Quote:
Originally Posted by Kettlewell
The CG report says in the vicinity of Brandywine Light. In that area there is no reason for a sailboat to be traveling in the ship channel. You can stay well out of the main channel almost all the way to the C&D Canal.
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Having done this trip many times- and seeing that this happened at 1am…
I first try to avoid low visibility transit of DE Bay. I believe it to be one of the most possibly treacherous
parts of the run between points north and the chesapeake.
If I decide to transit at night, it must be a clear, not foggy night.
At night I always stay in the ship channel but right at the edge. This is due to occasional fishing/crab floats outside of channel that won’t show up on
radar. It’s a major
safety risk with the currents and ledges to risk wrapping the
propeller and disabling the vessel.
At night It’s very easy to track
commercial vessels on
AIS and
radar, coupled with eyeball/ visual
tracking. Hence clear visibility at night being important to safely pass close to
commercial vessels. It’s really easy to exit the channel to the side to allow vessels to pass. At Brandywine shoal the east side of channel is tight but there is plenty of room to the west.
So, I am interested to see if there’s anything to learn from this incident. It sounds like operator error. COLREGS would clearly expect the sailboat to keep clear given limited room to maneuver with a very narrow ship channel.