Finding myself in the path of a Submarine that was not “there” a minute ago.

[SVOddity]

SO, this is my first ever encounter with a Submarine that decided to surface on the Solent. I had checked the stern for traffic just about 2m before and we were preparing for a MOB training manoeuvre when the shout came that I forgot to check the stern, off course my answer was “off course I did “ then I turned and saw a big black thing that was not there 2m before, nobody could make out what the BIG black thing coming fast for us was and we aborted, retrieved poor “Steve” the bucket fender man out of the water and motored away with sails up.
It was the Dutch Submarine HNLMS Walrus, that decided to do a bit of a dramatic “appearance” and surface on the Solent forcing us to abort our MOB and scratch our noggins for a few minutes until we managed to figure out what it was.
Managed to put together a 3m video of the footage. Cool thing to be able to see one so close at sea, pity no one saw him surface, he was just “there” from one minute to the other.



Funny part was, I did see the escorts waiting for something, we gave distance to make a MOB without being in the way, at no time did they make contact to inform us we were deadpan in the middle of the exclusion zone on the path of the Sub, and as we could not see any traffic we just assumed they were either on training or just waiting for a still to arrive rather large vessel.
The Sub really got us scratching our heads and jumping into gear to retrieve “Steve” and get out of the way.
Maybe we are supposed to check?? I always assumed Coast guard would use channel 16 for an advisory. Handheld was on me and radio bellow on 16 nothing came. Well a sub did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvbjBCYGLJQ&t=156s

[john61ct]

Crewing eights in a regatta on the Thames in Connecticut, nuclear subs from Groton used to surface right under us all the time.

Kept the coxswain on her toes!

[SVOddity]

Originally Posted by john61ct

Crewing eights in a regatta on the Thames in Connecticut, nuclear subs from Groton used to surface right under us all the time.

Kept the coxswain on her toes!

I bet! I keep looking at the water and over my shoulder since then. We had the funny discussion of “off course I looked” followed by “waidaminute that wasn’t there when I looked. “ then “what da’hell is that and how did it get there”. One thought it was a tall ship, the other a very fast navy prototype I had no clue and we could see a hell of a bow wake. Which was the water going over the bow of the sub off course. Confusing as hell.

[Tayana42]

You didn’t know they were there. I hope they knew you were there.

[hellosailor]

Oddity, I don't know Dutch naval procedures, but here in the US submarines are expected to follow an SOP that includes launching a rather prominent smoke buoy before routine surfacing, to warn away surface craft. And in theory, there will be no close surface craft because the sub is supposed to check for that before they surface.

The first edition of the year (when they printed them) of the Local Notice to Mariners always used to list the various smokes and buoys that a submarine might be launching. Distress beacon, torpedo firing practice, routine surface, all different colors but ALWAYS a signal.

You could of course always send a polite written enquiry to the Dutch admiralty regarding the incident. With a copy of your video to back up the lack of warning marks.

If the sub was in communication with other surface vessels at the time, then there's even more reason that someone should have warned you.

Of course it could be just like yacht racing: "You almost hit me!" No I didn't, there was always a good six inches clear between us.

[Cheechako]

Used to run into a Trident Nuke now and then in Puget Sound. Man they push a big bow wave when on the surface.

[SVOddity]

Originally Posted by Tayana42

You didn’t know they were there. I hope they knew you were there.

Our thinking is that the escorts were in communication with her and informed her we were there doing MOB drills, but they could have said something to us and we would have moved to a different location. WE also never expected to see a sub, we thought the escorts and pilots and police boats were for the Aircraft carrier. And THAT we would see. As it was we had to be the ones to find out that she was there in a funny way. At least it gave us a Kings Head Pub worthy story. “ remember that time you looked and there was nothing then this sub…”

[roverhi]

A few years ago a US Navy Submarine did a crash surface off of Honolulu to impress some guests. Unfortunately they came up underneath a Japanese training vessel sinking it with some loss of life. For some reason they didn't know the Japanese vessel was there which is hard to understand with all the listening equipment and sonar on an attack sub. Lots of heads rolled on that screw up.

Doubt that a sub would announce its presence on the radio unless there was an imminent collision. Subs tend to be a little circumspect about their presence.

[SVOddity]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Oddity, I don't know Dutch naval procedures, but here in the US submarines are expected to follow an SOP that includes launching a rather prominent smoke buoy before routine surfacing, to warn away surface craft. And in theory, there will be no close surface craft because the sub is supposed to check for that before they surface.

The first edition of the year (when they printed them) of the Local Notice to Mariners always used to list the various smokes and buoys that a submarine might be launching. Distress beacon, torpedo firing practice, routine surface, all different colors but ALWAYS a signal.

You could of course always send a polite written enquiry to the Dutch admiralty regarding the incident. With a copy of your video to back up the lack of warning marks.

If the sub was in communication with other surface vessels at the time, then there's even more reason that someone should have warned you.

Of course it could be just like yacht racing: "You almost hit me!" No I didn't, there was always a good six inches clear between us.

I’m guessing they going to go with the racing explanation, there was a good six inches and all that.
In my defence, I was refreshing my old sailing qualifications with Phil, so there was a skipper on board although I was helming and technically the skipper. They may have thrown smoke or a flare, and we may have missed it. We were concentrating on the escorts as we thought the Aircraft carrier may have been coming into port and we could not understand why they were there. That together with the fact that we were stern to them and that I had visually checked my stern about 2m before may have been a cause for us to miss any signal displayed. I’m just a tad peeved they said nothing.

[SVOddity]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Used to run into a Trident Nuke now and then in Puget Sound. Man they push a big bow wave when on the surface.

THAT was the confusing part. As he was coming up that wave made absolutely no sense to us. We were just throwing wild guesses at what it could be and we just threw the engine on and moved because it looked like it was coming at break neck speed on account of the bow wave.
Off course then we laughed our heads off… " ohh its a sub"

[Cpt Mark]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Oddity, I don't know Dutch naval procedures, but here in the US submarines are expected to follow an SOP that includes launching a rather prominent smoke buoy before routine surfacing, to warn away surface craft. And in theory, there will be no close surface craft because the sub is supposed to check for that before they surface.

Delivering a yacht to Seattle while in the Straits of Juan De Fuca my crewmember asked what that thing was out there. A periscope I said and right after that a nuclear fast attack sub surfaced. No smoke, warning. It being a nuclear sub you can't get close to it but I wanted to so I hailed them on 16, spoke to the Captain and asked permission which was granted because they wanted a closer look at the very beautiful yacht we were delivering

[meirriba]

Originally Posted by SVOddity

I’m guessing they going to go with the racing explanation, there was a good six inches and all that.
In my defence, I was refreshing my old sailing qualifications with Phil, so there was a skipper on board although I was helming and technically the skipper. They may have thrown smoke or a flare, and we may have missed it. We were concentrating on the escorts as we thought the Aircraft carrier may have been coming into port and we could not understand why they were there. That together with the fact that we were stern to them and that I had visually checked my stern about 2m before may have been a cause for us to miss any signal displayed. I’m just a tad peeved they said nothing.

The helming person is not 'technically the skipper'. He is just a crew member driving the boat at a particular moment.
The skipper is whoever was declared as such before sailing out and in some countries he needs a licence (but not in the USA or UK for normal pleasure small craft)

[taxwizz]

Originally Posted by roverhi

A few years ago a US Navy Submarine did a crash surface off of Honolulu to impress some guests. Unfortunately they came up underneath a Japanese training vessel sinking it with some loss of life. For some reason they didn't know the Japanese vessel was there which is hard to understand with all the listening equipment and sonar on an attack sub. Lots of heads rolled on that screw up.

Doubt that a sub would announce its presence on the radio unless there was an imminent collision. Subs tend to be a little circumspect about their presence.

Subs think that they own the world and everyone better know that they are around and get out of the way. Surface military vessels think the same way, but at least they are visible, in daytime. At night they like to travel without lights for more fun and excitement.

The subs assume that our detection systems are better than theirs.

[roland stockham]

Ahh, that brings back memories. Huddled in foulies and reefed down dodging a chaos of traffic in the Solent while doing Yachtmaster trainning. Only reason I have warn long sleeves and pant in the last few years is to avoid sunburn!!!

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by SVOddity

SO, this is my first ever encounter with a Submarine that decided to surface on the Solent....

That was interesting and got posted to my Facebook page. Join the Navy and see the world. Join the RYA and the world surfaces in front of you.