Posted by Andy Morley on April 12, 1999 at 23:56:01:
In Reply to: Re: Night Sailing navigation posted by Patrick Fox on April 12, 1999 at 18:31:43:
GPS..? I'm sure if I had one, it would get stepped on or dropped overboard. I've done my night sailing on Coniston, when we were a bit late leaving Peel Island back home for the tents at Bank Ground in the summer of '96. You can read Miss Bolger's account in the Spring '97 Signals (p26) but they've edited out the only dangerous bit, which was chucking the beer cans from Black Jack to Andy Bolger who was in Coot (his Mirror). And no, I'm afraid we didn't have lights, but your eyes just get used to it and you keep your ears open.
I've also done the "making a landfall on the dangerous Breton coast when someone unexpectedly turned the big upstairs light off". That's in the Dinghy Cruising Association's Bulletin 161 and if anyone's remotely interested, I'll put it on my web page. And fitting navigation lights on Black Jack made it possible to stay late at the Pandora Inn before heading back across the Carrick Roads for the Percuil River while the kids crashed out in the cuddy. I don't think a GPS would have done that much for me there, but the edge given by four sleeping kids in a 16 footer certainly heightened my senses, which is what you want in those situations.