In the dark
Another day and another thing that I realize I need to brush up on! Today it’s navigation lights. What got me started thinking about the subject? While at the boat show this past weekend we were shopping for LED replacement bulbs for Katana’s nav lights. The power consumption of LED lights is apparently so much less than conventional bulbs that it is almost a no-brainer to replace them. Prior to heading to the boat show we stopped by the marina to take some pics of the lights on our mast. We snapped a pic of the anchor light at the top of the mast and the light midway up the front side of the mast which, at that time, we thought was the red and green nav lights. Before you post comments calling us stupid we have since figured it out. Had we actually been on the boat it would have been easy to see that the red and green are actually at the bow of the boat and that the one midway up the mast was actually the steaming light. Doh! Fortunately we ended up not buying any bulbs at the show because we no doubt would have purchased the wrong ones. We’ll instead end up getting them from our local chandlery, which I prefer to do anyway.
Our anchor light
Rebecca and I have only been sailing in the dark once, and that was not on purpose. This spring we’ll intentionally be looking to get some experience with this. Memorizing the light patterns is one thing but being able to interpret what we see on the water and take appropriate action is a separate, necessary skill that we need to develop.
This is the part of boating / sailing that freaks me out the most. Night watches and figuring out what the lights mean.
I hear you, Sandra. In a busy area it could be challenging.