Let’s Be Careful Out There

Newark has been in the news nonstop lately as the FAA at Newark Liberty International Airport has struggled to land planes safely. On the season finale of SNL this weekend, Scarlett Johansson and the comedy trio 'Please Don't Destroy', had a rappin' good time making fun of the situation. The skit got even funnier when the only person in the control tower turned out to be Bad Bunny, who saved the day and then proclaimed "You can do anything you put your mind to".

Luckily for air travelers, the rules for keeping the pleasure crafts of the sky (private planes) away from commercial traffic are very strict. No aircraft is permitted into the "Class Bravo" airspace of busy airports unless they are answering to the very strict instructions of air traffic controllers. As our very own sailors who are also pilots will tell you, the air traffic controllers have complete control over every airplane in the vicinity of a large airport.

Luckily for sea travelers, the rules for keeping the pleasure crafts of the sea away from commercial traffic are not so strict. Otherwise, sailboat racing as we know it would be impossible because racing sailboats constantly traverse the shipping lanes, the maritime equivalent of Class Bravo airspace. Amazingly, skippers of racing sailboats, cruising sailboats and cruising power boats crisscross the shipping lanes mostly unaware that there is a Vessel Traffic Service operated by the US Coast Guard at all.

When a cargo ship, cruise ship, ferry, or tug boat departs on a trip, they call VTS on VHS channel 14 and VTS enters their course into their system and warns of any traffic on the route. As the trip progresses, the ship captain or pilot is in constant radio contact with VTS giving updates on traffic and mediating potential course intersections in order to avoid danger. Ships don't fall out of the sky like airplanes, but they can take a long time to change course or stop, and collisions can cause loss of life. This system ensures that commercial traffic will never have to take last minute evasive action to avoid disaster. Meanwhile, pleasure craft operators are monitoring channel 16, oblivious to the effort invested in safety on the Salish sea just two channels away on the radio dial.

At the Royal Victoria Yacht Club's Swiftsure International Yacht race this coming weekend, there will be 93 racing sailboats traversing the shipping lanes as they race out the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the Swiftsure Bank and back. The racers will all be instructed to stay well clear of commercial traffic. In fact, prior to every sailboat race, the organizing club must apply to the Coast Guard for a permit to have a race at all.

A the peak of Swiftsure's popularity in the early '80s, the freighter 'Newark' (I am not making this up!) was trying to get through nearly 400 racing sailboats at night in the Strait of Juan de Fuca as reported in the Swiftsure Facts and Stats book as follows:

In 1984, Swiftsure had some 385 participating yachts and the following transcript of a conversation between Seattle Vessel Traffic Control and the freighter Newark that year gives the view from the bridge of a big cargo ship.

Channel 14 on May 27, 1984 at a half hour past midnight:

Seattle Traffic, Newark.

Newark, Seattle Traffic. How do you copy?

Loud and clear. Newark, Seattle Traffic. Just for our information, we would like to know your observations as you transited through the Swiftsure fleet out there. Over.

This is Captain Dees on the Newark. Over.

Newark, Seattle Traffic roger. This is Lt. Schmied over at Seattle Traffic.

How are you doing captain?

Well, I’m finally breathing a sigh of relief but I’ve never been in anything like that in forty years or since I’ve been going to sea and that’s …, I don’t see why anybody could let anybody do something like that. They had this whole complete strait covered. Over. Newark, Seattle Traffic roger. This is one of the reasons we are calling you is just to find out what the situation was aboard your vessel and if you would like to go ahead we’ve got this on tape. Over.

I was in that so thick that I had to maneuver back and forth around and finally went down to around 230 degrees to get out of them and still had to maneuver and finally I got outside of them. I’m back on my regular course of 306 now but I don’t see how somebody hadn’t been killed in that. Over.

Newark, Seattle Traffic. Roger Captain. Did you notice any rules of the road violations? Over.

Well they didn’t pay any attention to the rules of the road. They cut across your bow either way, showing a green or red. Over.

Newark, Seattle Traffic roger. It was pretty dark out there. You didn’t happen to get any sail numbers or vessel names? Over.

No. It was dark. All you could see were the lights, and that’s all. You couldn’t even see the sails, except once in a while one would shine his lights on the sails. I slowed my vessel down to 75 RPM so I could keep maneuverability but I was afraid I would run over somebody. Over.

Sailboat racing safety incidents are mercifully rare. Nevertheless, from the 1979 Fastnet race to this year's Sydney to Hobart race to here at home in 2021 at Anacortes Race week, tragic deaths do happen in sailboat racing. There have been many more near misses than fatalities. We were reminded of that this year during the Possession Point Race when a relatively calm day quickly changed to 30+ and two sailors were swept into the Puget Sound. They were rescued and are fine.

I am not aware of any sailor deaths resulting from commercial traffic incidents but agree with the Newark's Captain Dees when he said: "I don’t see how somebody hadn’t been killed". The worst I can recall involving Seattle sailors was the 18 Footer crash with the Manly ferry in Sydney Harbor in the 90s. There have been other near misses with tug boats and ferry boats in Puget Sound and San Francisco Bay, and countless cases where commercial traffic had to take avoiding action. These events are not cataloged anywhere, and often the misjudgments that lead to them have been brushed off as "it wasn't that close". The competitive advantage gained when getting to the other side of commercial traffic is meaningless when compared to the lives onboard. And even if there was a significant advantage, no one really wants to win that way.

As we get ready for some nighttime sailing in the shipping lanes this weekend, it would be a good time to have a team conversation about how to stay out of harm's way, and as Sergeant Phill Esterhaus used to say on Hill Street Blues: "Let's Be Careful Out There".