Have you ever hit a shipping container?

[johngeo]

I'm working on an article for a popular sailing magazine about lost shipping containers as a potential sea hazard.

As a result, HAVE ANY OF THIS FORUM'S MEMBERS EVER HIT, SEEN, OR ENCOUNTERED A FLOATING SHIPPING CONTAINER WHILE SAILING?

If so, I really want to hear your story! jg

[Tim R.]

You will do much better on the cruisersforum.

Whoops, you already posted there.

[Captainmeme]

We could make up a story for you. I'll start:

It was a dark and stormy night.

[MobiusALilBitTwisted]

Originally Posted by Captainmeme

We could make up a story for you. I'll start:

It was a dark and stormy night.

No No......... it was just past the Dog Watch, no moon and a following sea, wind was about 12kn and..........We had been running hard, trying to get back home before Mom found us missing form our beds, Kathy was 12 and I only 13, but she was the better Sailor.....

[bjslife]

I live i Charleston Oregon on my 1973 Morgan O/I 33 and work sometimes as a deck hand on fishing boats. During the halibut fish opener june 27 we were drifting for the night ans saw 2 objects on radar about 1.5 miles away. We looked into the dark and could not see any lights. The next day i recieved a text from my girlfriend saying that 2 large fuel storage tanks from the Japan tsunami had washed up on shore at horse falls beach that morning. Here on the Oregon coast the fishermen are now keeping a close eye out for debris. I have found many balls floating and other debris.

[daydream sailor]

seems to appear out of nowhere like a motherinlaw with a bad attitude and then.......

[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...

[johngeo]

aa3jy, would like to talk to you further about the incident you mention for the article I'm working on.

Can you email me via this site?

Unfortunately, I am too new a member to be able to email you yet.

Kind regards, jg

[noelex77]

Collisions with objects in the water mostly containers, whales and tree trunks are reasonably common and often very serious.

I had drinks on a boat a few days ago that hit an unknown object in the dark. There was a large split in keel, but they managed to make it to a marina that hauled them out, but wanted to put them back in immediately because here was no room.
Fine they said we will sink in the marina then!

No person experience thank goodness, but I have seen a few objects that would do a lot of damage.

[jlynker]

Originally Posted by MobiusALilBitTwisted

No No......... it was just past he Dog Watch, no moon and a following sea, wind s was about 12kn and..........

A sailor, a mermaid and a shipping container run into a bar...