank. That and the slow pace made us think it was most likely a fishing boat engaged in fishing whom we should avoid. Perhaps wrongly under the rules of the road particularly as we couldn’t be sure of his direction, but we tacked into a fast point of sail to put distance between us. Thankfully That worked and the bearings increased and we sailed off into the darkness. An important lesson we were previously taught was re-enforced in a practical and worrying situation. Nothing replaces eyeball watchkeeping. The electronics can help but not replace the person on watch. The fishing boat may have had little freeboard, our radar is relatively low, the sea was quite big. Perhaps those things made him electronically invisible.....or was it Johnny depp in a phantom ship sizing up Restless for a pirate heist!!! Another mini drama noted in the log “8.10 busy night, phantom ship nearly got us”.