Operation at Night

Are you a night boater? Do you only operate at night in familiar places or do you operate anywhere... like on the loop?

And what precautions do you take to keep a reasonable level of safety?


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I could argue that anyone who does much long distance travel some night experience is certainly valuable. There are times when you just get stuck and have to operate at night.... fighting weather, mechanical problems, whatever.

For "me", the main thing I do is avoid Fri, Sat and Sun nights.... unless I can operate where other boats won't be. There's a lot of amateurs, drunks and idiots out at those times and I'd avoid them. Even during the day on the weekends can get often too busy.

But getting up early and launching before sunlight is a treat, especially watching the sun rise. Love mornings, and very little traffic and often better weather. And arrive at destination earlier.

And during the winter, with darkness early, night operation just give more time for boating.

Also, radar is a bit plus, but not an absolute. Don't have FLIR, but suspect that would be helpful, too.

Thoughts?

We operate offshore at night regularly. When we're inshore or on rivers (as now) we operate at night when needed, but we exercise great caution. We always pay close attention to radar at night, slow down and keep exterior lights on.

Paul

Too many times i didn't plan to operate at night, but if I've planned a 10 hour day, that becomes 11.
There you go.

If radar is NOT a must. How do you see?

Wxx3 said:

If radar is NOT a must. How do you see?

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I agree. I would not intentionally operate at night without radar unless I was in very familiar waters with little or no boat traffic.

Drake said:

I agree. I would not intentionally operate at night without radar unless I was in very familiar waters with little or no boat traffic.

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Quite easy.... some of the time.
Moonlit night, no problem
Cloudy dark sky, have to rely on spotting channel markers and seeing other boat lights.
Cloudy raining night... I'd pass without radar.
With heavy city lights in background... tough
Out in the boonies without a lot of lights, not bad.

So the nights I operate without radar, I want some things in my favor, but do it often, and usually in familiar waters.

Thanks for AIS and Radar, but a full moon is even better.

Only when I'm drinking

I enjoy cruising at night when conditions are nice.
I often cruise early morning in the dark or run late in the evening if the wind and/or currents are more favourable at that time. I don't have radar, but there is minimal traffic around here.

One thing I don't like doing at night is anchoring somewhere that I am not very familiar with.

Boating at night has long been deeply pleasing to me, though I agree it's something better enjoyed in familiar waters. I can hardly count all the times that glittering moonlight reflecting off the surface has reminded me of how lucky I am to be out on the water, alone or nearly alone, to witness such moments of grace and beauty.

Navigation with radar and / or chart plotter makes it a lot easier, but it's not essential in familiar places. As one gets accustomed to the patterns of the channels and shallows, a glance at the fathometer can give you a satisfying confirmation as to where you are (or aren't).

In busy waterways, the relative absence of other boaters at night can make the experience much more enjoyable than it is by day. It's true that the occasional ignoramus will approach head on, picking his way from marker to marker with spotlight continuously blazing. That's inevitably the same boater who, apparently noticing my running lights for the first time, thinks it's a good idea to aim the spotlight directly toward them (and into my eyes, destroying my night vision for minutes after). Usually a brief flicker of my own spotlight is enough to discourage the offender, but there have been a few times when I've had to fight spotlight with spotlight. Boneheads go out after dark too, I guess.

One of the thorniest boating challenges is making an unfamiliar landfall at night. Then the panoply of shoreline lights can be daunting, even with radar. To me, that sort of beauty is best appreciated from anchor, or hove-to. It's smart to time landfalls and arrivals for dawn or later in the day, but occasionally it doesn't work out that way. That's when the full suite of electronic aids earns its keep.

Whether inshore or offshore, I tend to run more slowly during the hours of darkness. If passing though an unfamiliar stretch of the ICW soon after a storm or a period of inland flooding, I'm doubly cautious for fear of striking debris. That's true day or night, of course. But if traveling along a stretch of coast following a hurricane or tropical storm, for example, I don't even try it at night. Then the likelihood of objects in the water is too great.

Offshore, I have over the years become increasingly wary of objects and debris either awash at the surface or barely submerged. On one overnight passage from Tampa Bay to the Dry Tortugas, the sun rose in the east (as it usually does) to reveal that I was motoring through a vast field of what appeared to be heavy wooden fence posts, about four inches thick and several feet long. They were floating right at the surface, undetectable to radar or to the naked eye during the darkness. They must have been deck cargo that somehow went over the side, but struck just right and at sufficient speed, any one of them could have holed my bow, mangled a prop, or bent a shaft. Creepy.

I personally don't mind night running & do it often ,as long as I have a radar and better yet if it's a clear, moonlit night but I really have to be away from shore to be comfortable. The advent of chartplotters have really made it nice because (for me) it's so easy to get disoriented when night running. One quick trip to the head or something & I come back up & it's like "where the heck are we???!!!". Plus, nowadays there is so much more development along the shore that the backlighting makes it harder to discern the shoreline.
Then there's the McMansion owners who've built & feel the need to light every room in the house, light the house & yard with floodlights then light their dock with the jetskis on lifts. That especially takes away my night vision & the enjoyment associated with boating after dusk!
Pretty cool how I incorporated my rant into the post, huh?

Had a late arrival at my anchor point last year so we needed to anchor at night, it was cloudy and dark like a black hole. We were quite nervous cruising in shallow water and setting the anchor. I felt lucky to have my chart plotter even if I was in a well known area.
The admiral does not want to renew the experience too often

L

Don't mind running at night in open areas such as oceans, sounds, bays, and large rivers. Prefer to leave in the dark instead of arriving in the dark, especially in unfamiliar areas.

Ted

The only time we intentionally travel at night is crossing the NE corner of the Gulf of Mexico usually between Apalachicola to or from Tarpon Springs or Tampa Bay. We leave mid afternoon so we can be out deep enough to be past the crab pot floats before it gets dark. Same thing on arrival, we go slow enough so by the time we approach the coast it will be well light enough to spot those floats. We use radar and autopilot out there.
Below, sunrise on the Gulf, a few hours out from Apalachicola FL after a night crossing that tower is a welcome sight.

We do night boating primarily offshore only and on crossings that simply can't be made during the day alone, typically crossings of 300 to 1000 nm. We have AIS, Radar, Night Vision, Sonar. We do not ever enter an unfamiliar inlet at night. We'll delay to hit in day. There are very few inlets we'll enter or exit at night. We will do Port Everglades and have done Lake Worth at night. We have also exited Government Cut at night when there were no events or Bayside madhouses. Occasionally we have exited other easily navigated inlets at night.

We prefer daytime traveling but when offshore in very little, if any, traffic, we find occasional nighttime travel to be pleasant. Definitely better than sitting where I am waiting for a flight from LGA to FLL. We're supposed to take off in 10 minutes.

Here in New England night travel is greatly hampered by lobster traps. Just got back from Casco Bay in Maine where they are everywhere.I'd hate to snag one at night with that cold water temperature. Not a pleasant thought.

Lots of night running. Some inshore, some in unfamiliar waters, lots offshore. I go slow at night and inshore am vigilant using radar, chartplotter and quick blips of the searchlight. My pucker level is higher and I run slow.

I have operated at night quite often, whether it is for work or for pleasure. Between good charts and a radar system I have never had any issues. Except for pleasure boats and the occasional fishing boat that insists on having every exterior light on (deck lights, spreader lights, mast lights, cockpit lights galley lights pouring out windows etc) that drown out the nav lights making it nearly impossible to tell if the vessel is approaching, running with you or even crossing.

Operated last night in waters I'm quite comfortable with. Brought her back to dock at 11:30pm.

Personally I would not operate in waters unknown to me.

MANY years ago when I was a sailboat sailor and single, quiet often sailed at night. That was with only RDF and hand bearing compass for nav tools, and crew of questionable character. .... I'm sure that shiftwork schedules and short weekends at the time forced much of the night time passages.

Now happily married, retired, and piloting a trawler with GPS, radar, AIS and electronic charting, lighted boat parades are about the only night time cruising we do.
Older and wiser? Luxury of retirement schedules? Who knows. However, we do stay proficient on radar interpretation just in case an emergency necessitates a night time passage.

Regarding running into crab traps....

Has anyone put rope cutters on their prop?

I have not as I've only got lines tangled in the prop about once every ten years... so not a big issue. And I'm sure there's an element of danger when cleaning the props.

I did actually pick up a wire crab trap once. Was in fairly shallow water and it wrapped around my prop, but got it off by working it and pulling on it. No damage.

A full moon or something close definitely helps. There is a saying in aviation as it relates to your eyeballs and radar:
"One peep is worth a thousand sweeps"!!!!

It's a two part answer for me.
"Anytime" and "Only when absolutely necessary."

I used to run all over the south BC coast at all hours of the night; with just a radio, sounder, paper charts and searchlight. I knew what one beacon was by the others around it.

Now would be reluctant to do it on a bet.

Used to be few boats and the odd log. So few boats, it wasn't uncommon to have a yak between a tug, a private and traffic control, just for conversation in the dark.

Now, between increased traffic, the unskilled, crab pots and my old eyes, I wouldn't plan on night travel.

Story about eyes; in the 80's a fisherman out of Powell River was so vision impaired at night his girlfriend was his eyes. He was so familiar with the territory, he never missed a beat.

I think it's all of the dangerous floating debris I have steered around in the daytime, and seen washed up on the beach, over the years, that makes me so apprehensive when boating at night.

I operate at night a lot and even more so this time of year. It is really hot here in the Florida Keys this time of year and about the middle of August I stop fishing in the day time.

Operating at night in general for me is no more of a issue than the day time.

BUT.....

I have good quality 48 mile radar and twin chart plotters.
I am skilled in the use of the nav gear.
I have hundreds of hours of experience on boats at night.
I slow down at night.
I do not enter unknown harbors or inlets at night unless they are major commercial shipping harbors. Even then I sometimes chose to stand off till day light.
There are greater risk at night of hitting something floating...worse case a container or huge log. In my area there are sometimes boats with no lights.
I run the boat at night the same way I fly an aircraft on instruments. This can sometimes get to be pretty demanding. Intense shipping traffic and plotting CPA on radar can get demanding.

Having good night vision is really important. Having good control of the lighting on the instruments and other lights is very important.

When I was new to all this I got some training from experienced professionals. That helped a lot.

Don't assume anything and be ready to take action. Know your position super well. Try to use more than one method to know your position. For example radar fix and GPS fix plus DR.

I have done a lot of blue water sailing so running at night is a requirement. I actually enjoy being on the boat at night.

On long trips going to sleep at the wheel can and sometimes happens. Have some kind of back up. A alarm clock. Set a perimeter alarm on your radar if you have that option.

If you are operating a boat that is new to you, don't assume that everything will look the same. I came into Galveston Texas one night on a supply ship. The bridge was higher than I was use to. I was startled to find a harbor entrance I had been in many times looked so different and had to slow down and run on radar to stay in the channel. It was a clear night and I could see the lit markers but everything was confusing to me.

Running at night is a skill just like any other boating skill. With education, training, experience, and proper nav gear it becomes a very normal thing to do.

Thanks,

Billy

Well certainly running at night in a dark night without radar is ...interesting.

I suppose it's best not to see what you can't see.

I think it was Grant Dalton, during one of his round the world races, that said, "Thank goodness we're only seeing ice bergs during the day".

That being said, we do a lot of over nighters. We both sleep well underway and it makes it easier on those 12 plus hour trips. We can leave so we arrive early or in the middle of the next day with little or no stress about our arrival time.

When we were cruising we did a lot of overnights. Actually preferred 3 or 4 day 24 hour runs because we got in to a routine with the understanding that when you were not on watch your job was to sleep. Found the short overnight trips (leave at night and get to your destination before dark the next day) to be exhausting because it was too easy to justify not sleeping. Yes moonlight nights were the best - when you're 50 miles offshore with nothing around on a coastline with minimal or zero ambient light it's pretty spectacular. On the other hand when that nice moon sets about 4 in the morning it's really really dark out there. We always tried, when possible, to do night runs far enough offshore so as to be beyond the lobster traps and long lines and beyond the fishing grounds of shrimpers. Cargo and Cruise ships usually not only light up your radar but look like floating cities. We always tried to make sure we approached an anchorage or marina during daylight hours. Often the ambient city lights make approaching a marina especially difficult. Remember an interesting problem approaching one of the marina's in San Francisco at night. We were about 2 or 3 miles office shore and started looking for the entrance lights and finally thought we had spotted them. All of a sudden the green light turned orange and then red.

I don't plan on operating at night but sometimes it happens. More often, we'll get underway just before daybreak and it's still dark. We will go no faster than a speed that allows us to avoid obstructions, crab pots, etc.

Larry M said:

That being said, we do a lot of over nighters. We both sleep well underway and it makes it easier on those 12 plus hour trips. We can leave so we arrive early or in the middle of the next day with little or no stress about our arrival time.

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When it's a trip that can't be done during daylight and not to a location we're familiar with and comfortable with then we'll do it overnight so we can start and end during daylight.

Night operation

Used to boat at night all the time. Getting older and cant see well at night anymore, so I avoid it.
I do enjoy watching the sunrise as we occasionally leave very early on long passages, but never intercoastal or river, only open water.
Radar an vigilant look out are your friends, you'd be surprised how many boats are poorly lit or not at all