Yesterday had a few close encounters in a pretty empty part of the sea.

In general, we see nothing except the sea for hours and hours on end and then..

 

Just before sunrise in the dim morning hours as Bob and myself were in the midst of reefing down the mail sail I looked up to a BIG rusty black and orange cylindrical special purpose buoy just over a boat’s length in front of us!

Quick action on the helm by Bob avoided a nasty scratch.

Unmarked on any charts we have, no lights and just bobbing around in the odd 1,000 meters of depth looking for unsuspecting yachts!

 

The next encounter in this big ocean would have brought us within 230 feet of a large oil tanker making it’s way from Gibraltar to the Bahamas as it made it’s way across our bow. We would have been so close that the captain of the tanker and myself exchanged a passing protocol just in case. He offered to change course for us but I felt it simpler for Timeless to slow and pass his aft to our port. The captain advised us to pass AT LEAST 1 mile away to his stern for fear of his wash affecting us.

 

and then last night in the wee hours of the morning..

There was re-run of the mornings events.

A cargo ship this time, on his way to the Bahamas would have crossed our bow within 150 feet!

Geesh!

I guess these ship captains must see our beautiful boat on AIS and decide to come and take a closer look!

Again, we took the avoiding action with Les keeping track of the ship whilst I maneuvered past him.

 

Apart from these three events we didn’t see ANYTHING else all day – can you believe that.