What's it Really Like at Sea at Night?

[Solitude]

JRD22 is right up here in BC floating deadheads are a fact of life on the water.

Powerboats have an issue as they are faster.
Higher speed creates greater Kinetic Energy and more damage.

[sneuman]

It's sobering. In heavy weather, you put so much mental effort into careful and attentive steering to avoid being pooped or broached and then when night falls, you can't see squat and just "use the force".

[GordMay]

It's often dark.

[daddle]

"...darkest hour is just before the dawn"

Offshore California, where the nights are cold and damp, this saying is so true. By dawn you are cold, wet, and tired of standing watch. Dark and dismal. Compare that with tropical cruising where it's a relief to have the relentless scorching sun go away for a while. Where all night long it's comfortable. Where the first rays of the day send us into the shade.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by GordMay

It's often dark.

Especially if one is hiding below from the monsters of the deep with a blanket over their heads.


Although I must say its a bit darker tonight... the little red and green lights on the pointy end of my boat are not being joyful

A little job for the morrow if we can keep alive...

[Joli]

I used to race with a guy that was retired Navy, he was a destroyer captain. He refused to sail with lights.

Are you retired Navy?

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Especially if one is hiding below from the monsters of the deep with a blanket over their heads.


Although I must say its a bit darker tonight... the little red and green lights on the pointy end of my boat are not being joyful

A little job for the morrow if we can keep alive...

[surfmachine]

Well fellas I am motor sailing at night in the Bay of Bengal, Andaman Sea, as the wind has dropped to 4 knots at 113 degrees.
Sailing solo and I just counted 50 fishing boats in clear view, lit up like christmas trees and many more light looms over the horizon. Cant see the nets but luckily this boat just sails right over them, although now the prop is turning it may be a different story?
It's pretty nice sailing at night but I have to anchor somewhere tonight and I will be wishing it were daylight then!
Keith.

[sneuman]

Originally Posted by surfmachine

Well fellas I am motor sailing at night in the Bay of Bengal, Andaman Sea, as the wind has dropped to 4 knots at 113 degrees.
Sailing solo and I just counted 50 fishing boats in clear view, lit up like christmas trees and many more light looms over the horizon. Cant see the nets but luckily this boat just sails right over them, although now the prop is turning it may be a different story?
It's pretty nice sailing at night but I have to anchor somewhere tonight and I will be wishing it were daylight then!
Keith.

Squid boats, no doubt, so you probably don't have to worry much about the nets. Same in Gulf of Thailand.

[unbusted67]

Originally Posted by sneuman

Squid boats, no doubt, so you probably don't have to worry much about the nets. Same in Gulf of Thailand.

And Mexico.

[surfmachine]

I came pretty close to a few last night, wondering, how do they fish? Do they use nets or handlines, what are they catching?
Pulled into a nice mooring at sw corner of Koh Lanta at Hat Khlong Chak, at 2145 hrs.
Keith.

[CaptStarboard]

What's it like at night out there? Good question... and you've got some good answers so far... I think it will depend on you... how you approach life... how you view your boat, your skills, your comfort level with things...

I agree with the set that sees all the beauty of life at night... phosphorescence... stars with no light pollution.. teeming with animals if your lucky... we started our trip in Mexico, back to Australia... so I can only comment on the warmer latitudes

The first overnight passage and night watch... that was something.... your learning your boat at night.... learning yourself, too... sitting there, minding your own business when you suddenly hear BREATHING in the water next to you! hehehehe.... our first turtle at night... two feet away and just looking at ya... you'll learn the different breathing noises.... dolphins to a snort as they surface to breathe... short and sharp... whales do a full in and out breath... deep and low noise... (as it's night, you often don't know if they are Orca, Pilot, other?)... the Dorado (Mahi Mahi) don't make a sound.. but might stay by your boat for days... a glowing trail at night... a green flash by day....

Then you have the storms...lightening... crashing nearby... so much that you dare not touch the wheel... or the sudden squall... all wet and full of force... then the rain sets in and takes the wind with it... joy! long nights on the wheel if your autopilot goes out... you'll hear things.... you know your watch MUST about be over when you start seeing things... people sitting next to you... freaky, but your watch IS over when you talk BACK to them... <grins>...

Point is... the sea can be a fright, or a refuge... it's all how YOU look at it... and it might change over time for you... best advice, get out and find out what it will mean to you! G'day and G'luck.

Jeff
S/V Nemesis

[Hud3]

Sailing at night offshore, you really get to know your boat. You can't see (unless you flash a light on the sails, but that destroys your night vision). So you learn to sail by sound and "feel".

I almost never use the autopilot offshore, because I can't "feel" the boat through the wheel. When the wind changes, the helm reacts, and you feel it through your hands. You can decide whether you need to adjust the sails or not. You can sense the difference in the waves, indicating a change in sea state. You can feel the wind on your face when it changes direction.You can hear things you didn't notice in daylight. You're much more attuned to what's going on.

It's really a different experience.

I love sailing at night.

p.s. one of my favorite memories is hearing dolphins blow right next to us, just feet away, and not being able to see them.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by Hud3

Sailing at night offshore, you really get to know your boat. You can't see (unless you flash a light on the sails, but that destroys your night vision). So you learn to sail by sound and "feel".

Reminds me of a story. Ahem.

Several boats back we were heading down the Big Sur coast at sundown, clicking off some good mileage with the spinnaker up. It was a dark maroon chute, solid maroon without any color pattern. My wife suggested we douse the chute before it got dark, but without hesitation I announced that this was a sundowner breeze, and it would soon fizzle out. Best to let the spinnaker douse itself.

So we kept sailing and, sure enough, the wind stayed steady. "No problem," I again announced, "The moon will be up shortly, and we can douse the chute then." Wrong. We were hours away from when the tiniest sliver of moon would appear.

This is when I discovered that you can't see a maroon spinnaker on a moonless night.

My wife wanted to turn on the steaming light, explaining that it would illuminate the spinnaker. But that just felt too wrong to me, so I begged for a little more time to sail dark.I closed my eyes for a minute or two, concentrating on feeling the chute. Hard to do in a swell. But when I finally opened my eyes I discovered that I could "see" the chute by noting where the stars were being blocked out.

It was a cool experience, but not so cool that I wanted to repeat it. I was done with maroon spinnakers. When we commissioned the next boat I had my sailmaker build a spinnaker of fluorescent yellow nylon. That was a bit much, so on the boat after that, my current boat, I had him build an all-white chute.

[hellosailor]

The only time I've ever really been spooked at night was off the south shore of LI (NY) doing the ALIR one year. We were heading east and it was one of those "are we in coal mine?!" nights, no moon, no light reflecting down from cloud cover, couldn't see a damn thing and I have the eyes of a bat.

We saw four white lights, white like LED lights, above the water. Looking like they might be onfour masts, or one a platform, or something substantial, but we couldn't see a damn thing under the lights or around them. Figured that as we got closer we'd see or hear SOMEthing, but we finally said "F* it!" and pulled an early tack and just got the hell away from whatever it was.

Checked the charts for platforms after the race: Nothing. Asked other crews: Nothing. Checked the notices to mariners: Nothing.

Never did find out what it was, but the thought of something big enough to be carrying four lights aloft and still totally invisible...I'm just glad I know the Flying Dutchman would be running kerosene lanterns not LEDs!

The perils of deadheads, containers, and Japanese midget subs that haven't yet heard WW2 is over, don't bother me so much. That gets filed under "Simple". Simple as in, either I hit is, or I don't. If I don't no problem. If I do, it either creates damage or it doesn't. I either fix it or abandon ship, again, all simple binary decisions. Those don't scare me.

Being on the water during lightning storms, now THAT scares the **** out of me. On water or on land--I don't like hanging out where a jillion volts is bashing around.

[s/v Beth]

Was sailing last night around 2300 when someone said "What is that?" It looked like a big pool of swirling phosphoresce about a quarter mile from us. Turned out it was the reflection of city lights and the swells we were going through...Just one of the benies of sailing at night. I agree with HUD. Sailing at night is the best- as long as you navigate well. (There is no GPS charts or electronic gismos on the Great Salt Lake- just your eyes ears and a few radio towers.)