Dodging ships in the night

The wind built to about 25 knots, was out of the south, waves were 3-4' high and I was sailing on what is called a beam reach. That is, the wind is blowing at a right angle to the path the boat is sailing on. This is a fast tack to be on, the problem is, the waves hit you broad side much like being T-boned in your car at an intersection. Then the boat broke.

PUCK is an open sailing dingy, made out of fiberglass. She measures 7'4" long and is 4' wide. She is shaped like a pumpkin seed. I bought the hull and modified her for rough passages with a floatation collar made of closed cell foam and a spray dodger on the nose to keep at least some of the water out. It is still a wet ride. The waves were hitting the side, shifting the boat sideways and every third one or so dumps a couple of gallons of cold Lake Michigan water on me. I bail. I bail. When the lee board broke, (that board that protrudes down into the water to stop the boat from being blown down wind too much), I had to make a decision. Instead of wisely turning into the nearest port, I decided to turn down wind and run with the wind and the waves. This would keep me dryer. The waves would lift my stern gently, PUCK would surf me towards my destination and water would be staying where it belonged, in the lake. My destination was Sturgeon Bay, about 40 miles North East up Green Bay. At an average speed of 3 knots (almost 3.5 miles per hour) the trip was going to take 11.5 to 12 hours.

My boat had no lee board, so it couldn't sail up wind or across the wind, the wind and waves were building, I was drenched and it was going to get dark soon. That's when the 600' freighter came into view over the horizon. I was still in the shipping lane. These ships stop for nothing. It's not that they don't want to, it's that they can't. Even if he were to drop and drag his in the mud anchor and reverse his propulsion he would probably still run me and anyone else over that happened to be in his way for the next mile. We would not make a single noise they would hear, 60 feet up on the bridge, as he chewed me up and spit me out with his 10' wide propeller. Best to get out of his way.

With no lee board, I could not just change tacks and squirt laterally across the rest of the shipping lane.
I decided to slice diagonally across the lane. Although I would be helping to close the gap with the approaching freighter, if the wind held I figured I would slide past his port bow as we passed. It worked. I did not get run down. I tried to hail the bridge on my 5 watt VHF radio as he slid past. No response. He was probably too busy swearing at me to want to talk.

So, off I sailed, on my NE track. Night settled in. I changed into dry clothes. Donned my wool cap and nestled in for the night with by back against the stern, my bitt on a floatation cuchion and my legs propped up on the port gunnel. I could steer by the North Star the whole way. I figured I would arrive at day break.

You can see the tower of the tug that is nestled into her stern.

The weather is nice today so I am going to add some insulation to my nest, (the sleeping, eating and washing up section of my van.) Good afternoon.