Steering manually in fog needs your 100 per cent attention. The Nautical Institute gives this warning in a new Mars Report, in which a close call unfolded between a passenger vessel and a commuter boat.
In fog, a passenger vessel was outbound in restricted waterway at 15 knots. The bridge team noticed an inbound commuter boat on the radar that appeared to be trending to its own port side. They decided to head slightly to port as well to give more room, presuming a starboard-to-starboard meeting, although no communication with the commuter boat had taken place.
Meanwhile, on the inbound commuter boat with ten passengers on board, the master was having problems with the starboard engine. An alarm was incessantly sounding. In attempting to silence the alarm, the master “emergency stopped” the engine by mistake. He was then in telephone contact with the company’s technical support while he and the deckhand tried to restart the engine.
While still making 13 knots on the port engine, the master was also manually steering the vessel. During this time, they had imperceptibly made way to their port side, that is, to the opposite side of the fairway. Soon after the starboard engine had been re-started, the two crew members on the bridge realised the outbound passenger vessel was almost directly in front of them.
The master of the commuter boat applied engine power and turned sharply to starboard. The bridge team on the outbound passenger vessel saw the commuter boat coming out of the fog towards them and turning sharply to starboard, so they also initiated a turn to starboard. The vessels passed clear of each other by 10 metres.
Advice from The Nautical Institute
Mars Reports
This accident was covered in the Mars Reports, originally published as Mars 202539. A selection of the Mars Reports are also published in the SWZ|Maritime magazine. The Nautical Institute compiles these reports to help prevent maritime accidents. That is why they are also published (in full) on SWZ|Maritime’s website.
