Do you sail in the dark?

Winston29

Active Member
I mean just for fun on your favorite local waters.

More than once, and just this Tuesday in fact, the promised 15mph winds didn't materialize until the sun was going down behind the local hills.
If I had navigation lights on my C-14.2, I would have launched anyway and not worried about how dark it might have gotten while I was out on the water.

Thing is, I NEVER see people sailing on Redwood Creek (actually a wide, tidal estuary and small, commercial port) once the sun goes down, and I'm not sure why. Maybe
because it's deemed too dangerous?

If I stayed near the docks where the ships come in, the lighting is pretty good, but if I go past them, out into the estuary, things will get inky black and creepy very quickly, with buoys, large channel markers, and shallow, muddy water, just outside the channel.

My hope, if this isn't a stupid, reckless idea, is to get navigation lights and some super bright LED floodlights for the bow, or possibly up high on the mast, for improved visibility and collision avoidance.

I honestly don't think I'd be straying too far past the lights, and would likely return to the dock before it got too late. It just sounds like fun. :cool:
 

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I never did, but you made me curious to try it once! My friends do go in the dark wearing a reflective life jacket! Let me also try it! :)
 
I picked up some cheap, LED nav lights off Amazon that, hopefully, I'll get the chance to try out on the water someday.

The light on the tiller/rudder looks green, but it's actually white, and I turned the two on the shrouds rearward for the picture so they'd show up. :)

I little piece of PVC pipe on the tiller handle seemed like the way to go, given these are basically bicycle lights, designed to mount to handlebars.
 

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