Have you ever hit a shipping container?

[Capt.aaron]

I want me A Brent Swain design so bad it Drives me nuts!

[Brent Swain]

The longest journey starts with a single step

[Capt.aaron]

Originally Posted by Brent Swain

The longest journey starts with a single step

I know, and my wife is like, "What's all this metal boat stuff you're talking about lately?" we already have a sail boat and 40 foot dive boat that keep us broke, Plus our skiff's and dingy's, kayaks. I'll get her to come around. Or, when we sell the dive boat, I'll just do it. This shipping container stuff might be the the nail.

[smallboatlover]

capt you make ur living with the dive boat? i kinda wanna live the way your are but when im old enough lol.

[Capt.aaron]

No. That Boat barley pay's for it's self, I make my living on tug boat. I used to make my living with that boat, but it's not steady, weather pending, and I did'nt offer myself major medical, health, dental, a 401k, investment options, a 2 week on 2week off schedual or room and board, so I became a merchant marine. The day I sell that buisness is the day I get my life back.

[Hartley18]

It's not uncommon for shipping containers to float just a few feet below the surface for a few hours or so on their way to the bottom, meaning there is no way you'd see it on a dark night and you might just notice a strange wave pattern during the day - if you're looking that way. Given that they are usually only lost during storms, you'd have to be sailing through a shipping area a day or so after a storm, so the chances of hitting one are slim, but, like the chances of hitting a whale or a sunfish, it does happen..

A nice old timber motorboat was crossing Whitsunday Passage one night late last century when it was sunk by the periscope of a submarine on route to Cairns. Stuff really does happen out there.

[AncientTech]

Originally Posted by Capt.aaron

I want me A Brent Swain design so bad it Drives me nuts!

Just to show you what is right down the street....

Sailboat

PS: Confirmed all the red you see in the picture is dust...

As far as shipping containers, down here in south FL I have heard a few mentions of container collisions just as when I was in Houston. Apparently if your near shipping lanes and also near jet streams you somehow end up with them submerged and displacing between 25k-50k! That is a lot of brick wall to run into submerged in the middle of nowhere. I only know of about 4 stories including a well publicized one a few years ago down here. I am sure someone that hangs around freight centers or large charters could tell you plenty if you are in such an area.

Best quote on the subject "How do you know it wasn't a whale?" "Because whales are not pointed with sharp edges!"

[KIVALO]

I saw someone's front porch, including stairs, in LI Sound once. It was right after Hurricane Bob.

Brad
s/v KIVALO

[aa3jy]

Some years ago,probably about 12 years,I was helping bring back a boat from the Virgin Islands when about 3 days out from the Chesapeake Bay entrance we came across what we thought at first was a small house on the horizon. As we approached closer it was a container floating at about 45 degrees angle. We tried to sink her but the doors where already ajar and we determined it would probably continue to float due to the fact it was a reefer type of a container with plenty of insulation. We did notify the Coast Guard of its position.

If someone still has old Ocean Navigator magazines of by gone years there where pictures that where published.

Bottom line the container did not show up on RADAR. If the seas where rough we would have never seen it.

Update: I found the date, 10/96, that I had submitted the photos of our encounter with the container to Ocean Navigator. Don't know if these original photos can be reused in another publication...

[jimjazzdad]

I have never hit nor seen a shippng container at sea. I have seen container ships make port (Halifax) with a stack of containers capsized on deck - clearly a few were lost. I am sure 100s of these things are lost at sea every year. The majority sink, but some, with a load of Nike shoes or reefers with foam insulation, float just at or slightly below the surface. Probably one reason we don't hear more about sailboats hitting them is that "Dead men tell no tales". It gives me chills just thinking about it. The shipping companies should be required to design shipping containers with hydrostatic flooding valves and enough ballast to ensure they sink promptly, but what is the likelyhood of our miniscule sailing lobby of ever getting that to happen?