200354 Danger Area at F3

Danger Area at F3
Report No. 200354

Most seafarers consider the Dover Strait as the busiest in the World and, having passed through, frequently tend to relax a little. If they are Northeast bound there is another regularly used crossing point just NE of Sandettie and this can often be more perilous than the Dover Strait and it is certainly not the place to lessen one's guard.

We were en route from Antwerp to a port on the West coast of England and had disembarked our pilot at Wandalaar on a clear day with only light winds. As we crossed towards the F3 buoy from the West Hinder, we were on a course of 290 degrees at a speed of 10.5 knots. Heading up the NE lane of the TSS were two larger ships. Ship A was a fully loaded Chinese dry cargo ship and ship B was a Greek products tanker of about 50,000dwt in ballast. They were both on a course of about 023 degrees, ship A doing 14 knots and ship B about one mile astern of A, making 15.5 knots.

Ship A passed about 1nm ahead of us which I considered to be acceptable but it was quite apparent that ship B had no intention of giving way, despite us having twice sounded 5 short blasts on the whistle. We altered to starboard to take a round turn and continued using our whistle. Due to the turn, we lost speed and actually only passed about 0.1nm away. We also attempted to call on VHF as the name was clearly visible. At such close range we could not see anyone on the ship, let alone on the bridge through the wide open doors. This is not a one-off incident either but it has always stuck in my mind as they should have easily seen us on such a clear day and must have heard the whistle.