Re: [Paddlewise] crossing ship channels safely?

Gerald Foodman wrote:
> 
> Duane,
> What are safety considerations on crossing shipping channels?  How do you
> know when you are in the channel?

I suspect Duane's group was crossing a shipping "lane," not a shipping
"channel."  The former is a relatively wide strip of sea in essentially
unrestricted waters, often with charted separation zones in places where
opposing traffic might be in danger of a head-on collision without some
agreed-upon separation.  Find a small-scale chart of near-shore waters adjacent
to a large sea port and you should see shipping lanes.  Not normally buoyed,
except near separation zones.

In contrast, a shipping channel is usually a narrow (200 yards wide in the
Columbia River, for example) waterway in restricted waters which is the only
piece of the seascape where vessels of deep draft can safely transit.  Heavily
buoyed.  Opposing vessels communicate via VHF to decide how to pass each other
safely.

IMHO, a shipping lane is trickier to cross, because large vessels can "wander"
side to side, and their exact course is sometimes difficult to predict.  I bet
Duane and others who cross shipping lanes off LA sometimes do use a VHF to warn
near traffic of their presence, inasmuch as a sea kayak is hard for a ship's
captain to pick out in seas.  In contrast, shipping channels are easy to cross,
because they are so well-defined by aids to navigation, and so narrow.

>  How can you tell if a large ship is going to cross in front or behind?  

Whether lane or channel, you have to watch the apparent angle the other traffic
makes with your course.  If that angle is constant, you are on a collision
course with them.  If the angle increases as you paddle across the ship's path,
you will pass ahead of the ship;  if it decreases, you will pass behind.  Hard
to explain in words.  Try this with smaller boats and you'll see what I mean.

> Do you VHF to large ships that you see to inform them of your presence?

I normally do not, when I cross a *channel.*  I just stay out of their way.  I
would only hit the VHF if I were dead in the water in the channel, or capsized,
or if I had a large group which would take a while to cross.  When crossing a
shipping lane, I would watch the other vessel's course carefully, and use the
VHF if it looked like our passing would be "close."

>  What do you do if it is foggy, just trust to luck that no ship is bearing
> down on you?

I do not cross shipping channels when it is foggy.

>  In your night crossing, do you
> think that a large ship would see your lights and avoid you?

I'd like to know what Duane's answer is, also.  I suspect shipping traffic
would not see chemical light sticks, and I also suspect their radar would not
pick up Duane, either, out of the sea clutter.  I think I'd be on the VHF with
a Securite' call at the beginning of a crossing, and maybe in the middle, too.

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR
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