Don.. I am convinced the 123 ton FV that hit the cat I was delivering was running dark..
I had taken over the 0400 watch and did a 360 scan and saw two N bound ships on the horizon and nothing else so went to the nav station in the
saloon to check course and
weather (knew
wind was due to go S and lessen from the
current F5 gusting 6)
Less than 5 mins later there was a bang and the boat stopped.. I went to the
cockpit with difficulty as the
furling boom had come down on the coach roof and hard
bimini squashing it.
I saw the
mast had broken and fallen forward smashing the Fore beam and tearing it out of the port hull and ripping open the stbd bow.
I then saw decklights coming on ahead of me maybe 1/2km away and, believing I had only
lost the mast, felt relief another vessel was so close.
I then went below to check for
water ingress and found all was well and the waterproof bulkheads fwd were doing their job.
Returning topside I joined Lena who was looking at the FV which was now around 50 or so metres to our port side and went to go fwd to attend to the mast before it caused more damage as we rolled around in sea's upto 2metres.
The crew on the FV then started shouting at us to jump in the
water and they would pick us up... No F***ing way!!!
So I eventually freed the
rigging and deep 6'd the mast.. all the while the crew was shouting for us to abandon ship however by this time I had realised it was not a mast failure but a collision from something one of the Spaniards had said.
Anyway, as a result abandoning was not an option.. the hulls were dry, the
forecast was favourable with winds dropping to 5kts and sea calming so I was prepared to chance motoring the 70nm to Viviero, in reverse if need be.
This is when the FV said they would tow us in which they did in reverse as we had nowhere to secure tow lines at the bow anymore.
They admitted they were only keeping an AIS watch despite having radar, claimed we were under
motor without steaming lights and the collision was bow on..
We were in fact sailing under 2/3rds reefed
Genoa only as I was trying to keep the speed below 6kts as the slamming any faster was breaking up the
DIY galley and jarring teeth..
As for a a ship of 123 tons doing 10+kts and a combined speed of 16kts
head on would have demolished us, cutting between the hulls despite their claim to have hit reverse a minute before the strike.
My take is they came across our bow from our port side and we struck their beam at a shallow angle and bouncing off, the shock resulting in a port
shroud to fail and the mast to fall striking the beam and stbd bow.
Anyway.. we berthed around 3am the next morning and by the time I woke and got ready to walk round to the
fish Dock to look at the ship they had gone, so no scrapes to photograph etc.
Another thing that threw doubt to their story was, they produced a
gps track that was allegedly of the moments before and after which showed the track till the collision and after.. it was a continuous track showing that after the strike they carried on and looped back round to where we we drifting..
If they hit reverse as claimed would logic not dictate one continues backing off till clear then hold position till decisions of further action were reached... zero reason to go back into fwd and pass us then do a wide 360 to come back.
This was a large highly manouverable FV.. as demonstrated when they brought us alongside.
The insurers will reach a backdoor deal of 50-50.