On 3/22/10 12:45 PM, I am Tosk wrote:
In ,
says...

I am Tosk wrote:
In ,
says...
In articleced8cd5d-d10e-4792-8c2a-
, says...
On Mar 21, 3:21 pm, wrote:
On Sun, 21 Mar 2010 09:49:22 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

Pick up a copy of the Inland/International navigation rules or read
them online - you can also download a copy in PDF format I believe.
http://www.amazon.com/Navigation-Rul.../dp/0939837498
http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/mwv/navrules/rotr_online.htm
Thanks for those links, Tom. I will be doing some studying. I suppose
the reason I'm asking all these questions about Nav. Lights is I want
to update my boat to better standards and make it as safe as I can.
I'd leave the lights alone for now as long as they are working OK
since there are probably other things that need a look.

Running at night is very tricky even for the experienced, and should
really be avoided when possible. Take it real slow, especially the
first few times. Everything that looks familiar during daylight
looks entirely different in the dark, and distances are much more
difficult to judge accurately.

Back in my sailboat days I ran literally thousands of miles in the
dark with no incidents and no radar but with a few close calls, some
way too close for comfort. Now that I've gotten used to running with
radar at night I would never operate without it if at all possible.

Even radar is not perfect however. Off the coast of the Dominican
Republic we were surprised several times by small wooden fishing
skiffs operating 12 or more miles offshore with no lights and no
radatr
image at all. They are totally invisible until you are almost on
them, even in daylight. They would see us however and either yell or
shine a light at us, not a really satisfactory way of navigating.
That's one of my reasons for recommending a good radar reflector.
Wayne, I don't want to run at night, even on my wide Carlyle Lake. And
I dont' plan to, but I wan't my boat to be set up better'n spec.
Oh man, being out at night on an open area is awesome. Make sure your
lights are set up right like they said so you don't see them from the
cockpit and they don't reflect off of anything back at you. Then keep
the radio off, and always keep the big spotlight moving. If you have two
sets of eyes, and two lights, it's even better. Anchored is a bit more
complicated but if you set yourself right and keep alert, you are
usually ok. Again, I wouldn't do it without a couple of those million
candle power lights, hand held and moving around a lot.

Scotty

I should note that when I say keep the radio off, I don't mean
communication radio, I mean keep the tunes off and pay attention to what
is around you. One thing I learned was not to necessarily look out for
other boats, but look up too! One day I saw this star moving across the
sky and realized it was the top light of a tug, moving a huge barge
right at me.yikes.

Scotty

Good thing you didn't blind him with your spot light.

I doubt my little light flashing across his bow at 300 yards is gonna'
blind anybody. How big do you reckon those Morse code lights were on the
old WW2 ships?

Scotty



Probably the best thing to do when snotty's light is flashed across your
bow is to open fire with fully auto weaponry. :)