Red all round
We had a wind vane on our ketch in the Nineties and I recall it coping admirably with a Biscay crossing with winds gusting to 45 knots and big seas.
With the wind vane driving, the boat ploughed on, taking the odd wave over her, one of which curled over the boat and drenched me. Our only real problems were holding on and sleeping, and the only damage suffered was a plate that decided to take flying lessons and failed.
We did have one drama during this period, which had nothing to do with the weather but happened as we crossed the shipping tracks north of Cape Finisterre. The crew on watch at night saw a red light with a single white above it: a small ship moving right to left across our bows.
Something didn’t seem right and the crew called me up for a second opinion. I knew it was important because I asked if I had time to go to the heads before coming on deck and he said: “No, get your wet weather gear on and get up here fast please.”
It was almost impossible to tell which way the ship was going so we had to make the yacht ready for fast evasive action and start hand steering. Eventually, we went round the front of the ship and to our amazement saw that the ship’s starboard light was also red. Then as it went away from us we saw the stern light was also red and large. Quite why a ship should be showing illegal and dangerous lights is beyond us. We would happily have throttled the skipper.
John Kelly