We expanded our sailing experiences last weekend (July 14,15) by trying a night voyage. I was a little uneasy about the whole thing, but as usual my first mate (wife) was the brave one and was determined to watch the sun going down while "at sea" on Southern Illinois' finest "inland sea", Rend Lake. The sailing was probably the most remarkable, unmatched human experience , I had ever encountered in my "short" 50 years of life here on earth. And... as the winds died down, the surface of the lake took on a whole new form. There were no more waves, but rather "lumps of cotton" or some sort of water surface from a sci-fiction journey to another planet. I remarked to my wife at the time that the lake seemed to be engulfing our boat, or the density of the water was decreasing and slowing "swallowing" us. By this time she was beginning to see me as a real wimp, so I had to stop letting my imagination go unchecked. After anchoring for awhile, we started the 4 hp o b and after a moonlight cruise we made it back to our sailboat harbor. AN EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME.... Excerps from a quote I recently found: " Since we already know our fate on this planet, why stay on the shore any more? Cast out , raise the sails and begin the journey of a lifetime."
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Dave
Night Sailing
My best and one of my worst sailing experiences were both at night. The best was a moonlight sail from Noank, Ct. to Newport, RI in my Catalina 25 with a steady 12 knot breeze the whole way, full moon, and great companionship (my son and brother). Pulled in about 2:00 am. The worst was when fog rolled in and my LORAN lost the signal (no GPS then) and I had to dead reckon back to port. I did make it home ok but I was nervous about the liability related to my passengers. Another good reason not to rely only on electronic instruments. You should always track your progress on a chart so if your electronics fail you can still navigate properly. Now if they could make the lobster pots disappear I would prefer night sailing over daytime. Dave
My best and one of my worst sailing experiences were both at night. The best was a moonlight sail from Noank, Ct. to Newport, RI in my Catalina 25 with a steady 12 knot breeze the whole way, full moon, and great companionship (my son and brother). Pulled in about 2:00 am. The worst was when fog rolled in and my LORAN lost the signal (no GPS then) and I had to dead reckon back to port. I did make it home ok but I was nervous about the liability related to my passengers. Another good reason not to rely only on electronic instruments. You should always track your progress on a chart so if your electronics fail you can still navigate properly. Now if they could make the lobster pots disappear I would prefer night sailing over daytime. Dave
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Curtiss Grant
Night Sailing
Night Sailing is an EXPERIENCE OF A LIFE TIME. I became hooked on it a couple of years ago with some friends on a 18' Hobie Cat sailing in the Galveston Bay in South Texas - freighters, tankers and all. BUT WHAT A KICK! I recently acquired a 26 footer and night sail on it as often as possible. Now my wife complains that she can not get any sleep at night because I want to just keep "sailing a little while longer" or during the middle of the night if the wind is still sufficient, I 'll wake up, pull anchor and off we go ("gotta sail while the wind is blowing, honey"). Recently, I wanted a new experience and trailored to a bay complete new to me about 100 miles away. My wife and I left dock and motored toward a cove 5 miles way which I had identified on the charts for overnight anchorage. My wife, who is a very fair weather sailor, is really enjoying it! Even though it was going to be a full moon night, remember, it takes a couple of hours after dark for the moon to come up. During that time, the wind picked up to about 18 MPH, the water got a mean chop, and it got REAL dark. I then determine I need to change directions and head for the cove. Now the chop is from the beam knocking us all over the place, THEN I detect structures in the water (various oil pumping stations etc). I slow down to about 3 miles per hour, and proceed, worried about the water depth, what I don't see, possiblities of getting knocked off the boat AND going crazy about how my fair weather wife is handling it. It is so bad, I am wanting my life jacket (equiped with everything you want if you go overboard)from the cabin - BUT I am afraid to ask my wife to go get it because I am afraid it will indicate to her how bad the conditions have deterioriated (it made a LOT of sense at the time)! It all ended well and my wife had a good laught when I told her about it AFTER we anchored. I now restrict my night sailing to waters which I am more familiar. BUT it is fantastic!
Night Sailing is an EXPERIENCE OF A LIFE TIME. I became hooked on it a couple of years ago with some friends on a 18' Hobie Cat sailing in the Galveston Bay in South Texas - freighters, tankers and all. BUT WHAT A KICK! I recently acquired a 26 footer and night sail on it as often as possible. Now my wife complains that she can not get any sleep at night because I want to just keep "sailing a little while longer" or during the middle of the night if the wind is still sufficient, I 'll wake up, pull anchor and off we go ("gotta sail while the wind is blowing, honey"). Recently, I wanted a new experience and trailored to a bay complete new to me about 100 miles away. My wife and I left dock and motored toward a cove 5 miles way which I had identified on the charts for overnight anchorage. My wife, who is a very fair weather sailor, is really enjoying it! Even though it was going to be a full moon night, remember, it takes a couple of hours after dark for the moon to come up. During that time, the wind picked up to about 18 MPH, the water got a mean chop, and it got REAL dark. I then determine I need to change directions and head for the cove. Now the chop is from the beam knocking us all over the place, THEN I detect structures in the water (various oil pumping stations etc). I slow down to about 3 miles per hour, and proceed, worried about the water depth, what I don't see, possiblities of getting knocked off the boat AND going crazy about how my fair weather wife is handling it. It is so bad, I am wanting my life jacket (equiped with everything you want if you go overboard)from the cabin - BUT I am afraid to ask my wife to go get it because I am afraid it will indicate to her how bad the conditions have deterioriated (it made a LOT of sense at the time)! It all ended well and my wife had a good laught when I told her about it AFTER we anchored. I now restrict my night sailing to waters which I am more familiar. BUT it is fantastic!
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Paul Housman
First night sail
Larry, We did our first night sail last weekend. It was great!!! It had been hot and humid all day with hardly any wind. We decided to take her out at night. All the sailboats we passed said the winds were nonexistant.If all else fails we thought we'd motor around and watch the sun set. Once we got out to the lake the wind picked up and low and behold we were flying along at a little over 7 knots. We had the whole lake to ourselves(as far as sailboats go). Had to watch out for the bass boats and the barges. I was so pumped up when we got back couldn't sleep. Learned to identify buoys at night and read the channel markers. Great experience Paul H S/V Linda Belle H26
Larry, We did our first night sail last weekend. It was great!!! It had been hot and humid all day with hardly any wind. We decided to take her out at night. All the sailboats we passed said the winds were nonexistant.If all else fails we thought we'd motor around and watch the sun set. Once we got out to the lake the wind picked up and low and behold we were flying along at a little over 7 knots. We had the whole lake to ourselves(as far as sailboats go). Had to watch out for the bass boats and the barges. I was so pumped up when we got back couldn't sleep. Learned to identify buoys at night and read the channel markers. Great experience Paul H S/V Linda Belle H26
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Al Sandrik
Larry August 4th you've got a chance for...
another first. Sailing during a full moon. I you think night sailing is a kick wait until you try it with a full moon glistening off the water. October (I think) will be the Hunter's moon, in Jacksonville we try to get the Hunters in Whitney's Marine out for a full moon sail. Last yeat it was blowing about 15n (20?) knots and I was tucked in between two 45 footers! Try being within 50-100 feet of two other, much larger boats, at night, doing about 7 knots! God it was fun.
another first. Sailing during a full moon. I you think night sailing is a kick wait until you try it with a full moon glistening off the water. October (I think) will be the Hunter's moon, in Jacksonville we try to get the Hunters in Whitney's Marine out for a full moon sail. Last yeat it was blowing about 15n (20?) knots and I was tucked in between two 45 footers! Try being within 50-100 feet of two other, much larger boats, at night, doing about 7 knots! God it was fun.
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John Averell
luming (not looming) over the horizon.
Does this have to be about sail-sailing ? If so, I'm out of order. I had a reputation for being a good celestial navigator (Quartermaster 2nd class aboard my destroyer in 1967)and the captain decided to "test" me on a trans-atlantic voyage from Bermuda to Gibraltar. Operating with the USS Indepenence, I was not permitted to see any position reports from the carrier, and had to plot our position using only celestial navigation and ded-reconing (that's "ded" for deduced, not dead reconing). After about 14 days at sea, using only celestial and ded navigation, as we spent plenty of time in the fog and in cloudy weather, I predicted our approach to Cape Spartel Light on the Northwest point of Morocco to be exactly 0317 hours (3:17 AM) at bearing 050 degrees. At exactly 0315 hours the lookout reported the lume at 050 degrees. The captain entertained me in the wardroom (off-limits to enlisted crew) and the XO recommended me for Officer's Training School. Not a bad bit of night sailing. I went on to become an.....accountant.
Does this have to be about sail-sailing ? If so, I'm out of order. I had a reputation for being a good celestial navigator (Quartermaster 2nd class aboard my destroyer in 1967)and the captain decided to "test" me on a trans-atlantic voyage from Bermuda to Gibraltar. Operating with the USS Indepenence, I was not permitted to see any position reports from the carrier, and had to plot our position using only celestial navigation and ded-reconing (that's "ded" for deduced, not dead reconing). After about 14 days at sea, using only celestial and ded navigation, as we spent plenty of time in the fog and in cloudy weather, I predicted our approach to Cape Spartel Light on the Northwest point of Morocco to be exactly 0317 hours (3:17 AM) at bearing 050 degrees. At exactly 0315 hours the lookout reported the lume at 050 degrees. The captain entertained me in the wardroom (off-limits to enlisted crew) and the XO recommended me for Officer's Training School. Not a bad bit of night sailing. I went on to become an.....accountant.
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