Night cruising, no lights!!!

[fsjcowboy]

This past Saturday night, my lovely bride and I decided to take our boat out and have dinner at a lakeside restaurant, the only lakeside restaurant on West Point Lake, GA. After dinner we left the dock for our return just before 9 p.m. This was my first night outing in many years but I felt that I was prepared with all of my nav lights on, emergency and lifesaving gear on board along with extra lights, a search beam, even flares. Life was good.

The weather was very clear although there was no moon at the time. With my return course mapped on my GPS that I have already saved on my GPS unit and the buoy lights on the water visible, it appeared it was gonna be a nice ride back doing about 7-8 mph and listening to Kenny Chesney along the way.

We came up to a 'no wake' zone at a bridge crossing and had slowed down when out of the darkness, just off of my port bow came a speeding boat with NO LIGHTS! He made a hard turn to his port, passed in front of my bow by just a few feet and continued powering on up the lake. As the boat went by my starboard side, I was able to see four, maybe five people, men and women, and that the boat had a dark stripe on the side. Scared us both. REALLY shook my wife up. That ruined our relaxing night cruise....Turned off Chesney and began using our spotlight much more intermittently for buoy ID and just so dumb-*****es with no lights might have a better chance at seeing us. Once again I have been shown that all of your safety preparations and precautions cannot save you from the stupidity and negligence of others. All of this is FYI and I just had to vent. Thanks. Oh..... and by the way....neither me or my wife were drinking. A rarity perhaps, but that night, because it was night, we were not.

 

[25thmustang]

Re: Night cruising, no lights!!!

Sorry to hear about it. It remains true for any form of vehicle, as safe as you can be, you cannot account for others.

In my area the real issue comes during the Fireworks. You have a LOT of boaters, late at night, drinking, partying etc... After the festivities let out, everyone wants to hightail it home. I'm sure many accidents happen due to the close quarters and neglegence.

Glad to hear nothing other than a scare happened to you, and it really stinks knowing every time you go out after dusk, you might feel unsafe. The best you can do is be prepared and know what to do if your in an accident.

 

[CATransplant]

Re: Night cruising, no lights!!!

That's not a smart idea. In the first place, if you followed them, you'd be boating very dangerously at night. In the second place, the people in the speeding boat are morons and probably had been drinking. Drunks do very stupid things, so if you did catch them, what would you do?

The OP did the right thing. Exactly the right thing.

 

[RL Gman]

Re: Night cruising, no lights!!!

The OP did the right thing. Exactly the right thing.

Of course, that's completely opinion. If you would have asked "my opinion", the "exact right thing" would have been a combination of what the OP had done, AND called it into the police, possibly to save a close call/life in the future.

 

[CATransplant]

Re: Night cruising, no lights!!!

That's probably true.

 

[CATransplant]

Re: Night cruising, no lights!!!

Of course, that's completely opinion. If you would have asked "my opinion", the "exact right thing" would have been a combination of what the OP had done, AND called it into the police, possibly to save a close call/life in the future.

Yes, calling the police would have been a good idea, if there's a night lake patrol on that lake. Most lakes don't have anyone on patrol on the lake at night. Without the registration number on the boat, it's unlikely that they'd be caught, I'd think, even if there was a patrol boat on the lake.

 

[RL Gman]

Re: Night cruising, no lights!!!

True. It would definitely be difficult for them to respond to that particular incident.

As you said earlier though, drunks can do some stupid things. One of those stupid things, they generally repeat the stupid things! May give big brother a heads up for the next encounter!

 

[JB]

Re: Night cruising, no lights!!!

Interesting. Almost exactly the same thing happened to me on Lake Minnetonka about 30 years ago.

Read about it in this month's iboats REVIEW.

 

[rbh]

Re: Night cruising, no lights!!!

It does'nt matter if it is a boat, car, truck, or a riding lawnmower.
Just do'nt operate any pieces of equipment under the influence.

 

[PitchFork]

Re: Night cruising, no lights!!!

Sorry to hear that unfortunate. I heard about 15 years ago a old childhood friend was killed because he was on a boat like the one that passed you and they hit a dock on the St. Johns River in Jacksonville. They were found the next morning all 5 dead in the boat as they ran under a dock and got clipped in the head.

I always have my Nav Lights on before the Sun goes below the horizon and run 15 MPH as most.

 

[CATransplant]

Re: Night cruising, no lights!!!

We had a case here in Minnesota on the Mississippi. Folks in a boat at night, drunk, of course, hit the front of a docked barge at speed. The boat went right under the barge and didn't come out. Dead people was the result.

When night falls, so should the speed of your boat.

 

[JoLin]

Re: Night cruising, no lights!!!

I don't cruise after dark (yet). I'm equipped if I need to do it, but I'm still relatively inexperienced.

I had to do so once in 2008 when my (then) outboard boat developed a problem and dropped into SLOW mode. It only took 45 minutes to get home at about 8 mph, but it was nerve-wracking. It's a very different world at night and takes a lot of getting used to.

Glad everyone's okay.

 

[lncoop]

Re: Night cruising, no lights!!!

Several years ago on a large corps impoundment down here a couple had their boat tied up in a large cove at night with no illumination of any sort (since this is a family friendly forum I'll leave it to speculation as to why they didn't have their lights on). A bass boat sped into the cove and t-boned them. She was killed. I absolutely love being out there at night, but some times one has to wonder....

 

[Kevinmcm]

Re: Night cruising, no lights!!!

Just a question, and mean no rudeness here, But if you had your beautiful bride with you, and a relaxing evening, with soft music, why wasnt you tucked into a cove with your lights off? Thats where I would have been!:redface: But very glad to hear you and your bride made it off lake safely and no reports of anyone getting hurt from their unintelligent actions

I'm sorry if I have offended anyone

 

[fsjcowboy]

Re: Night cruising, no lights!!!

Btdt.

 

[fsjcowboy]

Re: Night cruising, no lights!!!

JB.........I haven't read your article yet, but I would like to. I should subscribe to the "Review". I guess this type of story sounds like an old record that has played way too many times to many of you experienced captains. It was a new experience for me and I just wanted to vent, share, and perhaps listen to other 'survivor' stories.

 

[26aftcab454]

Re: Night cruising, no lights!!!

I boat at night often on my home lake- been doing it for decades.- I would not do it above no wake speed on a lake I was not familiar with. I'll get just up speed to be on plane-20-23MPH and stand looking over the top of my windshield- I even wear clr safety glasses to keep the bugs otta my eyes.
Lake Grapevine is not too big and well lit- being next to DFW airport between Dallas and Ft Worth it does not get too dark.Every Friday 930PM the Gaylord Texan Resort puts on an awesome fireworks show. Full moons are great too. When it is crowded no wake speed only.

I have come across many a fool with out lights- I keep 3 or 4 cheapo flash lights on board and will ask them if they need one.

In the OP case-not much you can do other than be responsible your self and hope they see you.

 

[Nightfisher-]

Re: Night cruising, no lights!!!

I fish the James river all summer from sundown to sunup and it is definitely a different world then. It is very likely that there will be nobody to come to your aid should something happen. You have to keep your eyes and ears open at all times and make frequent use of a spotlight for checking for debris ahead as well as nav markers. I always carry 2 batteries to ensure I will not go dark or become stranded with a dead battery. Know the rules. Nav and anchor light on when underway, anchor light only when anchored. I can not tell you how many times I have seen boats anchored with no lights at all on or underway with only the anchor light on. A couple of years ago a guy in a small jon was run completely over by a large bayliner at night. The jon had no lights on and the operator of the bayliner was drunk. The bayliner did not even stop. Instead he went home and pretended it never happened until the cops finally tracked him down.

 

[seabob4]

Re: Night cruising, no lights!!!

God, you don't want to hear all the stories of boating accidents here in FL at night...I don't do it, and none of my friends do. The only time it is dark is 0500, and were casting for bait...

 

[Jacket4life]

Re: Night cruising, no lights!!!

We night fish a lot on our lake, but rarely venture farther than the front of our cove because of stuff like this. And we almost never go on Frday or Saturday nights. Luckily, we are schoolteachers and are out during the week for a lot of the summer, we fish M-th on the boat, then drink on the dock Fri-Sat night (where I catch just about as many fish anyway!!!)