Navigating at night with lights

[salmonee]

I have my boat license but don't know the answer to this. If your out in the middle of nowhere and navigating from a fishing spot to the next or to the ramp at say midnight. How would you do this if you don't have a GPS? Can you use some kind of spotlight to see where your going? I'm also concern about avoiding debris in the water.

 

[trendsetter240]

Re: Navigating at night with lights

I have my boat license but don't know the answer to this. If your out in the middle of nowhere and navigating from a fishing spot to the next or to the ramp at say midnight. How would you do this if you don't have a GPS? Can you use some kind of spotlight to see where your going? I'm also concern about avoiding debris in the water.

In the olden days they used the stars

My advice is to get a hand held GPS for your own saftey and others. When I run at night I usually run fairly slowly and don't use a spot light. The spotlight will mess up your night vision. If it's pitch black then a spotlight might be the only answer to avoid debris.

Make sure you have your red/green bow lights and white stern light running at all times when you are moving.

 

[Snobike Mike]

Re: Navigating at night with lights

Don't be using spot lights. They will screw up your own vision and may steer other boaters wrong as well.

Good luck.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Navigating at night with lights

Boating at night is very dangerous. The only way to be somewhat safe, is to go slow, know where you are going, and either be able to see the aids to navigation, or use a spot light intermittently to find the aids to navigation. A GPS is helpful, if you have preplotted a course using waypoints that will take you where you need to go, via deep enough water. You still need to watch for debris.

 

[salmonee]

Re: Navigating at night with lights

This is out in the middle of nowhere. There wont be any boats. It's pitch black. This spot is on a river, how do I deal with debris without any lights?

 

[rbh]

Re: Navigating at night with lights

Most spot lights have two settings, flood and spot. If I got into a situation were I would have to travel during low/no light times, give me the flood light anytime, remember, its alot like snowmobiling at night, dont travel any faster than the time it takes you can stop.

 

[ziggy]

Re: Navigating at night with lights

How would you do this if you don't have a GPS?

i would think you would have to know the lake or area where your boating at very, very, well. including what lights are viewable at night so you have some kind of reference as to where you are.

Can you use some kind of spotlight to see where your going?

sure, i use one all the time. but only when i don't know what i'm seeing. then i'll hit it with the spot light for a moment only. so i can find out what i'm looking at. i'll do this in the middle of the lake or wherever i don't know what i'm seeing is. usually out in open water it isn't necessary to use though. but when i'm docking and coming into the channel to get to the docks, i'll use the spot light to hit the buoy markers, the dock, see others if they are around, etc.

I'm also concern about avoiding debris in the water.

back to using the spot light to see if you have to. also, myself, i go very slow at night (around 1k rpm). if i do hit something in the water, i'm gonna hit it slow, so hopefully no damage.
also at night, you'd be surprised as to how well you can see sometimes. depending on how much moon and stars are out. you do have to let your night vision start to work. it takes a few minutes for your eyes to adj. to low light levels. If i use my spot light, sometimes, i'll even close one eye when i make my quik scan with a spot light as to help preserve my night vision.

i agree with the others too. get a gps. i boat on the same body of water much of the time, including many night runs. you'd be surprised how things look totally foreign at night. even though ya've boated there for years. it just is not the same. nothing looks the same. i've been so screwed up i thought i was going east and i was going west. thank goodness for a gps. get one if your gonna night boat at all. it helps a lot.

 

[180shabah]

Re: Navigating at night with lights

There should be some light from stars and moon, at least on most nights. you would be suprised just how little light you need to see. If you have backlit gauges, put a dimmer on them, that glow is enough to mess up your eyes for a minute or two.

 

[DianneB]

Re: Navigating at night with lights

I boated Lake Erie many years ago and many of the small craft (non-radar) who ran at night had "running lights", one or more low power flood lights to light up the water head as well as a spot to reach farther out along your course. If you keep the light levels down, you can see the water quite well without destroying your night vision. Of course if it is clear and there is any amount of moon, you can see nearly as well as in daylight.

BTW: It takes the human eye about 30 minutes in darkness to reach 95% of night acuity.

 

[cwhite6]

Re: Navigating at night with lights

This is out in the middle of nowhere. There wont be any boats. It's pitch black. This spot is on a river, how do I deal with debris without any lights?

We night fish for catfish all the time here on the river. i use my running lights and a spotlight. The spotlight is only for spotting stuff in the water mostly. We move slowly at barely plane speed. Most important is keeping your eyes and EARS open and aware when you are moving. When we do use the spot to look for logs and such, it is held by the guy in the front of the boat and pointed maybe 20 yards ahead down at the water. You do not want to be shining it directly ahead as there may be someone else out there and you could blind them for a second. My boat stops very fast slow speeds so it is not a issue to point it ahead a small bit. It is also a flat bottom, so if we see a small log or such we usually idle down quickly, hold on and go over it instead of suddenly swerving and risking someone falling out. Also, we keep the life vests on all night. No since taking a risk of falling out in the dark. Could be very bad in a moving river. We keep them on even while we are fishing with the motor off.

 

[salmonee]

Re: Navigating at night with lights

Yeah, I want to gear up for catfishing. Are there any rules to what type of running lights you can have? I mean size wise, I guess? Also what type of spot light do you guys use?

 

[cwhite6]

Re: Navigating at night with lights

I use pole mount lights for the bow and stern. That way I can take them off when I do not need them. The white one on the stern is actually really dang bright and almost lights up the boat. I cannot remember the name of the spot, but it is a hand held one with a cord that has alligator clips on it. We carry a battery just for the spot light. I use my trolling motor to move around between our noddles and such when we are at our fishing hole. Check out the link below for an insane number of hard core catfisherman. There are most probably some in your area that you can meet up with. I found a couple here and went fishing with one. He showed the ropes of the river here. Night time catfishing is a blast and a great way to spend a summer evening.

http://www.catfish1.com/forums/forum.php

 

[diesel5599]

Re: Navigating at night with lights

I go night fishing all summer here out in the middle of the ocean usually, I don't even own a spotlight. For offshore I just use the moon, its amazingly bright at night. If its too cloudy to see the moon it means I probably shouldn't be out there either.

When I get closer to shore, the channel markers are well lit. The scary ones are the unlit ones, and the worst ones are the discarded ones that are just piles of railroad ties sticking out of the water.

The only debris I really worry about hitting is the sea turtles and the crab traps, at plane speed if I can't see it by moonlight I doubt a spotlight will give me any additional reaction time.

I give boaters that shine spotlights everywhere they go a wide berth, they are usually the ones outside of the channels and blinding everyone else with their spotlights.

One thing I would never do is go out at night without a GPS. Within a few miles every inch of shoreline looks just like every other inch at night and a few times a heavy fog rolled in and the only thing I could see was that line on my GPS telling me how to retrace my path.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Navigating at night with lights

learn how to use your compass; watch your track out in daytime and follow back at night.

If you have dash board lights cover them with a raincoat. If your anchor/stern light shines forward and lights up the interior of the boat, tape off the front (but this is illegal, so use your judgment, and don't do this if other boats are around).

Use your periferal vision to find things at night; you see much better with it than straight ahead.

Just like in the daytime, and unlike a car, in open water you drive toward a spot in the distance; you don't drive along the "road" you are on. So as you go around in the daytime, pick out waypoints, then watch them as they get dark. That red and white radio tower is now 3 red lights; the white houses on the shore are a line of streetlghts; the lone pier has a light on it. (Don't do as I did as a teenager--I picked out all the waypoints as it got dark, not realizing one wharf across the harbor was really a tanker, that left before I did and sailed away with my point!)

I've spent all of my boating life crossing an isolated stretch of marsh. High tide is the worse b/c you can't see the banks. There are never any boats out there--but once there was and people died. Use your running lights even if they compromise your vision and safety.