Diary - Close Encounters of the Boat Kind...

Last night we sailed from Lanzarote to Las Palmas from where we will start our Atlantic crossing after a further period of party and preparation.  Mark and I drew the short straw to sail the overnight passage.  With sail out and rather choppy waters we crossed the 80 or so miles from the marina at the southern edge of Lanzarote to the marina in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.  The waters here are more active with boats and as we sailed their lights and those of the towns of Gran Canaria ahead and Lanzarote behind could be seen in the darkness.

About half way across I noticed a boat behind that appeared to be on a similar course.  In the dark I could only see the navigation lights but it was enough to tell us it was a larger powered vessel and it was getting slowly closer.  Quasar IV is fitted with an Automatic Identification System or AIS receiver.  AIS equipment is compulsory for larger boats and it transmits the identification of the ship and GPS data such as its speed and heading.  The long and the short of it is that, with our receiver, we can pick up this information and it will display it on our digital chart plotter for ships in range.  With a simple bit of calculating using our own GPS data it will also display on the plotter how near any boat might come to us.  I checked the plotter down in the cabin while Mark T helmed the boat.  The good news was that the boat behind was still some distance off.  The bad news was that, if nothing changed, it would coming within 1 metre or less of us!  As skipper for the night Mark elected to hold our course; we had all the correct navigation lights on and as we were under sail the boat behind should take action to avoid us. 

As the minutes went by it was clear that little seemed to be changing: there was no alteration in the perspective of the ship's lights relative to us but they were definitely getting bigger.  There was no question that the boat behind was getting closer.  Oh, and the AIS continued to warn of a collision!  It is interesting how fast relatively slow moving sea vessels can get close to each other forcing quick thinking on the part skippers and as the freighter began to loom out of the darkness, although still a quarter of a mile away, some quick thinking was becoming necessary… Our high powered torch was pulled out and the beam shone on the white of the sail illuminating it like a beacon in the night.  At first nothing changed which was disconcerting and we wondered whether the watch keeper, who had not seen our navigation lights and now could not see a brightly lit white sail at night, was asleep on duty.  However, as we were preparing to alter course ourselves we saw the ship behind veer sharply away.  I’m guessing the inattentive watch keeper must have had quite a shock when he at last noticed us.  Not as much of a shock as us I imagine had our adventure ended before it started in a pile of match wood in the sea 20 miles of Gran Canaria…