Hi from Kuala Lumpur

[sonnysoh]

Hi Michael,

Looking forward to meet in the Marina. My boat will be here sometimes in early July. Your offer is much appreciated. Which is your boat in the Marina? If you are back do give me a call.

Best REgards: SonnySoh

[sonnysoh]

The cost of fuel in Malaysia: Petrol is 1.92 and Diesel is 1.58 per litre or US 62 and 50 cents. There is no excuse for not paying a visit to Malaysia. The exchange rate is 3.2 Ringgit to 1 US dollar

Rgs: sonnysoh

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by sonnysoh

The cost of fuel in Malaysia: Petrol is 1.92 and Diesel is 1.58 per litre or US 62 and 50 cents. There is no excuse for not paying a visit to Malaysia. The exchange rate is 3.2 Ringgit to 1 US dollar

Rgs: sonnysoh

Thanks for that sonnysoh, I'm there as soon as I can, no excuses.

Tiger and Carlsberg beer at Langkawi @ 1.50MYR or $.50c AUD has a great appeal to me as well.

thanks for the info.

Dave

[Pelagic]

Welcome Sonnysoh! I have enjoyed some wonderful cruising in your waters from Lankawi to Kudat and look forward to returning next year.

Re Night Sailing: You are asking the right question, but I must disagree with previous advice and say that “racing” has nothing to do with “preparedness” for night sailing.

There are basically 3 things specific to your question that you need to practice in order to be prepared:

1. Light Recognition: of ships and small craft, tugs and barges etc…, so that you can identify type and direction, especially if they make a sudden course change. You can buy a small plastic “Self-Test” wheel that shows you lights and asks you to name the type of vessel, direction and who has the right of way. It is a good thing to practice with and helps build your confidence.

2. Maintaining “Night Vision”: Develop a strong discipline that whomever is on look-out duty at night, sits away from any instrument lights and allows their eyes to adjust to darkness. They will be the ones who first pick out the fish floats or log/oil drum so their eyes must be protected. Get used to doing things in the dark and keep that flashlight turned off!

3. Radar Parallel Indexing and Instrument Practice: At night, you are basically sailing by instruments, so getting to know intimately how they work is important. Don’t rely on GPS and a chart plotter to keep you out of trouble, they can fail at the worst time during lightning strikes and you have to fall back on navigation basics. In terms of priority, Compass, Depth Sounder, Radar come before your Nav electronics, so learn to verify and use them first along with a paper chart of your cruising area.

Radar is the key instrument for Navigation as well as collision avoidance, so learn from the beginning to work with a “North-up” presentation so that you are always oriented with your chart and the screen automatically becomes a compass for you.

· When coasting, professional Mariners are taught how to use a simple system called “Parallel Indexing” to keep the ship on course using Radar and away from any dangerous areas if they get caught up in collision avoidance course changes.

· Basically what you do is to prepare a paper chart with optimum course lines of where you want to go and how far off from any reefs or dangers you need to be.

· At conspicuous radar targets, (cliffs, points, Islands) you measure that distance off at 90 degrees from that particular course and clearly mark it down on the chart for future reference as well as the course heading and reciprocal.

· You prepare all that (course/distance off) data as an Indexing plan on the paper chart for your whole journey right into the anchorage….. highlighting any reefs or shallow water that might be a problem if you went off course. (Remember you can use that same plan many times on that paper chart, so make it neat, bold and easy to read at night, on the chart)

· Your Radar will probably have 2 EBL (electronic bearing lines) as well as 2 VRM (variable range markers).

· The EBL’s can be made to “float” off from the centre of the screen (ships position), so by using the data on the parallel indexing plan you measure with VRM your safe distance off a target and float that given course line onto that measured safe distance with an EBL and fix it there miles before you reach that danger point.

· If the EBL looks like it will intersect inland of that given radar navigational target, it means you are drifting inshore and need to alter away from it.


With practice it becomes very easy to use and even though you are primarily using the GPS/Chart Plotter...... teaching yourself how to use this system as a back-up will always help you verify your position if the GPS/plotter has had user interface problems.

Practice using your Radar during daylight hours and how to tune it manually as it will perform much better than if left on automatic.

Good luck with your first night passage!

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

Re Night Sailing: You are asking the right question, but I must disagree with previous advice and say that “racing” has nothing to do with “preparedness” for night sailing.

!

I dont think there was any mention of racing preparing one for nightsailing,

altough it does improve ones knowledge of getting the most from and handling characteristics of your vessel in a variety of conditions, which in turn, makes use of your vessel in the dark just that little bit less daunting.

Dave

[Pelagic]

Hi Dave,
I think some of us interpreted SonnySoh’s question about “practicing” for night sailing differently than I …..to mean a more general practice.

Personally I still think of sailboat racing as bad seamanship which came (years ago) after delivering a few maxis on their own bottoms with some of the racing crew on board…. Scarred me for Life!

To me, night sailing is all about being conservative, not too much sail and easy to turn 180 if need be.

But of course an old salt like you knows that, it was just some clarification for a new sailor.

[Lodesman]

Welcome aboard Sonny,

I very much enjoyed Malaysia, the couple times I was there - first in K'lang, with day-trips up to KL (back when the Petronas towers were being built), and next in Penang. Wonderful country/people.
I agree with Pelagic - very good advice. I would add to have a current "Aids to navigation" publication - something that gives you the light and sound signal characteristics of fixed marks and buoys. Very important for night navigation/situational awareness. If you use paper charts you can draw "thought bubbles" off to the sides of the lights, with all the pertinent data marked out beforehand. I think some of the electronic charting systems give you the info when you roll your cursor over the mark.

Kevin

[Wayward Wind]

Pelagic

My bad. I misread Sonnysoh's question. I have yet to do any real night sailing, so I find your advice very useful.

However, I do agree with Dave that racing does help as general practice. I have only raced twice as crew in this current CYCA Winter Series, yet I have learnt quite a bit which I wasn't taught at sailing school. I look forward to more accelerated learning from this series.

Having said that, my aim is to go cruising, so there are many things being done on this boat I am crewing on, that I will definitely not do in my own boat. I guess what I am trying to say is that at sailing school, there are some things we are taught to do that are different to what we do when racing. When cruising, we play it safe. When racing, we take risks. This morning, I got whacked on the head by a block. Well, you can be sure that it won't happen again.

[sonnysoh]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the advice given, much appreciated. I have just completed my naviagation course and radio. All I have to do now, is wait for my new boat to arrive and go out and practice. Thanks again. Rgs: Sonnysoh