On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 9:23 PM, Duane Strosaker <strosaker_at_yahoo.com>wrote: > Paddlewisers, > > Did someone ask about avoiding traffic in the shipping lanes? > > Today's close encounter: > Great photos, Duane. I don't have any charts of that area handy but I can think of a couple of things. Notice that the angle of view from the bridge over the bow (across the containers) means that the officer on watch and his AB can't see anything closer than about a mile directly in front of the ship.And beyond a mile a kayak is pretty difficult to see. They *should* have another watch on the bow but whether they do or not is probably anyone's guess. I worked on tankers and our visibility was much better (no containers). In that particular channel there is a traffic separation zone but if a ship is headed to one of the LA ports (Long Beach, San Pedro) they can exit the traffic lanes; although I would have expected them to make that exit farther east than your position. They are not supposed to move out of their lane until they get to an intersection which would then either lead them to the Pilot station and then into the LA breakwater or lead them SE'ly and out of the Channel. Maybe they were headed to Ventura... is there a container port there now? About the time they started to make that turn to port I would have been on the VHF. LOL. Another note: they are not required to carry a pilot in those waters until they pick up the harbor pilot seaward of the breakwater entrance so even though English is a universal language for mariners and aviation their ability to understand what a kayak is during a radio conversation might be limited and there would probably not be a native English speaker on the bridge. In SF Bay, and the Columbia River and most of Puget Sound there would be a US Pilot on the bridge. Also, they are not required to monitor Channel 16 as long as they are in contact with Vessel Traffic Control. But they are supposed to listen to channel 13 (bridge to bridge). Finally it's worth noting that the great circle route between Panama and Asia goes through Reno, Nevada. So you can expect large vessels to be within sight of the coastline up and down California and Oregon. If you're driving down US 395 you're probably safe from them, however. :) Pretty impressive bow wave, huh? What was it like when it finally reached you guys? Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Apr 21 2009 - 22:53:09 PDT
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