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On Thursday, October 09, 2003 4:01 PM,
Doug Royer  said:

[story of maneuvering a tug and tow through a mostly clueless
bunch of boats off San Diego]

I remember chatting with a fairly nervous tug captain one night
on VHF as he transited Buzzards Bay through a sailboat racing fleet.
He was showing all the right lights (and nothing else -- see below)
and made a Securit? call as he approached Buzzards Tower inbound.
Unfortunately, the tower was a turning mark of the race and the tug
was rather surprised and worried to find 20-30 sailboats out there
after midnight. Worse, the wind had gone light and even those
sailboats inclined to keep well clear (a minority among racers)
could do little. Only a couple of us bothered to call the tug and
try to sort things out. I didn't envy him one bit.

Doug also mentions the new LED lights:
> I can tell all of you now that these are very clear,color intense,
> bright units.These lights seem to stand out better than the incandecent
> lights of the same size,thus enableing opposing vessels to visualy discern
> the intent(at least the course)of another vessel at greater distance.

This brings up one of my pet peeves. The best running lights in the
world won't help if they're drowned out by a clutter of other lights.
I can't count the number of times I've stared at a fishing boat with
a dozen bright work lights in the rigging shining all over the deck,
trying to pick out the running lights. I appreciate that these are
a help to the crew when they're streaming or taking in the gear, but
more often these lights are left on all night, even when transiting
to the fishing grounds.

...and don't get me started about high-speed powerboats barreling
along with powerful searchlights pointing forward, blinding everyone
else out there...

 -- Peter

   

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