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Vic Smith

On Sun, 9 Nov 2008 07:52:14 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

You think you are sooo experienced at this sort of thing but then you
dont do it for awhile and you get humbled.
Went out last night for a nice night sail, first time in a couple of
years. Took note of the flashing pattern of our entrance channel
marker, a red light every second. Only went out about 3 miles. On
way back in, suddenly we saw three red lights flashing at 1 sec
intervals against light shore clutter. Decided it HAD to be the
easternmost one so headed for it. Soon, it went out, surprise,
surprise. Headed for middle one. Got within a half mile of shore and
slowed down because I was nervous, very fortunate. Suddenly depth
said 4', YIKES, 180 turn till I had 10'. Take out binocs. Hmmm.
During flashes I can make out the tower structure of our channel
marker under WESTERNMOST red light. Came in with no probs then.
Our shoreline is prob easier than most at night due to very little
lighting on shore and still I got fooled. I was casual about all of
this because we have no rocks here, it is all mud flats and tide was
due to be a very high in 3 hours so running aground would not have
been a real prob but still............

Sounds like a good time to have light gathering binocs.
I think Wayne can make a reco on that.
That aside, I don't care to drive at night, or boat.
Besides the danger aspect of impaired visibility - of myself and
others - there's more drunks out at night.
But the biggest reason is you just can't see the sights.
A long transit of open water beyond sight of shore would be an
exception. Thank goodness we steamed all night when crossing the
Atlantic. That horizon gets old pretty quickly.
Even on the interstate I enjoy seeing the terrain when I'm driving.
I've driven all over the country and the only exceptions to that are
long passages through urban areas, which are boring.

--Vic