[C320-list] Night sailing

[Dave Moores]

Robert,
We have done quite a few overnight races on California Girl, in open water,
crossing shipping lanes.

- Carry a good bright light to shine at anything you think hasn't seen you
- A radar reflector doesn't hurt either
- Chicken cuppa-soup(or whatever)at 3am works well, all you gotta do is boil
water
- Trust the GPS, believe it, and have at least 2.  Lights onshore can be
very deceptive in the dark.
- No booze
- Lots of flashlights and spare batteries
- We always wear lifejackets with strobes and harnesses at night
- Make sure your decklight is working (all the lights in fact!)
- Plan to arrive in daylight unless you already know the place you are
visiting really well
- if you know where the shipping-lanes are, it obviously makes sense to stay
out of them but freighters are usually all lit-up so you can see them - and
boy do they come up on you fast!  You can call them and they will usually
answer and confirm they have you visually or on radar

These are just top-of-the head.  If you have questions, glad to answer.

Dave Moores


-----Original Message-----
From: c320-list-bounces at catalina320.com
[mailto:c320-list-bounces at catalina320.com] On Behalf Of Robert Seastream
Sent: November 30, 2007 5:45 PM
To: C320-List
Subject: [C320-list] Night sailing


All:

Who here sails at night?  Like many of us, our vacation time is 
limited.  We'd love to excursion further from NH in the summers during 
our 'mini cruises' but are reluctant to sail at night, since we don't 
want to hit/be hit by anything.  However, 24/7 sailing is the only way 
to increase miles per day.  Are our fears groundless?

Bob Seastream
'Intuition' # 906