Re: [Paddlewise] Shipping Lane Traffic

Craig,

We were up the coast around 50 miles from the port in LA, where it probably came out of on it's way up the coast. I knew the ship was getting  ready to make a turn, because it was heading inside of an oil rig that I knew the ships go outside of. Like I always say, avoiding ships is no problem. We gave this one plenty of clearance. We could see it slowly turning closer and decided to just sit and enjoy the view. The guy on the ship who gave us the friendly wave came out on the part of the bridge that allows him to see the side of the ship. The whole thing was the highlight of the crossings.

The wake behind the ship was like a steep 6 foot swell.

Duane



--- On Tue, 4/21/09, Craig Jungers <crjungers_at_gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Craig Jungers <crjungers_at_gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Shipping Lane Traffic
> To: strosaker_at_yahoo.com
> Cc: "Paddlewise" <paddlewise_at_paddlewise.net>
> Date: Tuesday, April 21, 2009, 10:52 PM
> 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
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