AS my cruise is coming up, I decided to go out night sailing to see
how everything worked in the dark. Havent been night sailing in
several years. Had very little wind, sailed about 12 miles due south
till I was near "O" tower (an AIR Force navigational structure for
drones out in the Gulf) and then back in. Everything went well even
with no moon and nearly total dark till I got back near shore and got
disoriented suddenly. Didnt trust the lights I was seeing so checked
the GPS which confirmed my position. I still do almost all of my
navigation by coastal piloting methods and dead reckoning so the GPS
just confirmed I was right. Still, the sudden disorientation was
freaky. Carabelle does not show up very well from the water and the
plethora of cell towers and radio towers makes finding the correct
flashing red difficult. I was surprised there were NO other boats out
on a Saturday night except a lone shrimper who disappeared to the
south. All in all, a good experience confirming my boat seems ready.

On 7 Nov 2004 17:46:11 -0800, (Parallax) wrote:
AS my cruise is coming up, I decided to go out night sailing to see
how everything worked in the dark. Havent been night sailing in
several years. Had very little wind, sailed about 12 miles due south
till I was near "O" tower (an AIR Force navigational structure for
drones out in the Gulf) and then back in. Everything went well even
with no moon and nearly total dark till I got back near shore and got
disoriented suddenly. Didnt trust the lights I was seeing so checked
the GPS which confirmed my position. I still do almost all of my
navigation by coastal piloting methods and dead reckoning so the GPS
just confirmed I was right. Still, the sudden disorientation was
freaky. Carabelle does not show up very well from the water and the
plethora of cell towers and radio towers makes finding the correct
flashing red difficult. I was surprised there were NO other boats out
on a Saturday night except a lone shrimper who disappeared to the
south. All in all, a good experience confirming my boat seems ready.

================================================== ==

I've found that losing nav aid lights against the shore clutter is a
common problem. My personal solution is to have key way points set
into the GPS in advance so they are easy to call up when needed. It's
nice to know and use traditional piloting methods but the electronic
aids are a lot quicker and easier when the chips are down. It is
just as important these days to be familiar with your GPS, waypoints
and routes, as it is with traditional coastal piloting. And at
today's prices, no one should be without a spare or two.

Getting disoriented from lights can happen even to those of us who do a
lot of night "sailing".
Sometimes it's from a clear night where you can see lights you normally
don't see, or just a slightly new angle of approach to a familiar landfall.
Good reason to use more than one method of navigation, whenever possible.

otn

otnmbrd wrote:

Getting disoriented from lights can happen even to those of us who do a
lot of night "sailing".
Sometimes it's from a clear night where you can see lights you normally
don't see, or just a slightly new angle of approach to a familiar landfall.
Good reason to use more than one method of navigation, whenever possible.

Last winter we went offshore more than usual, so I usually found
myself standing the watch in the wee hours in the morning as Bob can't
sleep early in the night and I can.

We were going south off Georgia and I was keeping a lookout for ships
on the horizon. I dodged some freighters, saw some more dolphins and
saw a meteor. We were hearing radio traffic from Charleston, and
Savannah both. That gives me some warning when the big ships say they
are going out the channel.

The stars are very bright except on the west near shore where I can
see the glow in the sky from the various cities we pass - first
Charleston and then I guess Beaufort (dimmer) and then Savannah.

There are big rollers coming from the east, but the surface of the
water is pretty smooth There's also some kind of strobe thing east of
us.

Later on, after we got past Savannah I kept seeing these lights to
the east of us, and they seemed to be on a collision course or at
least they were stationary in relation to our boat and I didn't think
there were any ATON out there.. They were white.

Eventually, when some of the lights got higher above the horizon, I
figured out that it was the stars rising.

Then the following spring, we were going north from Charleston to the
Cape Fear River and I saw a bright light in the western sky. A ship?
Where would a ship be coming from? It's all marshland over there.

No - it's too big and too high up for a ship - plus I can't see any
red or green lights.

A lighthouse? Can't find any lighthouses on the charts over on that
shore, and again it's too high up.

There's no moon tonight, and I know stars don't rise in the west, so
it can't be a star this time and it's too bright.

A plane taking off? But it doesn't seem to get higher. Eventually the
light goes away, so I guessed it was a plane that landed. After a bit
I saw another one.

There is not much traffic on the radio except the CG - I hear from
stations all the way from Mayport to Cape Hatteras. Did hear an Army
ship saying that it has hazardous cargo.

Later in the night, I heard the CG asking people if they'd seen
flares. Then the light dawned.

Those lights I saw were FLARES!!!


grandma Rosalie

Later on, after we got past Savannah I kept seeing these lights to
the east of us, and they seemed to be on a collision course or at
least they were stationary in relation to our boat and I didn't think
there were any ATON out there.. They were white.

Eventually, when some of the lights got higher above the horizon, I
figured out that it was the stars rising.

I am glad to hear that I am not the only one that has had that happen. For
me I saw a white light astern coming over the horizon. No problem. A little
bit later I saw a lower white light that appeared to be a ship coming
straight at us. I change course about 30 degrees and kept watching it as it
go brighter. The lights were still coming straight on so I changed course 60
degrees in the opposite direction. I got thinking about this situation and
was about to wake the off watch, but I wanted to make one more check and
there was the moon coming up. I had been looking at a star straight up over
the tip of the moon. It took me a while before I ever admitted that I was
being run down by the moon. Funny story now, but not on the late watch after
ten days of looking at nothing but an occasional ship and lots of ocean.

Leanne

You might consider laying off shore till morning or trying to time your
arrival for daylight. I won't go in at night unless I've been there during
the day and am familiar with the harbor.




"Parallax" wrote in message
om...
AS my cruise is coming up, I decided to go out night sailing to see
how everything worked in the dark. Havent been night sailing in
several years. Had very little wind, sailed about 12 miles due south
till I was near "O" tower (an AIR Force navigational structure for
drones out in the Gulf) and then back in. Everything went well even
with no moon and nearly total dark till I got back near shore and got
disoriented suddenly. Didnt trust the lights I was seeing so checked
the GPS which confirmed my position. I still do almost all of my
navigation by coastal piloting methods and dead reckoning so the GPS
just confirmed I was right. Still, the sudden disorientation was
freaky. Carabelle does not show up very well from the water and the
plethora of cell towers and radio towers makes finding the correct
flashing red difficult. I was surprised there were NO other boats out
on a Saturday night except a lone shrimper who disappeared to the
south. All in all, a good experience confirming my boat seems ready.

On Mon, 8 Nov 2004 09:57:17 -0500, "Bryan" wrote:
You might consider laying off shore till morning or trying to time your
arrival for daylight. I won't go in at night unless I've been there during
the day and am familiar with the harbor.

=====================================

That's good advice for a tricky entrance or a poorly equipped boat.
With good electronic charting and/or radar it's usually not that
difficult however. One of the problems in many inlets however is that
the buoys are not charted because of constant change to the channel.
That's definitely a reason to wait for daylight in my opinion.

One moonless night I was sailing up the bay , looking for the red
light to make the turn towards Fairlee Creek. I spotted it, headed
towards it but when I looked again it was a green light. Went below,
checked the charts. Back up top , found the red light again. Next
thing I know it turned YELLOW. Finally realized it was a traffic
light on shore, a few miles before my buoy.


--
Scott Vernon
Plowville Pa _/)__/)_/)_


"Rosalie B." wrote in message
...
otnmbrd wrote:

Getting disoriented from lights can happen even to those of us who
do a
lot of night "sailing".
Sometimes it's from a clear night where you can see lights you
normally
don't see, or just a slightly new angle of approach to a familiar
landfall.
Good reason to use more than one method of navigation, whenever
possible.

Last winter we went offshore more than usual, so I usually found
myself standing the watch in the wee hours in the morning as Bob
can't
sleep early in the night and I can.

We were going south off Georgia and I was keeping a lookout for
ships
on the horizon. I dodged some freighters, saw some more dolphins
and
saw a meteor. We were hearing radio traffic from Charleston, and
Savannah both. That gives me some warning when the big ships say
they
are going out the channel.

The stars are very bright except on the west near shore where I can
see the glow in the sky from the various cities we pass - first
Charleston and then I guess Beaufort (dimmer) and then Savannah.

There are big rollers coming from the east, but the surface of the
water is pretty smooth There's also some kind of strobe thing east
of
us.

Later on, after we got past Savannah I kept seeing these lights to
the east of us, and they seemed to be on a collision course or at
least they were stationary in relation to our boat and I didn't
think
there were any ATON out there.. They were white.

Eventually, when some of the lights got higher above the horizon, I
figured out that it was the stars rising.

Then the following spring, we were going north from Charleston to
the
Cape Fear River and I saw a bright light in the western sky. A ship?
Where would a ship be coming from? It's all marshland over there.

No - it's too big and too high up for a ship - plus I can't see any
red or green lights.

A lighthouse? Can't find any lighthouses on the charts over on that
shore, and again it's too high up.

There's no moon tonight, and I know stars don't rise in the west, so
it can't be a star this time and it's too bright.

A plane taking off? But it doesn't seem to get higher. Eventually
the
light goes away, so I guessed it was a plane that landed. After a
bit
I saw another one.

There is not much traffic on the radio except the CG - I hear from
stations all the way from Mayport to Cape Hatteras. Did hear an Army
ship saying that it has hazardous cargo.

Later in the night, I heard the CG asking people if they'd seen
flares. Then the light dawned.

Those lights I saw were FLARES!!!


grandma Rosalie

In article , says...
I am glad to hear that I am not the only one that has had that happen. For
me I saw a white light astern coming over the horizon. No problem. A little
bit later I saw a lower white lig


Ok, now you've done it. War story time from an old bosun's mate..

I forget which particular ocean it was in, Med, Caribbean, North
Atlantic, South Atlantic, Aegean, take your pick.

In any case, I was standing watch on the right wing of the bridge one
night when the left wing lookout reported a, well, for want of a better
description, UFO off the port bow. The OD checked with CIC and they had
nothing on radar, he asked me if I saw it, which I didn't. He went out
on the wing, nothing, checked with CIC again, still nothing. I think he
was a little worried because we had been playing chicken with a couple
of Russian "trawlers" for most of the day.

I did see something out over the port bow but held my piece and let the
dance go on for about fifteen minutes before I let the OD off the hook
by telling him I strongly suspected the UFO reported was the full moon
that had come up over the horizon. It was.


--
MikeG
Heirloom Woods
www.heirloom-woods.net

Wayne.B wrote in message . ..
On Mon, 8 Nov 2004 09:57:17 -0500, "Bryan" wrote:
You might consider laying off shore till morning or trying to time your
arrival for daylight. I won't go in at night unless I've been there during
the day and am familiar with the harbor.

=====================================

That's good advice for a tricky entrance or a poorly equipped boat.
With good electronic charting and/or radar it's usually not that
difficult however. One of the problems in many inlets however is that
the buoys are not charted because of constant change to the channel.
That's definitely a reason to wait for daylight in my opinion.

The biggest problem I saw on this little night sailing excercise
was the unlighted buoys. Two of them, I only saw when I was abeam of
them and two I never did see. Running into these markers is the
biggest hazard on a night like that. The reflective coating must be
faded from the sun so they just do not show up until fairly close.
Furhtermore, there is some discrepancy between what the charts say and
some markers. There is also a recent uncharted shrimpboat wreck at
the west end of the island that is partway into the channel thazt I
was never able to spotlight on the way in.
The excercise was good in exposing a couple of small problems and
bringing back some old skills. For example, I did not have a small
flashlight for taking a quick peak at the chart so I was blinded for
about 30 secs after every time I looked at it. In the day, I
obsessively rely on my handbearing compass to take bearings which
enables me to go on a course till a bearing is presented to something
which will clear all obstacles. My hand compass is not lighted and it
would have blinded me to take such a bearing so I used the GPS. I
completely forgot about simply pointing the boat at the object in
question and using the dimly lighted boat compass.