First Night Sail

What an interesting experience!

Last night (Saturday, Aug 2nd), we set sail from OSCS to learn about the challenges when sailing at night, including identifying ships by their running lights, understanding ship traffic control language, and plotting a course around buoys and channel markers. Perhaps we'd even get to see a falling star or two.

I have been on the water at night at other times, the most recent during a cruise on a humongous cruise ship in the Mediterranean where a storm caught up to us with waves slapping against the dinning room windows. It was very unnerving to say the least! Last night was no such experience. Instead, the wind and waves cooperated in a lively but spirited way. Easterly winds from 18-21 kn with 2 ft -3 ft waves. Our average speed was about 6 kn and a top speed of 8 kn downwind.

The intriguing thing for me was the way the night and surrounding lights played with the mind's perception of time and space. In the darkness our 4-hour journey seemed to have been only an hour or so. Perhaps this was due to the new experience as I became absorbed by the moment and forgot about time. My perception of space was also distorted, surprising so. Brightly lit objects many miles away seemed to be very close while dimly lit objects seem very far away. One channel buoy looked to be quite a ways away until we sailed past it and we were all shocked at how big it's metal skeleton appeared. I have sailed past that buoy many times during the day and I remember it only as being much smaller. I now have a better appreciation of the skills required to sail at night and also understand why night-time collisions can occur even to experienced captains.

The one disappointing aspect of our night sail (besides it being too short and the light pollution that limited star gazing) was the lack of ship traffic on the Bay. I had hope to gain much more experience in identifying ships simply by their running lights. There were a few ships (tug boats, dinner yachts, and ferries), but not enough for a meaningful long-term lesson. I guess I'll just have to schedule a few more nighttime sailings.

Now if we can only get the city of San Francisco to turn off all its lights for a few hours :-)