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On the way back from Bimini to Miami as we were crossing the shipping lanes 15+ miles offshore, I stopped (briefly!) to snap a pic of this lil' ship heading south. I wish I could post the full resolution image, 'cause the details are awesome, especially the bow wake which you can judge it's impressive size by the bow marks...
Everytime I cross these shipping lanes, I'm always amazed at just how deceiving it is when judging the speed of these things and your relationship to them. Anyway, I just thought it was a cool shot to share, no doubt a view that many of the offshore folks see a bunch And FYI this was with a 400mm telephoto lens, so I wasn't THAT close (although my brother was encourging us to "move on" )
I saw my first tanker/cargo ship out in a shipping lane a couple of years ago. I'm guessing it was doing every bit of 20 knots. Pretty impressive for such a huge ship!
I've read that in Texas surfers have small boats pull them out into the gulf and they surf the wakes.
I've read that in Texas surfers have small boats pull them out into the gulf and they surf the wakes.
I've read something about this too. I think it's along the Galveston shipping channel where the ship's wakes start breaking as they get into shallower water. It's called "tow-in surfing" when the surfer gets towed into the wave by a boat or PWC. Pretty cool to see it done on big waves like Maui.
__________________ Captain Ethan Maass Sea Tow South Shore M a s s a c h u s e t t s
Serving Cape Cod Bay and offshore
Nice pic. I always wondered what my bow wake looks like from up there....I always see the opposite view, and it looks a lot smaller when your 65' in the air....
Keep in mind if your gonna get that close to a ship, hes not gonna see you like you see him. In fact, he wouldnt even see you in his radar screen....your too close, and don't have enough metal to give a good return. A small with object on a large view of the sea and horizon its easy to loose sight of something unless your looking for it. Also, I'm not saying you've done this, but there are some people who try and play chick with us or try and make a run for it cutting across a ship's bow....You can't stop a 80,000 ton ship like you can a 6000lb boat.....or really, it WONT stop.
I hear ya 2550, and believe me the last thing I want to do is cause problems for either ship or crew. But do remember that this shot was with a 400mm lens with a 1.4x extender, giving an effective focal length of 560mm. That's really a telescope mounted on my camera, so I really was a LOT farther away than it appears in this photo
Whenever I cross the Gulf Stream I adjust my course as necessary to pass astern of commercial ships, particulary the N bound ones. I just have a rule of thumb to not cross the bow of one of these guys w/in @ 1.5 miles. My boss gives me grief about it sometimes but that's fine.
I know you may not know exactly, but about what would the beam on that tanker be?
900' LOA
157' Beam
Thats a good guess on the beam, but maybe a little high...I'd say about 124' or so...I've been on a couple 950' ships that only had 106' beam, but she was a ro/ro bulit for speed, not hauling bulk oil. 157' would look pretty damn wide for even that length of a ship....
I just re-read your post on your lens specs, and i didnt pick up on your humor the first time, and I dont know lenses that well. I see what your saying and we are on the same page. Its a nice shot! I'll have to let you know Im passing by the Gulf Stream again so I could get a picture of my ship.
Good looking out by the rest of your mariners! We deep sea guys appreciate that. The more I think about it, guys who go offshore tend to have more sense than you average bay boater. All of the smaller boats I've seen offshore in deep water have really been good.....Some of the guys in tampa bay...thats a different story...
Hey gang, here's a link to a high resolution version of the image. The image is about 3500x1700 pixels in size (taken with a Canon 1DsMarkII 17MP camera in case anyones interested ) and over 40MB at full resolution, so I had to compress the jpg a bit so it's not too big of a file, around 2.5MB. Once the image is opened in your browser just right-click on it and "save as" to your computer. Enjoy
I know you may not know exactly, but about what would the beam on that tanker be?
900' LOA
157' Beam
Thats a good guess on the beam, but maybe a little high...I'd say about 124' or so...I've been on a couple 950' ships that only had 106' beam, but she was a ro/ro bulit for speed, not hauling bulk oil. 157' would look pretty damn wide for even that length of a ship....
I just re-read your post on your lens specs, and i didnt pick up on your humor the first time, and I dont know lenses that well. I see what your saying and we are on the same page. Its a nice shot! I'll have to let you know Im passing by the Gulf Stream again so I could get a picture of my ship.
Good looking out by the rest of your mariners! We deep sea guys appreciate that. The more I think about it, guys who go offshore tend to have more sense than you average bay boater. All of the smaller boats I've seen offshore in deep water have really been good.....Some of the guys in tampa bay...thats a different story...
I see a lot heading to the LOOP out of Fourchon, LA and believe me, they are moving. Last summer I was running across an empty one and he was moooving. I made it across in front of him, but it was closer than I would have liked. Had to be going every bit of 18-20knots. Unloaded and heading south at a rapid rate of speed. If you want real thrill, try hitting a wake from one of these guys or a big supply boat on a flat summer night. The boat wil be 2 miles away and suddenly you are hitting a huge wake out of nowhere!
Cool view: Tanker at full steam... 
And FYI this was with a 400mm telephoto lens, so I wasn't THAT close (although my brother was encourging us to "move on" 
)
