New Year's Eve found us anchored, our favorite way to spend the night. We like swinging on the hook as opposed to being tied to a dock. Most folks would rather dress up and go out until midnight. We just had a quiet evening and went to bed early. I did set the alarm to go off at 11:55 so we could wake up and see the ball drop in Times Sqaure on tv, which we did. I went back to sleep after my New Year's Eve kiss without any problem. Don, on the other hand, was wide awake. At 12:30 he decides to pull up the anchor and start driving! Crazy Man! Fortunately he let me sleep for a few more hours. I got up about 3:00 am.
Here is what it looked like when I got up as we approached Hobucken.
Here is what it looked like when I got up as we approached Hobucken.
Hard to see what is going on isn't it? Here is a labeled picture.
Traveling down the ICW during the day is easy. Just follow the markers and you are fine. You can see all the boats and the markers to easily avoid them. Traveling down narrow channels at night is a completely different story! Judging the distance of a light is often confusing. Determining which way a vessel is traveling by the way a light is moving is equally difficult. You may know it is moving to the west, but is it moving northwest or southwest? Is it getting closer to you or further away?
Fortunately we have spent 25 years traveling this section of the ICW and know it like the back of our hands. Plus we have lots of electronics to guide us. We have a Garmin gps, which is just like the one in your car only it shows your position on a chart; a Furano radar, which shows us the location of the markers and other boats; and AIS (a total must have for me). The AIS system gives you a wealth of information about other boats around you including name of the vessel, speed, direction traveling, closest point of contact and the time to the closest point of contact. It also sends your information to the boats around you. That is provided they have AIS as well.
Commercial vessels all have AIS now. So meeting this tug was a breeze. We knew each other's vessel names and were able to chat back and forth to discuss how to safely pass each other at night with everyone feeling good about it.
We didn't run into another vessel until daylight. But it sure made me comfortable knowing I had all the equipment necessary for safe easy travel at night when it was my turn to go on watch.
Fortunately we have spent 25 years traveling this section of the ICW and know it like the back of our hands. Plus we have lots of electronics to guide us. We have a Garmin gps, which is just like the one in your car only it shows your position on a chart; a Furano radar, which shows us the location of the markers and other boats; and AIS (a total must have for me). The AIS system gives you a wealth of information about other boats around you including name of the vessel, speed, direction traveling, closest point of contact and the time to the closest point of contact. It also sends your information to the boats around you. That is provided they have AIS as well.
Commercial vessels all have AIS now. So meeting this tug was a breeze. We knew each other's vessel names and were able to chat back and forth to discuss how to safely pass each other at night with everyone feeling good about it.
We didn't run into another vessel until daylight. But it sure made me comfortable knowing I had all the equipment necessary for safe easy travel at night when it was my turn to go on watch.
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