(Mis)adventures on the seas

[stitchdup]

Our main ferry at work went aground today. There were 97 people onboard at the time. She was refloated after 90 mins and is now back in port. From pics i cannot share, it looks like every car that was onboard has taken front and rear damage. While there doesn't appear to be much damage in these pics the galley has been devastated from the impact. There are some people injured but i believe not seriously. But these situations are why we as a crew do training for everything and today showed that training works. Pictures from RNLI and bbc. I work on the old ferry, not this one which is only 3 years in service

[Ace-Garageguy]

What happened? She lose power and get blown onto the rocks?

Sure is beautiful there. I envy you getting to see that every day, though I assume the weather can get pretty intense at times.

[stitchdup]

4 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

What happened? She lose power and get blown onto the rocks?

Sure is beautiful there. I envy you getting to see that every day, though I assume the weather can get pretty intense at times.

I'm not sure, its a busy shipping lane and summer so I'll guess a womble (tourist in the wrong place) in a boat got in the way and they had to avoid it. Yeah, the weather can be pretty bad, I've been on the other boat when it broke free during 100 mph winds and it wasn't much fun but i did learn how to drop the anchor,lol. Really cool to look at but not to be in.

[Oldcarfan27]

I sure hate it when those crazy islands jump out in front of me!

[Mike C.]

Yikes! 

[Dave Ambrose]

Wow. Glad no one was seriously injured. You need to do vector math in your head if you want to maneuver one of those in any kind of wind or current.  

[stitchdup]

48 minutes ago, Dave Ambrose said:

Wow. Glad no one was seriously injured. You need to do vector math in your head if you want to maneuver one of those in any kind of wind or current.  

It would make our jobs much easier if pleasure boats realised we cant turn as fast as they do, but if the boat was a normal single hulled ferry it may have managed to avoid going ashore but being a catermaran probably saved lives yesterday. A single hull going on those rocks would have destroyed the hull but since its a catermaran it doesn't sit as low in the water so managed to ride up the rocks. What you cant see in  the pics is the rocks aren't flat, so coming off them would normally be like a saw effect but as its got the 2 hulls it didn't sit down hard. Theres damage but it could have been much worse

[Bugatti Fan]

There are so many leisure boaters who just get a boat and go onto the water without any proper guidance of training about sailing in the vicinity of much bigger craft.

We see the same sort of thing on the roads where car drivers do not allow big trucks due attention when it comes to either braking, or not allowing for articulated trucks swinging out to allow for the trailer taking the short cut when cornering.

[Oldcarfan27]

Motorcycles too!

[Bronzekeg]

oopsa daisy.

[Dave Ambrose]

3 hours ago, stitchdup said:

It would make our jobs much easier if pleasure boats realised we cant turn as fast as they do, but if the boat was a normal single hulled ferry it may have managed to avoid going ashore but being a catermaran probably saved lives yesterday. A single hull going on those rocks would have destroyed the hull but since its a catermaran it doesn't sit as low in the water so managed to ride up the rocks. What you cant see in  the pics is the rocks aren't flat, so coming off them would normally be like a saw effect but as its got the 2 hulls it didn't sit down hard. Theres damage but it could have been much worse

We used to sail on San Francisco Bay. Same problem would happen there between recreational boaters and ocean-going ships. Some people just don't seem to realize that the ships have right of way, and you really don't want to get cuddly with them. Others, especially racing sailboats, took foolish chances. This has turned out badly on a few occasions. 

[stitchdup]

Unfortunatelly its on the captain of the large ship to keep a good watch. It tends to be seen as their fault when someone in a smaller boat cuts across the front thinking its clear when most boats have a bulbous bow that is out further than the part above water. Look how much trouble the bulbous bow caused on the suez, and the ripple effects we are still seeing from that and the virus, and now with a lot of ships no longer able to legally do business there will be more delays and more costs but they should settle by this time next year once boats have been moved around to suit. I'm lucky to be in a job thats less affected by rising costs than some as things still need to be moved around and theres now any other way for islands and world trade

[iamsuperdan]

I'll be on a ferry on Monday. Vancouver to Nanaimo, BC. Going under the assumption that our crossing will go better than this one!

 

[stitchdup]

Well my previous employer has done it again. most importantly nobody was hurt. This time its the pentalina, which is the boat i worked on thats aground. reportswere  of a fire in the engine room before it grounded. The biggest problem this time is the other boat is on a contract down the west coast of scotland for 9 months so there might not be a back up boat. It only got its updated safety certificate last week after 6 weeks in dry dock getting refitted so i expect there will be a lot of questions being asked of the mca and lloyds. As is typical the local community had a reception centre up and running before the passengers got ashore so there was hot drinks and snacks ready for them

[NYLIBUD]

Yea,that sure ain’t good.Damm