On 24/1/07 10:28, in article ,
"Martin" wrote:

On Wed, 24 Jan 2007 09:23:18 +0000, Sacha
wrote:

On 24/1/07 00:07, in article , "shazzbat"
wrote:

snip

There was something on the radio this morning, all right, yesterday morning
now, to the effect that this ship had been aground before, about six months
ago. That may or may not be true, and may or may not be relevant, but it
brings up the old issue of seaworthiness and flags of convenience.

Well, at the least it raises the spectre of some careless navigation!

Start with this and work yourself through the previous years if you are
concerned about careless navigation. In your sailing days you must have been
passed by ships with nobody visible on the bridge.
http://www.mcga.gov.uk/c4mca/mcga-ne...q-newpage-1003
108.htm

" The Captain¹s New Year started with a bang when the Norwegian flag cargo
ship
SUNNA grounded on the island of Swona in the Pentland Firth. The chief officer
who was on watch at the time admitted that he had fallen asleep shortly after
altering course to transit the Pentland Firth on route to Iceland from
Humberside with a cargo of 1900 tonnes of Serro Silicon. The ship was gripped
by
the ferocious Pentland tide and with the watch officer asleep no one was aware
of the ship been driven onto the rocks. ...

Penalty: Fine £2500
"

Yes indeed but some of those bridges were so far up from a sailing yacht
that it wasn't always possible to tell! But we certainly did a fair bit of
dodging about from time to time. I've never cross the channel in a sailing
boat and it's an experience I am not keen to try, either. I sailed happily
across the Med. to Cyprus and apart from the boredom, wouldn't turn a hair
at the Atlantic (probably!) but the tales I've heard of small boats in the
English Channel make me go pale just listening to them.
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/
(remove weeds from address)