We left Portobello this morning headed back to Shelter Bay Marina. As we were pulling out of the bay, Dave yelled for Melissa to bring the camera as there was a sight you don't see every day. A Dockwise ship was moving a barge. That's what they do - move smaller ships and boats across the ocean. The middle part of the Dockwise ship can be flooded and boats then moved onto the ship. For a boat like our sailboat, divers go down and set up jack stands underneath. Then they drain the water out so the boats are essentially "in dry dock". So seeing a barge on top of the Dockwise ship wasn't unusual. The weird part was what was on top of the barge. A factory. Wonder what the heck it does?
When we came upon the ship, it had just anchored. But by the time we reached her, they were pulling up anchor again. Then they started honking the horn - five horn toots meaning "danger stay away". Yeah, not planning to get much closer than this!
It was a sloppy day at sea as we made our way back towards the marina. Just outside the Panama Canal channel, Dave says, "oh crap" and turns the wheel hard to starboard. Melissa looks up and says, "what's up" to which Dave says, "I've got a cruise ship here doing a Crazy Ivan on me". Sure enough this cruise ship came out from behind the breakwater and promptly pulled a 180 degree turn right across Dave's path. Dave had to turn out of the way and we crossed her stern going splash over the enormous wake. In the screen shot from the navigation system below you can see the green triangle - the cruise ship path. And us - the red ship in the middle and the swerve Dave had to make to avoid a collision.
Right of way in this situation is complicated. In theory the boat on starboard (the cruise ship) is the "stand on vessel" which means he is supposed to maintain course while the "give way vessel" (us) maneuvers to avoid a collision. However, since the cruise ship made a turn that put us in peril of a collision, he didn't behave as the "stand on vessel" should. The principle being that the "give way vessel" should be able to tell what the "stand on vessel" is going to do so that the "give way vessel" can avoid a collision. The cruise ship didn't follow the rules. But apparently they didn't give a crap.
Shortly after we pulled in safe and sound once again to Shelter Bay Marina. Our friends on Heart and Soul had dinner waiting for us. Its nice to have such thoughtful friends!
Over the course of the past 19 months, we have anchored 235 times, for a total of 287 nights at anchor. Guess we are real sailors now.