I gather from catching up on the various digests of this group I
receive that I wasn't clear in my night watch routine.

Every 15 minutes I break and do the full scan. At night, lights
appear considerably closer than they really are, so I can usually see
one well before it's of any interest on a collision level.

OTOH, in the middle of the night, with a sea above several inches,
you're a far better lookout than I if you can see anything smaller
than Wilbur's submarine, if it's not lit and so small as to not show
on the radar.

Our radar will pick up crab pots, unlit day marks, and other such
sized items. I don't use radar as my sole source. Rather I use it to
track objects I can't yet see. The 15 minute (or less - another
inadequately clear number; I have a max of 15, and look whenever I
think of it or something else brings me to that screen) reference was
to radar reference. If there's nothing there, I check it again in 15
(or less).

Meanwhile the visual scan goes on. The chartplotter is turned to zero
illumination (as is the radar, as they share the same screen), which
is plenty (I don't know what they illuminate with, but it's adequate,
but not dark) with full night vision. Much of the time I have a towel
over it to minimize even that, and rely on the red-lit compass to
assure that Otto is still on task. My routine when I do the
chartplotter/radar is to cycle it from max to minimum range, and in
the case of the chartplotter, look forward in small scale along the
route we're on. That's to make sure we're not going to find some rock
that Otto will run right over just because he's going to a waypoint
and it's in between him and the WP. In the case of radar, it's to see
those pots, as well as the container ship that's over the visual
horizon.

Touch typing rules in the dark. I make a few typos but the spell
checker catches them when I review them before I get internet
connectivity (which is why you see posts from me in bunches over some
days, rather than in real time)....

Now, I'm off to the shower, and up anchor (figuratively - we're
casting off) in the morning, up the ICW...

Y'all have at it; I'll not see it for a while :{))

L8R

Skip

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
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