Nov 14 2008
Night sailing in Southern California
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I was recently bemoaning the fact that I’d run out of ideas for the BLOG. To the rescue – Rob Walton, “How about night sailing?”
Indeed, how about it?
I spent a lot of my navy life thinking about night operations. That was mostly about flying, but the vast majority of the time I spent on the bridge of USS Nimitz was in night ops, specifically night underway replenishment.
Picture it, you’re driving 1000 feet of ship that displaces a bit less than 100,000 tons. You’re throttled back to just above bare steerageway. Off to starboard a couple of hundred feet a Fleet Oiler pumps jet fuel to the carrier’s tanks. She – the oiler – maintains a steady course and speed. You’ve got the conn of Nimitz and your job is to fly formation, keeping station within 10 feet (or so).
The ships will spend several hours alongside, though for each of the CDO (Command Duty Officer) trainees, it’s just an hour or two. Course corrections to the helm are fired off in half degree increments, speed changes by a call to the lee helm for a movement of just a few r.p.m.
The bridge team, in those days, numbered more than twenty. Everyone totally engaged. The bridge is always a serious place, but I doubt that brain surgeons concentrate harder than the bridge team does during underway replenishment. The captain was always there, and when I was driving, he was RIGHT there, close enough for me to hear him breathing. There was no extraneous talk, just distance, course, speed, traffic. Total focus, total concentration.
Compare that to our night adventures under sail.
Sailing at night is usually more akin to one of those stumbling forays to the bathroom at 2 a.m., one of those nights where you feel your way along, stumble over a shoe, bang your knee, kick the cat which launches itself screaming into the dark. Your wife says something unintelligible, but it’s clearly hostile.
You end up turning on the light, realizing you’ve got two strikes on you. Now, the dogs wake up. Things don’t get better.
Obviously, you can’t turn on the lights at sea and a little pre-planning or at least some serious thinking about what you’ll encounter is in order.
To tell the truth, I haven’t done that much night sailing. I really like to be at anchor or tied up when the sun goes down. So I’m going to ask for some help from my friends and shipmates to turn this into a discussion. Send me your thoughts about how you prepare for night ops, what you’ve encountered and precautions you take when the sun gets low in the sky.
I’ll lead off: Night sailing wears me out, especially the first night. So I encourage my crew to nap any chance they get so that we’re not all on the same wake/sleep cycle. We’re setting out on a 3-day run to Catalina and back next week. We’ll be sailing most of two nights. Dennis, the Bosun, returns from France the day we leave. He’ll be jet lagged as hell and in perfect shape to grab copious zzzzz while I’m standing watch. Sending him to France was an expensive way to get him primed for the night watch, that plus the vintages he had to sample, but it was all in the interests of sailing safety.
Send me your night sailing tips by e-mail or add a comment in the box below.
I love night sailing! It is a great way to get across the channel and wake-up (or go to bed, depending on the situation) to a sunrise at the channel islands. Here are a few tips for a night voyage:
Anchorage:
1. If you are going to anchor in the dark, plan on doing it at a wide open single hook anchorage like Smugglers, Yellowbanks or Prisoners.
2. If you plan to arrive at an unfamiliar destination or a narrow spot that requires double anchors, plan your voyage so that you arrive after the sun comes-up.
Boat preparation:
1. Place jack lines on both sides of the boat. To me, the most dangerous aspect of night sailing is going overboard. Anytime a shipmate exits the cockpit, they must be tethered to the jack line.
2. Have your harness tether straps readily available. I tie mine next to the traveler cleat on the SS arch. Have at least two straps available.
3. Make sure there is a light attached to the life ring.
4. Have a 1millon or 2million candlepower handheld light in the cockpit. I carry a battery operated unit in addition to the AC light that comes with the boat. That way, I’m not restricted by the length of the AC cord.
5. Have a flashlight down below decks in case you need to find something in the dark.
6. Once underway, turn off all the cockpit and interior lights and keep them off. If the boat is equipped with a red lens light – use it. Sometimes I will turn on one small light in a back corner of a berth in order to provide just a small amount of light inside the boat. The idea here is to get your “rods” (the night vision cells in your eyes) working at peak performance. Believe me the darker your boat is, the better you will be able to see. I read a study that hypothesized the real purpose for a pirates eye patch was to always keep one eye in the dark. That way their vision was improved when entering dark spaces during the day. I tried it – it really works.
6. Know how to adjust the brightness on the chart/radar display screen. That sucker will blind you at night if you don’t turn it down.
7. Establish a watch schedule and always have at least two people in the cockpit. I like to maintain two to four hour watches depending on the number of people and the duration of the trip. When it’s your turn to go below, get something warm to drink and sleep as much as possible until your next watch.
8. Have something warm available for the guys on watch to drink. Coffee, hot cocoa or soup is great.
8. All hands on deck when it’s time to anchor. You’ll need all the help you can get to make sure your anchor spot is clear of kelp, bouys and other obstructions. Also, designate one person as a safety watch to keep track of the people out of the cockpit dropping the anchor.
Personal preparation:
1. Clothing: It gets cold and wet at night. During the winter, I dress like I’m going skiing – long underwear and all. Wear your foulies over layers of clothes. Don’t forget a watch cap, gloves, warm socks and foul weather boots if you have them. During the summer it’s not so cold, but you will still get wet from all the moisture in the air. Other items include:
- PFD with a light and whistle
- Emergency knife
- Headlamp with a green or red filter if possible
2. Have a very good understanding of navagational and vessel lighting schemes.
Night sailing is a fantastic experience as long as you are prepared for the adventure. The stars and moon are amazing and you never know what will pop-up out of the water next to the boat. It’s also a great way to beat the weekend crowds out to the islands.
Great Blog Dan, and great comments from Randy. I have sailed at night with both of these captains and always had a great and safe time. In fact it can be some of the most satisfying sailing there is, but agree that preparation is key. To that end I am staying up as late as possible in Paris and drinking as much wine as the Frech are willing to share…
See you on the water…
Bosun
Memories of night sailing off the Texas coast comes to mind….As of yet, I haven’t experienced either day or night sailing off California, but it’s absolutely on my list! The Manana, has come back to leggett lights at Key Allegro after a downwind night sail to Port Aransas with someone on the radar, 2 on the bow with spot lights, someone at the helm, many many times over the past 30 years. Usually the end of the day turn back to Rockport/Key Allegro is at sunset with lovely colors behind the old lighthouse where the Confederates hid the light. And then it’s wing in wing by stars all the way home watching for the intracoastal markers, gas rigs, and dolphins who seem to feel we need an escort (maybe so after a little chardonnay) before creeping the 41′ Manana back into her spot in a 45′ canal behind my father-in-law’s house. Sounds much easier than night sailing Channel Islands!!!
Great tips Randy. To that I would add that much more time is spent figuring out exactly where you are and who is around you at night. For one thing it keeps you busy and sharp. So, I like to take GPS fixes and notate them on the chart every half hour and in between keep good track of the radar targets. A lot of our night sailing around here at Channel Islands harbor includes night crossings and/or traverses of the shipping lanes. And anyone who has done any amount of night sailing around here will tell you that the shipping in and out of Los Angeles is at a peak during the night. We have seen as many at 10 targets at a time and never sure how many of those are fishing boats and how many of them are 1000 foot long freighters barreling along….