Night Cruising

Pat Anderson · Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 9:37 am Post subject:

We do not travel at night by choice - but for example, late arrivals and trips from a launch ramp to a CBGT have occurred, Joemma State Park to Jarrell Cove and John Wayne Marina to Sequim Bay State Park in 2003 were two trips in really dark conditions that stand out in memory - did not enjoy them, but it was early on in our boating experience. GPS shows you the way but does not show you a lot of obstacles! On the other hand, I also recall one or two nice moonlit nights on Lake Washington that were actually very pleasant. But if we are out after dark, it will be because we got caught out, not because we chose to be out - and we too have two GPSes and radar, so we don't fear being lost or not being able to find our way. Logs, debris, other boats, who knows, there are just too many perils in our waters to be particularly enjoyable when you can't see well.

bongo · Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 11:43 am Post subject:

Season greetings from 9° North of the Ecuator.
Interesting subject... low visibility navigation, be it night, fog, rain, smog, or whatever impairs visibility. I am a pilot, airline and flight instructor, have been out there in the air and on the water. First rule is AVOID IT. If you are going to do it or get in it... try to shuffle the cards in your favor, for you already have a big handicap against you: no vision.
Practice holding a compass heading... most of us drive a course by looking at some visual landmarks, clouds or something, but driving with your head down in the instruments takes practice and familiarity. Your worst enemy is fear and panic and being disoriented does that. I also used to be a flight accident investigator, trained with the NTSB; I had to go out and picked up the peaces.
If you do get disoriented or lost it doesn't make allot of sense to go just anywhere. Mabe consider anchoring until you figure out where you are.
Another valuable navigation instrument is the depth finder. You have the charts, you have the bottom contour, together with the compass it can help guide you in a general direction.
And yes, night flying is far out and wondrous. Recently I sat through a thunderstorm out in the Pearl Islands in Panama (Canal area) in my CC 23, and the cloud to cloud lightning was an extraordinary display of fireworks. The raindrops would light up the plankton, incredible! But I was snug up in a bay and calm. I really think Commander Bill is dead right. We are out there to have fun and no visibility is not fun.
John B

thataway · Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 6:53 pm Post subject:

We have probably traveled about as many miles at nights as during the day, because of our extensive passagemaking. We tend to avoid this on the ICW or congested areas, but when necessary it is no big thing. We started long before Radar was practically available, and relied on mostly dead recogning. The Compass and an estimate of speed, plus the stars, the pattern of waves, and surface of the water are all clues as to what lies ahead and how the situation is developing.

In foreign areas the biggest hazard is the unlit panga. In the PNW, the debris. The more you voyage at night, the more you will like it. Today with radar, chart plotters and very accurate depth sounders it is much easier than in the past.

Situational awarness is perticularly necessary at night. Even when standing watch, if there is anything which is questionable and the other person is asleep, we awake them to have a second set of eyes. Far better to avoid a potential problem than to have one develope and get out of trouble.

The other rule, is to avoid comming into strange unlit harbors at night. We have routinely traveled in our known areas, and have both up to date charts, way points and the latest light lists. Unfortunately in un-familiar places, this becomes a problem. This last year there have been at least 3 over 1 million dollar boats lost on the rocks comming into Perdido Pass. It was due to confusion with the shoreline lights, and failure to go to the sea bouy, and then directly line up the lights on the channel. Taking shortcuts will lead to diseaster at night.

Enjoy the peacefulness of night passages!

mikeporterinmd · Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 11:24 pm Post subject:

The depth finder can be a very useful tool if you have paper charts to
help orient you. Find the shipping channel, if it's deeper than the
surrounding water, follow it until you find a marker, check the
charts, make sure you are in the channel you think you are in (that's
an easy mistake to make in the upper Chesapeake), and you can
figure out where you are.

Mike

dogon dory · Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 2:25 pm Post subject:

Sorry, Folks - Post Deleted By Author

thataway · Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:16 pm Post subject:

We have pre planed compass bearings, both to leave an anchorage, if we have to in case of an emergency--such as in Yugoslovia, when the Bora Wind came up to 60 knots from zero in seconds, and the anchors would not hold, and we had to cut the anchor rodes and run. With heavy rain and sea whipped up the radar was of little use. We followed the compass bearings to put to sea thru the jetties.

Another similar situation was when leaving a West Coast harbor which had a breaking bar at 5 AM--we had pre plotted our compass bearings. As we came to a bend in the jetties, the local Coast Guard cutter was coming in, and shown his search light on us, blinding me. The Radar showed echos all around at close range--the clifts behind, jetties on each side, and the break on the bar ahead. Again, we relied on the compass bearing to continue underway. Both of these were before chart plotters, which make the situations easier--but it is still very important to have compass courses already laid out and keep exact track of your location as you move in limited visability.

thataway · Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:17 pm Post subject:

We have pre planed compass bearings, both to leave an anchorage, if we have to in case of an emergency--such as in Yugoslovia, when the Bora Wind came up to 60 knots from zero in seconds, and the anchors would not hold, and we had to cut the anchor rodes and run. With heavy rain and sea whipped up the radar was of little use. We followed the compass bearings to put to sea thru the jetties.

Another similar situation was when leaving a West Coast harbor which had a breaking bar at 5 AM--we had pre plotted our compass bearings. As we came to a bend in the jetties, the local Coast Guard cutter was coming in, and shown his search light on us, blinding me. The Radar showed echos all around at close range--the clifts behind, jetties on each side, and the break on the bar ahead. Again, we relied on the compass bearing to continue underway. Both of these were before chart plotters, which make the situations easier--but it is still very important to have compass courses already laid out and keep exact track of your location as you move in limited visability.

teflonmom · Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 9:31 pm Post subject: Night Boating

Years ago before we had radar or a chart plotter gps we were inbound to Baltimore Inner Harbor on the Patapsco River. I was very pleased with myself following the pretty range lights under the Key bridge.

When what to my wondering eyes should appear but a very big freighter on my starboard side. I almost missed seeing him as his red light was far above me in my little cruiser. I was so intent on the range lights that I really did not keep a proper look for other traffic. His hull was not visiable just a big black area. I made a hasty turn to starboard and gave him his right of way. Probably only seconds away from the dreaded five blasts on his big horn.

Fred, Pat, and Mr. Grey(the cat)