Browsing: lights

Cruising Life
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How To Read a Chart: What Are Those Lights Telling You?

Sooner or later, your ability to read a chart, whether it’s on paper or on an electronic display, will directly affect the safety of your boat and your crew. That’s particularly true at night or during times of restricted visibility. Here’s a good, clear refresher story from Skipper Tips about how to read the markings for night lights that will help keep you on a safe course: Imagine that your GPS has been unreliable for the past several hours. You approach the coast as the sun dips below the western horizon. An overcast promises a black night without the benefit of starlight.…

Cruising Life
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A Fast Refresher on What All Those Lights Mean When You’re Cruising After Dark

The problem with coming in to a strange harbor at night is determining which lights are which. Which are the ATONs, marking a jetty, a shoal, a side of the channel? And which are merely background lights – a house, a car, a bridge? I once cruised down the Florida Keys in a fast boat after dark and thought I was looking at lights marking one of the resort marinas I was aiming for, until I realized the lights were from a night game at a Little League baseball diamond. Time to throttle back. For navigating at night, you can…