View Poll Results: Do you operate at night?
I never operate at night 3 3.95%
Only when absolutely necessary 25 32.89%
Occasionally 29 38.16%
Anytime 17 22.37%
I would not operate at night on the loop or unfamiliar areas 7 9.21%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 76. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 08-16-2017, 10:19 AM   #21
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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"!!!!
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Old 08-16-2017, 11:47 AM   #22
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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.
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Old 08-16-2017, 01:09 PM   #23
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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.
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Old 08-16-2017, 01:53 PM   #24
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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
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Old 08-16-2017, 02:26 PM   #25
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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.
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Old 08-16-2017, 04:36 PM   #26
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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.
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Old 08-16-2017, 04:40 PM   #27
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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.
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Old 08-16-2017, 04:40 PM   #28
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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.
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Old 08-16-2017, 04:42 PM   #29
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Larry M View Post
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 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.
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Old 08-16-2017, 04:52 PM   #30
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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
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Old 08-16-2017, 05:06 PM   #31
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you'd be surprised how many boats are poorly lit or not at all
Having boated on a lake most of my life, that will never surprise me. Many of the bass fishermen, who typically ran 45 to 60 mph, wouldn't use lights because they said they could see better without them. For some reason, being seen never crossed their mind. We did not boat at night on the lake.
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Old 08-16-2017, 05:32 PM   #32
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I have been running at nigh commercially for the last 15 years.


I can't saw for certain that night vision (human eye) is good enough to catch every semi submerged object.


Your friend is going slow enough that most bumps are just that, and only a hard, pointed object will breach the hull.


And if you want to debate night vision....I got the credentials.
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Old 08-16-2017, 05:54 PM   #33
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I try to never go at night even with radar, night vision, AIS, chart plotter and FLIR. I have tom many nice prop inspectors just under the surface during the day to want to travel at night. If I have to go at night it will be at sea, very slow and either a good prayer or bottle of alcohol and a good luck charm.
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Old 08-16-2017, 06:51 PM   #34
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We talked about this once before, older boaters with cataract compromised vision. Lens replacement brought about amazing improvement for me and others on TF. Pre op I could not understand how people safely navigated at night. Post op a new night world opened. Degradation over time is so gradual you may not know what you are missing.
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Old 08-16-2017, 07:22 PM   #35
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I've ran fairly often at night on the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. Pretty much enjoy being out at night under the stars. I have AIS transponder and radar, I've boated at night with out them but have much more confidence being out with them. Click image for larger version

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Old 08-16-2017, 11:08 PM   #36
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I run at night several times a summer, and two nights in December for the Christmas Lighted Boat Parade.


I'm pretty comfortable on our local waters and ALWAYS have the radar and plotter on and a 1 million cp spotlight on the helm that is always charged.

Having been hit once at night by a BUI boater I'm pretty darn careful. Stuff does happen though and it pays to be 110% alert.
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Old 08-17-2017, 01:14 AM   #37
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I run at night several times a summer, and two nights in December for the Christmas Lighted Boat Parade.


I'm pretty comfortable on our local waters and ALWAYS have the radar and plotter on and a 1 million cp spotlight on the helm that is always charged.

Having been hit once at night by a BUI boater I'm pretty darn careful. Stuff does happen though and it pays to be 110% alert.
I used to do the Christmas parades, but found that the boaters in them were drunker than I was... <g>. So, over the past several years, I just anchor and watch them, and that works fine.

I could argue the biggest risk is getting hit by another boat, and the weekend nites seem to be the worst time.
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Old 08-17-2017, 05:47 AM   #38
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There are certain jumps of more than 14 hours where a night crossing is required. (Gulf of Mexico, to and from the Dominican Republic, Grenada to Trinidad). In those cases we leave in daylight, travel in open water at night, and arrive in daylight. There are also jumps of 10 hours or more where I prefer to plan an arrival with at least three hours of daylight left. In those cases we leave the anchorage in the dark of the early morning and plan on arriving in daylight. With the exception of a few wide open anchorages I will avoid, if at all possible, arriving at night.
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Old 08-17-2017, 06:47 AM   #39
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Having done more than a few (25+) overnight runs, I must say the addition of AIS helped quite a bit. To be able to see accurate positions of vessels, especially offshore from major ports, makes life a whole lot less stressful! Apart from AIS, obviously close range radar (6/12 mile) and a decent chart plotter complete what is required. We made sure that all internal lighting was red or off to maintain night vision, and a full moon was a delight. It was always easier when further offshore. Closer to shore lobster pots and similar impediments become more of an issue. I would not intentionally run the ICW at night for example, though have been caught a couple of times in the dark before anchoring.
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Old 08-17-2017, 09:50 AM   #40
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Growing up, I spent a lot of time sailing at night. Either they were overnight races in Puget Sound or simply the outboard would die on the way home and we would be relegated to sails only. The problem with that of course is that in the Summer the wind would die down and the current was always going the wrong direction. There were lots of afternoon sails that ended up as overnight trips.

My concern isn't other boats, or navigating, but the floating logs or crab traps. Sailing a boat under 30' it wasn't an issue really, as we never were going all that fast. However, with my current boat, even at my 7 knot cruise, I really don't want to hit a log at night. There are fewer logs than their were, but they are still out there.
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