Cruising in the dark
by Jim Murrant

So how do night techniques differ when cruising?

It does not necessarily follow, but it is likely, that the cruising crew will have fewer people than the racing crew and they will have less reason to be as alert. But they should be. They still should concentrate enormously on watch keeping. Whether racing or cruising it is imperative at night to keep a good look out for ships doing sea speed in recognised shipping lanes. The onus to keep a good lookout really is up to crew of the boat, and they must be prepared to take the avoiding action to avoid disaster. It is difficult enough, particularly in bad visibility, to be able to deduce from ships' lights what their course is, how fast they are travelling and what sort of ship it is. In bad conditions it can be almost impossible to work out. Since the closing time might be something like 15 minutes from first sighting to close proximity, there's not a long time to make a decision. Therefore the earliest warning that you can get, the better it is.

Even then, with all the experience in the world, they can be frightening times. About a year ago I was coming back with a crew of would-be yacht masters from Southport to Sydney . We had weaved our way through several fishing fleets and more or less settled down to the pre-dawn watches in scudding rain and gusting winds when we saw what appeared to be a large vessel heading straight at us. We could see the port and starboard lights and what appeared to be an illuminated bridge. Because of the bridge lighting we could not see the steaming lights.

We decided the best thing to do was to make a drastic turn in towards the shore and away from the vessel. As soon as we did so it seemed to follow us. Whatever we tried the other vessel seemed to be aiming straight as. We shone torches on to the mainsail to try to make us more visible. After perhaps ten minutes of quite terrifying manoeuvring we broke away. We called into Coffs Harbour on the way down the coast and I spoke to the skipper of another yacht in the same sailing school. He described an incident almost exactly the same as the one I have just described. We realised that we had each mistaken the other for a larger vessel and that we had been circling each other in the middle of the night. It was funny afterwards but it was not at the time.

The safety aspect of sailing at night applies to racing as well as cruising. We have already talked about keeping a good look out, but there are many mechanical things that should be taken care of. I do not allow anyone on deck at night without a safety harness. There are no exceptions. The way in which a crew member goes below or comes up from below is defined. When coming up from below they hand the strop up to a crew member as they stand on the cabin sole and the crew member clips it to a strong point or the jackstay. Only then is the crew allowed on deck. When going below the reverse takes place. The crew member goes below and when standing on the sole gets another member to release them.

The reason for this is that most people who are lost overboard are lost from the companionway. They have been in the comparatively calm comfort of the interior of the boat and they are coming out to a comparatively wild scene without being ready for it. That technique minimises the risk.