How hard is night boating

[aspeck]

At night I avoid the river and only boat on the lake ... but not on Friday and Saturday nights when the drunks are running full throttle and hitting the shore or other boats (the majority of our emergency calls are night boating, under throttle, while intoxicated). I am not afraid to boat at night and enjoy it, but I don't like boating when those crazies are on the water!

Take your time. Don't go faster than you are comfortable. Know the amount of traffic on the water and the more traffic, the slower you go. Use your nav lights. I will cover the front of my white light to avoid night blindness, but leave it shining on the other 3 sides. Red dash/interior lights are a must to avoid night blindness.

Use the skyline for direction when necessary. On a full moon you can see remarkably well at times, but when conditions are dark, use even more caution. Night boating is possible, and can be enjoyable. I like to fish at night (walleye and stripers hit best then), but my wife also likes moonlit cruises.

In short, take your time, look out for the other guy, and be alert and vigilant at ALL times. There are some fishermen that don't like to have their lights on when fishing, so avoid the shorelines also.

 

[AZQCBoater]

Hello Thank you for the reply. I'm not in a hurry to get anywhere at night. Just want to enjoy the peacefulness night boating can bring under the stars so I will boat slowly and safe.

 

[Southtowns27]

I'm a professional mariner so admittedly I've got a bit of an unfair advantage, but I take my pleasure boat out regularly at night. The one piece of advice I can offer is to NOT fixate on the horizon. The buoys, boats, and other floating things are in the water between you and the horizon, meaning they will be BELOW the horizon line (unless they're really tall). Venture out for the first night trip in ideal conditions (no wind, light traffic, moonlight) in a familiar area, take your time, and pay attention. You'll love it!

 

[JimS123]

Yeah, in my youth I used to love it too. A moonlight cruise with a special lady just can't be beat. But now that I'm old, we come home before sunset.

A few years ago, a small fishing boat at anchor off a small island, with his anchor light properly displayed, was hit by a drunken gofast and everybody aboard was killed. Likely the idiot would have hit the island had it not been for the fishermen. Sadly, a year later a similar thing happened.

That's why I don't boat at night anymore. Its not that i don't trust my abilities, ts that I don't trust the other guys.

Stay safe and have fun.

 

[mike_i]

I fish saltwater when dark and realize that no matter how careful you are it's the other guy that will cause you problems.

 

[Texasmark]

I went in the afternoons after work rather than weekends. Did boat at night on numerous occasions. Good light a necessity, knowing the water a necessity, still had to be careful. Never had a problem at the launch but in today's world, may be a problem, especially on an isolated launch, both for you and your equipment......trailers do show up for sale on Craig's list with no explanation as to origin!

 

[RGrew176]

I've done quite a bit of night boating during my boating career. In fact my last night time trip was last August when I crossed Lake Erie from Gibraltar Michigan over to Middle Bass Island Ohio. Left my dock about 3 AM and arrived there about 7:30 AM. Kept my speed down to about 7 MPH until the sun started to rise then I got up on plane the rest of the way.

It's pretty dark out there on Lake Erie when there is only about 1/8th sliver of moon showing. That wee bit of light did help.

 

[tramsdell]

Too bad there isnt a night time speed limit set by the CG...






i only night boat during duck season. Nobody else around. Dont try to us a light to navigate. It just plays off the water and fog and blinds others. Know your water, go slow, watch the sonar and GPS.

 

[dingbat]

I don't 100% trust my electronics at night, especially on fluctuating reservoirs, I use them as a reference to run the main channel. Mead is about 100' low and my charts are for near full pool, so a high spot 75' deep on the chart is now an island.

I take it your plotter/charts don’t have “lake level” function. Automaticity compensation for changes in lake levels.

 

[Texasmark]

Night vision 101, compliments USAF: If you want to see something at night in near-total darkness, don't look directly at it as there is something (forget been 60+years) in your eye that blocks direct night vision, but look a few degrees off to the side of the object a few degrees. Obviously it's not perfectly clear, but detectible, especially a moving object which would be what you would encounter in night boating without a spotlight.

The tutorial was in a movie theater with the lights off and a very dim picture of a B-25 in the center of the screen. You were told to look at the center of the screen and identify the object....saw nothing. Then they put the picture on the left side of the screen, still in near total darkness and there it was, the B-25. I have since used that analogy many times in the dark to see things that I couldn't see otherwise.

On the other guy is usually your worst nightmare, I have been out at night and go-fast boats would do their thing. Caused me to anchor in a cove rather than open water.....with my dinky little white light shining.

Other problem in urban waters are background lights and sailboats. Their little tiny white light is high up in the rigging in some cases and they aren't under sail. Light gets mixed in with background lights and you can't see it. Using the spot light you can catch the hull reflection.

 

[Cougarrx]

A couple of years ago, with a fairly new boat, my son and his family, we camped on the beach on Lake Roosevelt. It was the 4th of July and that evening there were fireworks from the top of the dam. It didn't start till 9:30-10 o'clock. Needless to say, it was dark going back to the campsite. I had the great foresite to mark the camp on the GPS so I at least knew where I was going. With the boat being new I was not able to find the docking light switch. I knew it was one of 6 switches but couldn't figure out which one. (It turned out that it was one of two switches that lived in the middle position and pushing it up would turn on the lights) The GPS said we were there but it was so dark it wasn't until my son found a flashlight and we were about 10-12 feet from shore. It was a nervewracking 5 mile drive back to the camp. Not much fun. I can now find my docking light switch with my eyes closed, so I guess I learned something. Have a GPS and know your boat.

 

[AZQCBoater]

Thank you for the replies and tips. Keep them coming

 

[Iskander-M]

All depends on your boating area. I’m boating on Thames for few years now and all the estuary is quite well illuminated by night so in places you have a better visibility than in daytime. Just need to have a reasonable speed and pay attention around and it would be safe.

 

[H20Rat]

Don't underestimate your night vision... I spend a lot of time out at night (astronomer...), and when your eyes are fully dark adjusted, you can usually see quite well. It takes very little light to ruin your night vision though, so gauges need to be very dim (or off), and avoid looking at your stern light at all costs. (I have a makeshift shield on my that blocks most of the light from shining down into the boat)

 

[fishrdan]

I take it your plotter/charts don’t have “lake level” function. Automaticity compensation for changes in lake levels.

Nope, too cheap of a unit for that functionality. Expensive plotters have it, and I looked at them, but they were out of my budget. I've seen big expensive boats with low dollar electronics ($100-200), hence my comment.

 

[dingbat]

Nope, too cheap of a unit for that functionality. Expensive plotters have it, and I looked at them, but they were out of my budget. I've seen big expensive boats with low dollar electronics ($100-200), hence my comment.

Garmin's Dynamic Lake Level compensation is a feature of their BlueChart[SUP]®[/SUP] g3 Vision and LakeVü g3 Ultra maps.

Works on any Garmin EchoMAP, EchoMAP CHIRP and GPSMAP Plotter. You can buy a compatible plotter for under $200

 

[garbageguy]

We have done lots of night boating, in many different circumstances. They all require experience, familiarity with your equipment and the area you're in, just the right amount of confidence, everything working well, good crew, etc, etc. It can be much different under different circumstances. However, there have been circumstances that keep some better at it than us, at the dock (such as no lights on or around a very big body of water). Lots of good discussion here. Depends a lot on your individual circumstances. On the relatively small lake we're on at "the camp", the lights on the shoreline can guide well, however, they change by season, month, week, even day - fortunately, I 'm very familiar with all that. On the big isthmus we boat on near home, I know the lights very well, and they're pretty much the same most of the time.
We still prefer boating in daylight, but sometimes a night run is "necessary". It's complicated, including it's not just day vs night - lots of factors.

 

[fishrdan]

Garmin's Dynamic Lake Level compensation is a feature of their BlueChart[SUP]®[/SUP] g3 Vision and LakeVü g3 Ultra maps.

Works on any Garmin EchoMAP, EchoMAP CHIRP and GPSMAP Plotter. You can buy a compatible plotter for under $200

Thanks for the info db! My electronics are 6-7 years old, and (affordable) technology has come a long way since then.

 

[Stumpalump]

Look for the moon rise time.

 

[dingbat]

Thanks for the info db! My electronics are 6-7 years old, and (affordable) technology has come a long way since then.

In a world with software updates the age of the equipment isn’t as important as the companies long term support strategy.

My GPSMAP chart plotter is a 2006 model