“Two Ships passing in the night” by Captain Bob
At 0130 while traveling the North Atlantic, on our way to the Windward Passage, cargo vessel “Palmela” showed herself on radar at 16 nautical miles. She was on a dead head on collision course with “Warbird” at a speed of 21 kts. After radio communication with her Captain, “Palmela made a 2 degree course change to her starboard and “Warbird” made a 6 degree course change to our starboard. This gave us a course separation of 1.5 nautical miles as we safely passed in the night.
The old adage that “two ships in open water are almost sure to be on a collision course” still stands.

