COMMODORE’S CORNER

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NIGHT SAILING.   I’ve always enjoyed sailing at night. To skipper your boat through tranquil seas with only the moon and stars for company is a very special experience.  It is a time for reflection and wonder. You seem so small in the scheme of things and so far away from civilisation. To watch the moon rise large and orange over the horizon is a beautiful sight. I particularly love watching the lightning shows over the land although the threat of a storm at sea is never far from your mind during these times. I have a knack of avoiding squalls on my watch. Grant on the other hand is often the one to get rained on.

Above: another squall preparing to rain on the skipper

Above: the moon is a great companion at night.

Navigating at night is a challenge but gives you something to do to pass the long hours. It can take considerable time to identify the combinations of lights that appear and to determine the direction the vessels are travelling. I know some of you have AIS or radar to help with this but the rest of us battle on performing this task visually with binoculars. I normally excel at this task as I have excellent night vision. Nearly every watch I get to manoeuvre Masala around at least one fishing boat dragging nets. I am always relieved when I am successfully past.

This trip however I was confronted with more than normal shipping activity off Caloundra, on the final night of our cruise. There were anchored ships as far as the eye could see and a steady stream of vessels leaving Brisbane, down the main shipping channel which ends at Caloundra. I kept well inshore as I noticed the ships would exit the shipping channel and turn hard to starboard to head out to sea. By doing this I could avoid all the ships. As the ships came down the channel they had the normal navigation lights lit (Red, Green and White) but when they exited the channel many were turning on all their deck lights. The ships were lit up like Christmas trees and because of the very bright deck lights it was no longer possible to see the red and green navigation lights. This made me feel uneasy so I hugged the shoreline even closer.

It was a bright clear night and I was so close to the shore that I could make out the individual street lamps and footpaths of the Caloundra shore line. I kept a 360 degree look out for ships but it was hard to tell if anything was moving behind me due to all the deck lights of the supposedly anchored ships and the lights of the town. I was anxious to enter the small channel in-shore of the main shipping channel because then I would be able to relax a bit as it is way too small for commercial shipping or so I thought.

With much relief I passed across the area at the end of the shipping channel with no ships in sight. I then continued outside the shipping channel to the first marker. I must explain that it is really difficult to make out ships behind you when so close to the shore as the ship’s lights get confused with the lights on land. Well I can tell you I almost s**tted myself when I heard 5 loud, long blasts of a ship’s horn. A ship had suddenly appeared directly behind me and was telling me I was not taking sufficient action to avoid a collision. I reacted quickly and turned the helm hard to starboard, applied maximum throttle and headed for the land, risking running aground. I knew the ship could not follow me into the shallows. I braved a look behind to see the outline of a ship turn into the shipping channel.  I never want to be so close to a huge ship again. In the middle of this manoeuvre Grant wakes up and says “What are you doing?” He had felt the change of course and increase in speed and had woken up. I was astounded that he hadn’t heard the horn. I just replied “I have a dirty great ship bearing down on me, can’t talk now!”