On Vessels Engaged In Fishing
Skye Blue sailing
Stephen and Malene
Tue 12 Nov 2024 03:56
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There are two ways of looking at fishing boats:
1) They are all out to get you if they can
or
2) They look like they are out to get you, but they are
not.
Today we had two separate encounters with fishing boats.
In this case they were Chinese, which is beside the point, other than
establishing that it is the same wherever in the World you go as a sailing boat.
Except from the nice Ecuadorean one we met en route to Marquesas. Just to prove
the rule.
The COLREGs are clear on situations like this one: A
sailing vessel must keep clear of a vessel engaged in fishing.
Last night at 0200 these fishing boats appeared on the
AIS and showed a lot of other AIS vessels on top of them. Aye. ?. Then they
started leaving one after the other behind as they were going about 7 knots.
Aye. ?. One of them was named LURONGYUANYU618. It had an AIS vessel called
something with BUOY, a number and 100%. Aye. ?. In fact they all had xx% in
their name. (Just wonder what happens to them when they reach 0%?) Anyway,
they were going N, we were going S and well clear of them so just curiously
studied what they did.
My best guess is they are line fishing. But honestly
just guessing. Never seen anything like that before.
Today. Not so straight forward. Similar vessel appears
on the AIS, going 7 kts perpendicular towards us. This one is called SUI YUAN YU
39, with other AIS vessels like SYY39-2023-01 65%. That kind of thing. We would
be within 200m of it at times, so trimmed the best we could, but in light
winds... Really did prefer to go in front of it. No idea how deep - or shallow -
the lines are. It started dropping AIS vessels behind it. We put on the good old
engine just to get more steam, Dougie! Phew. After 15 minutes of these fun and
games, we were past it. Safe.
Until the bl.... thing does an 80 degree turn right
towards us! For fox ache! Think skipper's words were something along the lines
of: like fishermen at home just coming out for a chase! So now we are getting a
bit apprehensive as it is less than a mile and a half behind us and going faster
than us.
In the end it all went well and un-dramatically and got
some good photos of the thing.
And we choose option #2. He was trying to keep out of
our way without going out of his way. Didn't want us going over his line as it
was being dropped. Really wanted to lay it SW so waited to turn until we
were safely past.
Or he was just coming out for a chase
All is well.
29.27:8270S 173.33:7097E @ 0400 UTC
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