Seajet
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Why is it more of a pain to cook at night than during the daytime?
Maybe because the proposition is a singlehander on his first night sail cooking when he could be keeping a lookout and trimming the sails ?
Building Night Experience
- Thread starter PhillM
- Start date
Maybe because the proposition is a singlehander on his first night sail cooking when he could be keeping a lookout and trimming the sails ?
Uricanejack
Well-Known Member
Lots off advice already on taking friends navigation and perhaps you should try the orkneys.
Go for it. Go out sailing and come back to a familiar Harbour after dark.
Night navigation is not hard or scary.
Big thing is stay warm. I find the big thing about night sailing is staying warm and dry. Nights are cold andfeel colder especially when you are tired.
You don't want to be going out on deck in the dark if you can avoid it.
Reef early in day light if it might get windy.
Taking sails down in the dark on your own wear a harness. Or take down in daylight and motor to get the feel of night on the water. Have fun.
Uricanejack
Well-Known Member
And night in the channel with just enough haze for the looms of all the lights to show. Is some thing I miss and feel the need to swing the lantern about. It's particular nice whenyou can see the stars as well.
Living here on the west coast our lights are puny when compared to the eddystone or wolf rock. Both a long way from the solent I miss seeing them. I enjoyed watching the looms anticipating the light risng above the horizon. I use the dipping range just because it was there. I used to thinking was kind of cool.
Further north watching the tighlihtb go round the northern sky in the midst of the night is one of my favorite things. If your lucky on occasions yo can see thenorthern lights.
The stars at night at see is something you just can't appreciate until you see it on a cold clear night.
Even a moonless clear night is never truly dark. Once your eyes adjust.
Though down a north coast inlet with low cloud it can be blacker than the inside of a cow.
Just go out and enjoy it
Living here on the west coast our lights are puny when compared to the eddystone or wolf rock. Both a long way from the solent I miss seeing them. I enjoyed watching the looms anticipating the light risng above the horizon. I use the dipping range just because it was there. I used to thinking was kind of cool.
Further north watching the tighlihtb go round the northern sky in the midst of the night is one of my favorite things. If your lucky on occasions yo can see thenorthern lights.
The stars at night at see is something you just can't appreciate until you see it on a cold clear night.
Even a moonless clear night is never truly dark. Once your eyes adjust.
Though down a north coast inlet with low cloud it can be blacker than the inside of a cow.
Just go out and enjoy it
AngusMcDoon
Well-Known Member
Simondjuk
Well-Known Member
Oh I see. I somehow managed to read "Cooking is a PITA night sailing" as categorical statement.Maybe because the proposition is a singlehander on his first night sail cooking when he could be keeping a lookout and trimming the sails ?
prv
Well-Known Member
Maybe because the proposition is a singlehander on his first night sail cooking when he could be keeping a lookout and trimming the sails ?
No, the proposition was "Cooking is a PITA night sailing", full stop.
As far as Phil's five-mile hop from the Hamble to Cowes is concerned, any form of hot meal whether heated in the oven, by chemical heatpacks, or by balancing on the exhaust manifold, is irrelevant. Once we're into longer passages, where you apparently favour pre-packed long-life self-heating ration packs, I happen to think that using the cooker to cook real food makes more sense. If singlehanded close to shore, put something pre-prepared into the oven so you can continue looking out, if two-up then just get cooking, complexity dictated by the sea-state.
Last week my mate Chris cooked most of this fine breakfast while we were sailing up to St Vaast just after dawn. He hopped up on deck to take the lines ashore, then went back down to tip the scrambled egg mix into the hot pan while I tidied up on deck. I went below just in time to have a plateful put in front of me:
With catering like that, he's welcome back on board any time
Pete
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Simondjuk
Well-Known Member
Phill, I'd also suggest the western Solent for a first night sail, to avoid both the traffic and the clutter of shore lights. You'll also experience a little of the true essence of night sailing which is being away from all the light pollution. The one thing to be aware of is the possibility of familiar places taking on a very different look in the dark, which can be surprisingly misleading if not accounted for.
I'd consider a little venture in and out of the Beaulieu river. It's quiet, has minimal, hence not confusing, but clear lights, is pretty benign, and it's quick and easy to pick up an empty buoy when you've had enough.
Sailing at night is a truly magic thing. There are nights when you're steering for the setting moon. Then when it's gone, the pitch black sky reveals the celestial vista in all its glory, shooting stars streaking here and there brighter and more frequent than seems possible. Dots of phosphoresence rush by down the side of the boat, and you follow them, looking back to see your entire wash glowing eerily luminous with the stuff. The boats sailing like a dream, slipping effortlessly through the inky water, and you laugh to no one but yourself, the boat and the night. It feels a bit crazy but good, which makes you laugh again, louder and longer. It's just you, the boat and the sea, the bond between the three made somehow more intimate by the darkness. It's magical. Other times, it rains!
I'd consider a little venture in and out of the Beaulieu river. It's quiet, has minimal, hence not confusing, but clear lights, is pretty benign, and it's quick and easy to pick up an empty buoy when you've had enough.
Sailing at night is a truly magic thing. There are nights when you're steering for the setting moon. Then when it's gone, the pitch black sky reveals the celestial vista in all its glory, shooting stars streaking here and there brighter and more frequent than seems possible. Dots of phosphoresence rush by down the side of the boat, and you follow them, looking back to see your entire wash glowing eerily luminous with the stuff. The boats sailing like a dream, slipping effortlessly through the inky water, and you laugh to no one but yourself, the boat and the night. It feels a bit crazy but good, which makes you laugh again, louder and longer. It's just you, the boat and the sea, the bond between the three made somehow more intimate by the darkness. It's magical. Other times, it rains!
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prv
Well-Known Member
Definitely second that.
You won't see it properly in the Solent due to light pollution from the shore, but on ocean passages in square-riggers I've spent a lot of time looking up at the sky and it really is amazing compared to what we usually see even on a "dark" night ashore.
Pete
Seajet
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PhillM, despite what certain winkers say in vain attempts to have a go at me ( pretty poor as they're not considering you and on trips over a few hours we cook under way with a fully gymballed stove with pan clamps, I wonder if the smart-arses here have that set-up !), make it as easy on yourself as possible for your first go, I'll leave you to decide if balancing or strapping meals to the engine manifold is a bright idea, and why should it be hot anyway ?!
prv
Well-Known Member
PhillM, despite what certain winkers say in vain attempts to have a go at me ( pretty poor as they're not considering you and on trips over a few hours we cook under way with a fully gymballed stove with pan clamps, I wonder if the smart-arses here have that set-up !), make it as easy on yourself as possible for your first go, I'll leave you to decide if balancing or strapping meals to the engine manifold is a bright idea, and why should it be hot anyway ?!
I think you've missed the point. Nobody is suggesting that Phil prepare any kind of meal on this trip. You brought up meals, saying that self-heating ones were a good idea. I think they're useful for some activities, like winter hiking or being trapped in snow-bound cars, but pointless on a yacht where you're never more than thirty feet from a cooker. Then you changed your mind, and said that nobody should be preparing food after dark anyway, because it was a "PITA".
Obviously any proper yacht has a gimballed stove; Russell even fitted one in his 19-foot trailer-sailer. So I can't imagine what point you're trying to make by bringing it up.
Pete
Seajet
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tcm
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wow this thread still going? I quite like the way the OP wanted to gain experinece of doing something unfamiliar by er doing it, entirely alone. Hum. Tother thing is that on the entire trip from Gibraltar, easily the scariest bit is the Solent at night. It'l still be fine though like it always is...
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tcm
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My scariest thing at nght was sitting in the cockpit, singlehanded, 2nd night out... and the saloon light went on. Glerk! I actually called out Hello! Anyway something hanging on a hook knocked on the light switch...
Oh and yes, I have also taken the wheel, lots of rain and Jeeez something big looks like it's right on us NOW....was a fender bouncing on the foredeck rail...
westhinder
Well-Known Member
Absolutely right!
AngusMcDoon
Well-Known Member
You are never alone at night. It was the pilot of the Pinta who switched on your light to let you know he was there.
Seajet
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On our first night sail, aged about 16 in light winds South of the Isle of Wight we distinctly heard the creak of oars but the searchlight couldn't find anything, I thought it might be the gooseneck but no.
It was a traditional route for smugglers in the old days though; I have formed the conclusion that ' ghosts ' are a sort of recording, an image of what people did in life, but sometimes a departed soul trying to let the living know they are around so playing with things like light switches - the book ' The Airmen Who Would Not Die ' is a very good example.
I've never heard of a ghost strolling up, kicking someone in the shins and saying " Hi, I'm Eric " !
benjenbav
Well-Known Member
One of the scariest (occasional and unpredictable) marine hazards in the western Solent at night is probably me charging about on my way home. Don't say you haven't been warned 
Simondjuk
Well-Known Member
Simondjuk
Well-Known Member
Ah, yes. I foolishly forgot about the Fenkel defect.
davidfox
Well-Known Member
Not sailed across the Fearsome Firth at night then?
The poster asked a perfectly sensible question and has received some good replies, I dont really think many of us are that interested in how big yours is compared to ours.
