We weren’t alone out there. For the first 10 days or so of the passage, we saw on average, two ships a day. There were a couple of days we saw up to four at once when we got further south, closer to Panama. After that, it was almost always one a day. Often, we’d only see them on radar or AIS (a kind of air traffic control transponder for boats). This one was about 2 miles away. We had a 982 foot tanker pass about a mile in front of us. It looked like an island complete with waves crashing on it’s side. While that tanker was the closest, we were in no danger. We’d talked with the captain on the radio to ensure a safe clearance. -Rich (May 2012)
