Passing ships in Deep Water Channel?

D

DLL

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What is the book answer to passing ocean going vessels in the deep water channel? I was looking in the Inland Waterways book and fell asleep. Drove up today, great day for it.

Is there a "book answer" for my question?
Thanks, Dave
 
I know there is a "book" answer, but my foggy memory doesn't remember. My personal answer is to stay as far away from them as possible, especially in the narrow channels of the Delta. In my book, they ALWAYS have the right of way!
 
Scare the *&^(^ out of me, like being next to a moving building, I look
for a hole and take a time out LOL
 
Contact them on your radio and ask. They monitor 16 and unless they are busy with more pressing issues I have found they will respond with advice. That is usually determined by what they intend on doing. Remember the one whistle, two whistle rule! One whistle means you will be passing and leaving them your port and two on your starbord. Check the book it will tell you what their response could be. It differs in inland waters than it does in international. The basic difference is that inland means you expect to accomplish the move with their agreeable response. Meaning with a like signal. International means you intend to do what you signaled. They would respond with the danger signal if they disagree.
A vessel that is encoumbered in its ability to manuver within a marked chanel always has the rightaway. A downbound vessel has the rightaway. A vessel under sail has the rightaway! Just consider that every body has the rightaway over you and you will remain out of trouble! Hopefully!
 
Flutterby, I agree with you. My first choice to get out of their way.

hvacmach, yep, it looked like a city floating by. I wanted no part of passing it, but I had some drawbridges to get to before 5pm.

Larry, you seemed to have it down pretty good. I lucked out and did the right thing.
I called on Ch 16 and did not hear a call back. I paced them for a short ways, then sounded my horn one time and slowly started around them. We made it, but I would not like to do it again.
 
I don't believe a vessel under sail has right of way over a vessel restricted by draft in a marked channel. In the end even if you have the right of way, if you are T-Boned by a 500' ship the fact that you had right of way will be of little comfort. They aren't going that fast in the rivers so it should not be a problem to avoid them as they are pretty easy to see. I always leave them off my Port.

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Kris
 
I tried passing one of these in the bay..I was between Angel Island and the Richmond San Rafael bridge. It was a pretty good distance away but it was heading in my path and it its current speed was at a collision course. At the time I was in my 01 2855 which is a pretty fast boat..I increased speed to 35mph..I noticed I wasnt gaining enough to comfortably pass it..so I slowed way down and even turned around so I would pass behind it..that thing was probably going 20knots...The wake was HUGE> My 7,000 pound boat suddenly felt like a Jet Ski..my wife screamed out loud as we slammed down on the HUGE wake..bigger than any passing ferry wake Ive encounterd and those are pretty formidabble wakes even in my new boat which is about 12000 pounds.
quote:
Originally posted by kgd

I don't believe a vessel under sail has right of way over a vessel restricted by draft in a marked channel. In the end even if you have the right of way, if you are T-Boned by a 500' ship the fact that you had right of way will be of little comfort. They aren't going that fast in the rivers so it should not be a problem to avoid them as they are pretty easy to see. I always leave them off my Port.

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Kris

Click to expand...
 
They don't go that fast in the Delta. They can put off a good wake in the Bay. Just stay aways back from them and you will just have some large rollers. Hit them at the right angle and speed and it should be no big deal regardless of the size of your boat.
 
Many of those huge ships displace water with a draft of over 30ft. All that water has to go somewhere! At 20knts I would be very uncomfortable seeing that bow wake come at me no matter what size my recreational vessel is!
 
Years ago my brother an I cruised up Cache Slough towards the deep water channel, hung a left and meandered up around Shag Slough, dropped the hook for the night and did some night fishing. Later that night while asleep I heard a far off engine noise, getting louder and louder and closer and closer. I got out of the bunk, went topside with a flashlight. I was really worried because I could not see a thing and this noise was just about on me. Then I looked thru the tule berm and low and behold there was a giant sea going ship that looked to be about three blocks long going right by on the other side of the berm. The next day we found out that we had anchored about 30 feet west and on the other side of a berm from the shipping channel and didn't know it. Since then I always wondered if folks ever anchored in that channel without knowing what it was......now that would shake your night up a bit.

DBH
 
Last Saturday, departing the Port of Stockton, around 9am or so. Can't find my bookmark for the website that has the list of ships there. Anyone remember where it is listed?

OR find the name of the vessel we are talking about?

I will try to find it again tomorrow.
 
Is there much (any?) traffic going to the Port of Sacramento these days?
 
Now that we are in the Homeland Defense era there is a security zone for all ferries, cruise ships and large commercial ships. You must keep a minimum of 100 yards away from these vessels. Navy and Military Sealift Command ships get a 500-yard security zone. USCG will bust you if they see a violation of these rules.

The port in West Sacramento doesn't get that much shipping traffic, nothing compared to the traffic on the shipping channel of the San Joaquin River and the port at Stockton. I've seen several ships make the San Joaquin transit on a single day.

Outside of the bay and on the Sacramento/San Joaquin rivers and shipping channels the Bar Pilots run big tankers, freighters and container ships at slower speeds. This reduces wakes that damage levees. 7 to 11 knots seems typical for these ships in the channels. They make very little wake at all.

I keep the boat at Spindrift Marina on the San Joaquin where plenty of these ships pass 600 hundred yards away. I can see and hear a single ship pass but there is no effect on the water. When two ships pass each other I'll see noticeable wave action at the docks.

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Anyone remember the incident in San Diego Harbor, where a sailboat went in front of a Navy
Submarine (who was surfaced), then when the sailboat realized where he was, he somehow sailed in front of a Navy surface vessel (over 500 ft as I recall) who hit him. There was a photo of the sailboat at about the moment of impact.

Seems like the sailboat "pilot" sued and lost.

I mention this as someone mentioned being "T-Boned" by a large vessel is bad news. The Air Force had a safety bulletin many years ago (on riding motorcycles on the streets), but it said something like: "You may be right, but don't be dead right." I concur. And we all know it can take miles for a large vessel to stop.

In retrospect, due to the size of the ship, I was probably about 100 yards, or perhaps 101 yards from their starboard side.

As for Navy and CG ships...I found two out of two who were not monitoring Ch 16. One boarded us recently and the other, a good sized ship, admitted they were not monitoring ch 16. I had the opportunity to speak with them about it. Very nice guys, both groups, but they had other priorities at that time. Having flown in the Air Force many years I fully understand how military radio protocols can look good on paper, but the reality of the situations we ran into required temporary changes.
 
Although a particular ship may not be monitoring ch 16 at any given time, a general call to Coat Guard Station Rio Vista will get a response. They in turn can pass a message to a particular ship or advise you what ch to contact them on-----usually 22A.
 
It is pretty impressive to see them up close when they go by. Part of my neighborhood sits on the San Joaquin, and it seems like the earth is moving when they go by because they are so improbably big relative to the houses they're going by. Very little noise too. I've often been out cycling, and not noticed them until I looked up over the levee to see them.
 
In restricted waters the sailboat does NOT have the "right of way" over a ship. Period. Nor does a motorboat which may be on the ship's starboard bow. Rule 9, Rule 2, the "tonnage" rule, and the "common sense" rule. Arguing the issue will just get you killed.

I've found it best to stay in DEEP water and reduce speed. You can actually get fairly close, but if you get caught in the shallows by his wake it won't be fun. If it's a crossing situation either reduce speed and let him go by or change course early on and go behind him. They're often going a lot faster than you think, and trying to cross ahead just confuses the issue.

He can't hit you if you're behind him.

If you feel you need to talk to him try ch 13 (not 16), and do what he tells you to do.
 
I've read that you can monitor the vessel traffic service on 19 (?). I know the fishermen who are out front of SF listen to 19 to keep track of the ships.

Be aware that ships on the SF bay are moving deceptively fast. I tried to cut in front of one and found he was just going too fast, so, I turned sharply and crossed behind him.

If I remember right, they can be a speck on the horizon and come right up on you in 13 minutes. So, regular checks of the horizon are necessary.

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