200159 Speed in Fog

Speed in Fog
Report No. 200159

I was leaving a busy port in fog. Although my vessel can proceed at speed in excess of 17 knots, in view of the severely restricted visibility, existence of numerous oil rigs, restricted entry areas and many ships in the anchorage, I planned to proceed at a safe speed of about 8 knots for 12nm and then increase our speed to 10.5 knots for further 24nm when clear of the land in the hope of finding better visibility.

At about 5nm from entrance, I detected a vessel proceeding towards the entrance through the congested anchorage and oil rigs with a speed of about 20knts over the ground. Is it really safe to proceed at 20 knots in thick fog? Is it safe to proceed at 20 knots in such a congested location? In conclusion, one can imagine what would be the result of proceeding at 20 knots in a combination of both above conditions.

Initially, the ship was plotted at 9nm range 4 points on our starboard bow. At 6nm it was certain that a close quarter situation existed (CPA = 0.2nm passing our stern). As we had oil rigs on our starboard side with restricted area of 1000m, I tried to raise her on VHF by giving her course, speed and position with no success.

Due to the position of the rigs, our lawful action of "avoiding turning to port for a vessel detected on radar ahead of the beam in restricted visibility", was out of question. I quickly assessed that reducing speed would make the situation even worse. In view of having ships at anchor, her required avoiding action, of going to starboard, was also difficult, if not impossible. I therefore decided to increase speed and go slightly to port increasing the CPA and pass round 4 of the ships at anchor. At no time, even when she was close to our stern, was the sound signal prescribed in COLREGS heard. In the end, the other ship neither changed her course nor reduced her speed and passed us astern at 1.1nm.