We have not seen another boat near us for at least 10 days. Nothing else. Nada. The only other living things for this time have been flying fish and a few birds. It’s like we have been stuck in a repeating temporal loop. A continuously repeating groundhog day of waves, clouds, sunrises and sunsets, waves, clouds, sunrises and sunsets, waves…
Imagine our surprise when we saw another sailboat today. A two masted ketch with three sails up. Not too new and not too old. Steel hull perhaps? In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean this boat seemed to be on a deliberate collision/interception course.
The vessel transmitted NO AIS data. No vessel name, no country, no speed, nothing. It was electronically dark. So plain and out of place the scene seemed to come from an opening paragraph to a Stephen King novel.
A garbled call over the VHF was heard. Was that from them? Had to be. I picked up the VHF and hailed them on channel 16.‘Unknown vessel calling TUI. Unknown vessel calling TUI. Unknown vessel calling TUI we are on a collision course with you and we intend to change course to pass behind you. Please confirm your intentions. Over.’

Nothing. No reply, and minute by minute they drew closer and closer. I repeated the same message and still nothing.

Scenarios flashed through my mind: African vessel with a hundred migrants waiting for us to get closer? Modern day pirates? A vessel genuinely in distress unable to communicate properly requiring assistance?

Karin was at the helm. ‘Karin if they start heading up to approach us, I want you to go hard to port to clear them so they cannot close and board if that is their intention’.

The boats passed each other and nothing happened. We spotted a Spanish flag flying and a solitary male at the wheel. Were there more people on board? Where were they heading? Why didn’t they reply?

We will never know.

A zillion square miles of empty ocean, and suddenly two boats meet in the middle of it. Coincidence?Perhaps. Perhaps not.

We will never know.