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Regardless of your paddling expertise, your first venture onto the water at night should be somewhere safe. On a calm night with clear skies and moonlight, take your boat to a quiet lake with as few lighted buildings as possible around it and launch. It’s safer to take a paddling partner with you for this. And, as always, it’s important to leave a float plan with someone.
As soon as you’ve paddled 100 yards, stop and look around you and behind you. Even a waterway you’re familiar with can look very different at night because the references you depend upon look different (or may not even be visible). Study your view until you’re sure you can find this place when you come back. Take special notice of details like how lights on shore line up or how far the dock extends. When you’re sure you can locate this spot again, you can start your trip.
As you paddle, stay as close to shore as is safe and take note of the shapes of the landmass surrounding whatever body of water you’re floating on. Look ahead, and if there’s a point of land not too far away, paddle toward it. There is a tendency for people to “aim” at a point of land as if it’s the target. Unless you actually want to hit it, aim to be offshore of that point far enough to avoid any hidden (underwater) dangers.
Test all your lights before you have to depend on them. I like to go out early in the season (spring, where I paddle) with friends to see if I can turn on my new lights wearing paddling gloves and if I can be seen when I want to be. Paddle around until you’re comfortable with navigating on the water at night, then do test rescues until you feel secure with handling kayaks in the dark.
Staying close to shore offers both tangible benefits and risks. It’s probably the most unlikely place to encounter other boating traffic—especially large deep-draft vessels—but it’s also the most likely place to find anchored boats and barges, docks and piers, and partially submerged pilings. But what you really don’t want is to get into a line of breakers or heavy rips. It pays to study a marine chart of the area and a tide/current table first.
By paddling close to shore, you will be more aware of any current than you would be if you were farther out. Buoys will leave a wake, kelp will point away from the current, and if you stop paddling, you can see progress against the shore more easily if you’re closer. Balanced against those advantages is the downside: You will also be more affected by possibly strong eddy lines and even dangerous rips. Because you may not be able to see these by the marks they make on the water, you should keep an eye on the conditions that cause them, such as a narrowing channel, passages between islands or points of land protruding into what would be the main tidal flow.
The real test of your night kayaking skills come when you are caught out late in the day and have to enter an unfamiliar bay after dark. The first thing to remember is that many bays look similar at night. I have a friend who ran his sailboat onto a reef because he was one bay south of the one he really wanted. Other than that—and the fact that the lights of the city at the end of the bay weren’t visible when they should have been—it all looked the same; even the compass course was pretty much the same. It wasn’t exactly right, though, and that should have been a clue. The skipper talked himself into believing that landmarks that weren’t quite the same were “close enough.” So keep your wits about you and if something doesn’t fit, stop and double-check. It might be a good time to use your GPS.
A compass and a predetermined compass course are the essentials for a safe passage. Take the time before you go to plot some compass courses for your route. Draw lines on the chart and pencil in the actual headings, and keep your charts available during the voyage. Also decide on and plot “escape routes” that will take you out of danger no matter what else happens.
Navigational charts often have fathom lines plotted so that boats with depth sounders can simply follow, say, the 10-fathom curve right into the anchorage. No depth sounder on your kayak? I didn’t think so. There are suitable units for kayaks and even some recent articles about installation, but not many paddlers have one.
You can follow around the landmass and into the bay or to the beach, just make sure you stay far enough offshore to keep out of the breakers. Check your charts for rocks or other hazards on which surf may be breaking and circle them. These are usually indicated but may not be shown on charts for developing countries. In fact, the charts for these areas are often based on surveys carried out in the 19th century from sailing vessels. You can even see the tacks the ship took by looking at the zigzag pattern of soundings.
Watch for the flash of light reflected from the white crests of breakers, and be especially aware of the way the sea “humps up” around underwater obstructions. In a regular seaway, pay attention to the movement of your kayak for the out-of-sequence, confused waves that may be reflected from a rock close by.
If you stay close to the land, you can simply follow it around and into safety as long as you are mindful of any dangers lying offshore. If your destination is a town or city, you’ll be faced with a bright backdrop of lights and reflections against which you’ll need to recognize any navigational aids. These are most often in the form of lighted buoys. These are easy to see if you’re standing on a ship’s bridge high above the water, but a paddler in a kayak will have to pick them out from a horizon cluttered with lights. A string of lighted buoys marking a channel may be clearly discerned on your chart but not be obvious in the landscape ahead of you. Some buoys will seem to be very far apart, and the lights for them will be higher than you might expect because of your low seating.
Channel marker buoys, navigational lights, lighthouses and even foghorns all have distinctive patterns of colors, light flashes and sounds that distinguish one from the other in the same area. These are all listed on the Light List available in the U.S. from dealers or online (www.navcen.uscg.gov).
You don’t need to be in the channel to use channel markers, but you need to know where the channel is. It’s often safer to be out of the channel to avoid the movements of larger vessels. In harbors with VTS oversight, you’re required to stay out of the VTS channels unless you’re participating in the system, or if you’re crossing, you must cross as quickly and directly as possible.
Many harbor entrances have both channel buoys and ranges. A range is a combination of lights and/or day markers set up one behind the other so that when they are aligned (usually one atop the other, but remember they’re designed for boats larger than yours), your vessel is in the center of the channel. Again, if this is a large harbor, it’s probably not a good idea to be trundling along smack-dab in the middle of the entrance channel at 3 knots in your kayak.
Some lights are designed to warn you away or to give you specific, even detailed, information. The “red sector” of a lighthouse, for instance, usually marks shoals. So if the light on the lighthouse you’re using for navigating turns from white to red, you have entered a danger zone. These sectors are shown on charts and can be a great navigation aid. Likewise, patterns of white lights are used to warn you of dangerous situations. The International Code of Signals contains the codes for flag signals, flashing light signals, sound signals, radio telephone and radiotelegraph and even hand and arm signals. One important signal is the letter “U,” which means “you are running into danger,” and can be seen automatically flashing (short-short-long) from drill rigs and other semipermanent structures in bays and even out in the ocean.
In some developing countries, local boaters have what can only be referred to as a whimsical approach to navigation lights. Many boats simply don’t have them. On one trip across the Sea of Cortez at night, my attention was caught by the sudden disappearance of a steady light on shore and then its reappearance a moment later. The dark mass that had momentarily obscured the light turned out to be a shrimp trawler with no lights heading for the same place I was heading. Be alert for this “occulting,” especially if a large part of the horizon suddenly turns dark. It could be a ship or a barge close by with running lights too high for you to see. Sometimes the only indication of a nearby boat will be a crew member lighting a cigarette.
The key to night navigation is preparation and experience. Become familiar with being on the water in the dark, and practice the skills it takes to be out there safely when you’re in control of the situation. Learn to recognize how the bottom of the sea is often an extension of the nearby landmass. A gentle slope of land will extend underwater some distance, and you might expect to find breakers farther out than expected. A steep cliff is likely to arise from deep water, but fallen rocks from that cliff can pile up into underwater dangers at its base.
Don’t make your turns too quickly rounding a point. Make sure the land is well aft of your shoulder before changing course to avoid getting too close and being set into danger. When rounding a point, you can move from an area of still water into a strong current. Know the tides and the currents for the area you’re paddling and imagine how the water will flow around the land.
If you have a GPS, use it to check on your position and progress but don’t just turn it on and leave it on unless you’re navigating a particularly tricky area in impaired visibility. The batteries in your unit are likely to fail just when you need them the most—so use this tool sparingly, but don’t hesitate to use it when you need it.
Take your time, keep your wits about you, and practice under controlled conditions. You may discover that you enjoy night paddling.
Craig Jungers has been kayaking since the 1970s and has paddled in Greenland, Brazil, Mexico and Canada. He is a former Merchant Marine Officer and sailboat cruiser who now lives on a farm with his wife and two kids in central Washington State. |
Lighting technology is undergoing a rapid change with the advent of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) replacing incandescent lamps. LED lights in a wide variety of colors are rapidly entering the marketplace, including many designed for use by kayakers. Running lights, deck lights and even mast lights using LEDs, if you choose to use them, can be mounted to your kayak with either a suction cup (for fiberglass or composite boats) or a stud mount (for plastic boats). When I think about mounting running lights on my kayak, I’m torn between wanting to be seen (and avoided) and wanting to not be seen at all so that no one points a high-power searchlight at me and temporarily blinds me.
Coast guard and most state regulations don’t require running lights on a kayak, but if you do mount them on your boat, you have to make sure they conform to the applicable laws. In the U.S., the coast guard requires that running lights must conform to specific rules. The port and starboard (red and green) bow lights have to be installed so the red light can’t be seen from the starboard side and the green light can’t be seen from port. Neither light should be visible beyond 112.5 degrees from the bow. Only when the boat is pointing directly at you should both side lights be visible at the same time. A white running light should be visible in an arc of 135 degrees at the stern. A white all-around light has a number of specific uses and shouldn’t be used on kayaks while underway. (For a good overview of navigation lights, see www.boatingbasiconline.com “Navigation Lights.”)
If you decide to use running lights, they may be of use in keeping tabs on other paddlers in your group, but most running lights that could be mounted on a kayak would not be high enough or bright enough to give other vessels in the area an indication of your presence and direction of movement. It’s also worth mentioning that small vessels such as kayaks may not show up on radar. Even radar reflectors mounted on kayaks aren’t much use except on very calm seas. If there is any wave action, your radar appearance is very likely to be lost in the “noise.” At any rate, it’s dangerous to assume that a powered (or even sailing) vessel will see you and avoid you. At night, it’s especially important to watch for other vessels and stay out of their way.
Carry a good waterproof flashlight in your PFD. Coast guard regulations require that kayakers and other pilots of small boats carry a flashlight with a white light that they can use to shine at other boats to illuminate themselves and indicate their presence. A powerful flashlight can also be invaluable for finding your way through obstructions or locating a safe landing site in the dark. Make sure you can turn your light on and off with wet hands or with gloves on, if you wear them.
For signaling other boats to indicate my position, I use an aluminum high-intensity pocket flashlight with an incandescent bulb. While LED lights are getting brighter every year, incandescent bulbs backed up with enough battery power still cast their beam the greater distance.
It’s useful to have all paddlers in a group carry a light to mark their positions. The soft luminescent glow of chemical light sticks work well for this purpose. They’re bright enough to see but not so bright as to compromise night vision. Modern LEDs are a wonderful option to light sticks. They last a lot longer than the single-use chemical lights and are easier to see over a distance or in rough water. LED button lights are available in many colors and with steady and flashing lights. It’s easier to keep an eye on the steady light in a seaway where high waves occasionally block other paddlers from view. Different colors of LEDs or glow sticks on each member of the group would be a handy way to keep track of everyone.
Strobe lights are commonly sold as an accessory to a PFD, but it’s against regulations to use a strobe to mark the position of a vessel operating on the water. Strobes should only be used in an emergency to attract attention but should be turned off as would-be rescuers who have located you draw near, lest it ruin their night vision. Having a steady LED light or flashlight handy can be useful when help has arrived. The steady light will also mark your position very well in rough water when the flash of a strobe can be obscured by the waves.
Navigation at night is even more important than it is during the day. If you have a GPS, by all means take it along, as it can be an enormous help in determining where you are and how to get to where you want to be. I would not advise simply turning it on and following it blindly, however. You still need to keep track of where you are by having a chart handy. A GPS won’t steer you around reefs and other hazards if you’ve gone off course. A water-resistant LED flashlight with a red lens cap or red LEDs makes a handy lamp that will preserve your night vision when you want to read charts or view a GPS screen.
Many GPS units come with backlighting for the display, but I prefer to use my red LED flashlight. This preserves the GPS batteries for navigation and also preserves my night vision. A glance at the GPS screen can show me my course, and once I know that, I transfer my sight to a distant light (try to pick one that’s not moving!) or bright star. Then I don’t need to watch my compass or GPS—I just hold a course toward that light.
A VHF radio can also be a valuable accessory to a night paddle. If the buttons aren’t illuminated and you don’t have them memorized, you can use your red LED light to operate it.
I have not found trying to contact nearby ships using VHF to be very effective, especially non-U.S. vessels. In heavy traffic areas, the crew on the bridge may be very busy and they may only be listening for radio traffic directed at them by their vessel name. In addition, if the vessel is operating under the supervision of the Vessel Traffic System (VTS), its crew does not have to monitor channel 16, the emergency and hailing channel. Even at sea, outside of the VTS, there is little radio talk on channel 16 and crews may not be actively monitoring their radios. You should still use channel 16, but be aware that you can’t always depend on it. Before crossing a shipping lane, you might also listen to channel 13 for bridge-to-bridge communications about vessel movements.
It can be useful, however, to use your VHF to contact the Vessel Traffic Center (VTC) or the local harbormaster when you’re about to cross shipping lanes. In the U.S., there are nine VTCs: Houston, Los Angeles, Louisville, Morgan City, New York City, San Francisco, Sault St. Marie, Seattle and Valdez. Each of these centers has its own procedure, so check current marine charts or the Internet (www.navcen.uscg.gov) for instructions on the area you plan to paddle.
If you’re paddling in any VTS areas and not participating in the system (that is, you haven’t radioed VTC), it’s important to avoid the use of channels 5A, 11, 12, 13 and 14 because any of these could be dedicated to the VTC communications.
When using a VHF, keep radio traffic to a minimum; make your transmissions brief and to the point. For personal chatter, we often use the inexpensive Family Radio Service (FRS) radios available almost everywhere. They’re often not water resistant and certainly not useful for emergencies, but they are handy. I keep one in the shoulder pocket of my dry top, where I can just squeeze the transmit button to talk to my paddling buddies.
I also carry my cell phone. A cell phone is remarkably useful for emergencies and handy for calling home to explain that you may be late, but you’re not in need of a Search and Rescue operation. I keep my cell packed in a dry bag and usually secured on a lanyard and under my deck. Someone invariably calls me while I’m paddling, and I ignore it until I’m somewhere safe. |
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