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Been sailing all my life and I might add, those big a$$ boats move a LOT faster than you might think. I was sailing the gap between Manitou Islands and Michigan (state) to do a crossing to Wisconsin. To starboard and ahead was a large freighter heading north. I was heading south. He was waaaay off starboard so I just went about my business. I was running a 170 up front and the winds were from the east (which is unusual) so once I settled in to the cock pit I lost sight of the freighter behind the big sail. No biggy. A few minutes later I went up to set up for a chute. When I got to the fore stay, I saw nothing but black steel. The freighter had taken a sharp right to navigate the gap I was in and he was now directly in front of us heading east. Didn't seem to matter that I was there. Maybe he never even saw me. I could only yell back to the people sailing with me to drop the sails and start the motor. In our panic all we managed to do was release the jib sheet and let the 170 flap out front of us ike a flag. It did slow us down a bit, but the speed of the freighter saved us. He steamed past and we drifted across his stern. At that point we were probably 200 feet from his stern, but it seemd like we could reach out and touch the freghter. It scared the ***** out of us!
Stay away from ships!
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