Go a couple miles due east from my backyard and this is what you see:
You do -not- want to be in the middle of the ship channel when these two bad boys come rolling by at 20 knots. This picture makes the ships look small, but those things are as big as an average sized apartment complex. And weigh even more.
Seems like this year, ship channel traffic is way, way up. Not sure whether I’m impressed or depressed about it. Americans sure do love their imported George Foreman Grills and Ginsu Knife sets.
During my last three sails I have lucked out and the wind has allowed me to actually follow the law and cross the shipping channel at 90 degrees. Some of those days when you’re drifting across (or worse yet having the current push you directly down) the channel, you start remembering the old formula force equals mass times velocity and you can get really really scared. I like to avoid these channels when at all possible.
Comment by Edward — September 21, 2007 @ 12:18 pm