Road Rage on the High Seas

I am not usually the road rage type.  I pretty much assume that 'they' are in a bigger hurry than I and that's why 'they' find it necessary to cut me off.  I reserve my horn honking for real emergency's and not the typical road rage event.  Boy do I wish I had a big huge honker the morning that we nearly got run over by a mega yacht called "Big City".  Yep, that's the name of the jerk, oops, I mean the name of the boat, that caused me to jump up and down and wave my arms furiously in an effort to prove he was a big fat jerk.  Oh trust me, I had a potty mouth that day and everyone on our boat heard it.  There was no shielding my children from my foul sailors mouth.  Come on, really!  Our kids have heard it all, especially after this trip.  Ha!

It all started right after I came up on watch just before we were going to cross the Gulf Stream.  Craig had gone to bed and remember, Maggie and I caught the barracuda and let it go ourselves.  Yippee.  We were sailing along minding our own business.  I was keeping an eye on things and noticed a boat out on the horizon.  I checked the AIS and sure enough he was headed right towards us.  How did I know this, you ask?  The AIS said so.  I just simply touched the icon on the chart plotter screen and it told me the name of the vessel, the length, draft, speed over ground, GPS location, heading and if and when we might collide.  Pretty cool.  Yes, it is very helpful when I can't always tell which way a boat or tanker is headed.  But I digress......So I checked the AIS and knew we were on a collision course.  I knew his name was Big City.  Who names thier boat Big City??  Perhaps someone with a big head.  Oh, sorry, did I just say that out loud?  It was clearly day light about 8 or 9 am and my large white 60 foot sail was high in the sky.

I watched as Big City approached closer and closer.  Somehow it always makes me feel better to talk to myself out loud.  So I began talking out loud "is this guy going to alter course?  Doesn't this guy see me?"  It was ridiculous.  I was feeling a little anxious knowing that he should be altering his course to avoid a boat under sail.  I hailed him on the radio and announced myself as the sailboat in his direct path.  No answer.  I hailed him a second time AND a third time!  No answer.  I waited and waited, watching with a pounding heart as he raced closer.  It was ridiculous to think this guy was not going to answer my radio call nor yield.

It felt like a game of chicken for sure and it was not fun nor was I in the mood to risk my life and that of my family to prove a point that he shouldn't run me over.  Allow me to point out that a boat under sail has the right of way over a boat under motor power.  Those are them rules on the water.  He, of course, wasn't worth it.  So I quickly cranked the helm so that we would not be in harms way of this butt head (I realize this is a family friendly site, so insert whatever suits you).  As I turned, Big City zoomed by about 100 feet away going approximately15 knots creating a massive wake!  I could see at least 2 people on the bridge (the place where the captain drives a mega yacht).  Ohhhhh, I was soooo mad, I was fuming and as I mentioned before, I was spitting out obscenities that can not be repeated here.  The really comical part was that I was in my pajamas.  So I want you to picture an irrate lunatic, stomping around with flailing arms, flipping the bird at the captain(s) in my PJ's!  I'm quite certain that they got the last laugh!!  Oh well.  It felt good and I didn't care.  Unfortunately, I woke Craig up in the mean time and as I re-enacted the scene for him, I got even more furious.  I would have called the coast guard if I thought it would have ended with a ticket for Mr. Big City.  As it turned out, he went on his way and I turned back on course and went on mine.  I can assure you that the owner of Big City would probably not approve of the way his captain was treating other boaters.  Or at least I like to think that anyway.

The culprit:  Big City