First Time Channel Passage Tips

Dulcinea East said:
We are completely up for a night passge, but not for a first time adventure, that's just asking for trouble. As the weather/tide/annual leave variables didn't align we are putting things on hold until next year.
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Perhaps you can could try exiting and entering your own home port at night first, then a familiar local port and so on with a short night passage.

It becomes very familiar after while - and one stops seeing traffic lights, car brake lights, house security lights etc as navigation aids!

We've now done loads of night entrances to strange ports - if it looks wrong, it probably is, sometimes the actual entrance cannot be seen until surprisingly late and it is remarkable how much ambient light is around once close in.

Best of luck with it all.
 
Dulcinea East said:
Speaking as the OP, it would be *her* career, and yes, *she* is fully prepared for challenge and adventure, on a risk-based, balanced basis. Thanks for the guidance, will bear it in mind.
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Oops, my apologistics. I'm afraid that I find it easier to make certain assumptions, such as that the driver ahead is a man, and that nurses are women, while knowing that this is a provisional judgement only.
 
johnalison said:
Oops, my apologistics. I'm afraid that I find it easier to make certain assumptions, such as that the driver ahead is a man, and that nurses are women, while knowing that this is a provisional judgement only.
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Thank you. When in doubt I find "they" generally covers things. Perhaps you could consider sponsoring the intrepid Jasmine Harrison and Numbatou for her round the world Mini Globe race next year? Jasmine Harrison We don't want the Maiden crew to be lonely 😉
 
Bristolfashion said:
Perhaps you can could try exiting and entering your own home port at night first, then a familiar local port and so on with a short night passage.

It becomes very familiar after while - and one stops seeing traffic lights, car brake lights, house security lights etc as navigation aids!

We've now done loads of night entrances to strange ports - if it looks wrong, it probably is, sometimes the actual entrance cannot be seen until surprisingly late and it is remarkable how much ambient light is around once close in.

Best of luck with it all.
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Stowe Creek in the pitch dark 2 hours before low water is certainly an "experience" in tricky navigation, zero light and just the depth sounder. I am sure we'll overcome. Thx
 
Bristolfashion said:
We've now done loads of night entrances to strange ports - if it looks wrong, it probably is, sometimes the actual entrance cannot be seen until surprisingly late and it is remarkable how much ambient light is around once close in.

Best of luck with it all.
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Many times when entering a strange port, I have heaved to and waited for first light. If a harbourmaster, his stand in or port control are available it can be a good opportunity to ask some questions about best marina or tieing up location and how bridges open if they are in the way. Some harbourmasters/port control will want you to come in when it is quiet but I have consistently refused. As someome has mentioned extra bright shore lights can be confusing when trying to make out dim navigation lights.
 
Because, like very many of us, I started before the era of modern navaids, I automatically plan to approach a coastline in darkness in order to identify the lights, and to close it as dawn breaks in order to see the way in. That’s the advice in all the old textbooks.
 
I now quite like entering at night - nice and quiet, no one to see you stuff up the landing and an excuse for a fry up at the earliest opening greasy spoon!

I like Bundaburg, East Australia least - a massive shipping channel with "synchronous" lights - in other words, every one of the navigation lights on massive poles, invisible in the pitch black, went off at the same time. Weird.
 
14K478 said:
Because, like very many of us, I started before the era of modern navaids, I automatically plan to approach a coastline in darkness in order to identify the lights, and to close it as dawn breaks in order to see the way in. That’s the advice in all the old textbooks.
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I recall a Peyton cartoon. A crewman with binoculars telling the skipper, " the fixed red now says Watneys and the occulting yellow is a pedestrian crossing"
 
Bristolfashion said:
I now quite like entering at night - nice and quiet, no one to see you stuff up the landing and an excuse for a fry up at the earliest opening greasy spoon!

I like Bundaburg, East Australia least - a massive shipping channel with "synchronous" lights - in other words, every one of the navigation lights on massive poles, invisible in the pitch black, went off at the same time. Weird.
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I usually have no undue worries about entering a strange harbour at night and if it’s charted reasonably I don’t usually avoid it. (At least in most places). The light characteristics are usually carefully chosen to make them unique in the area and there’s no worrying about which mark you’re actually looking at. etc. Keep track of where you are and use a hand bearing compass to help identify lights in the middle of shore lights. (If you know roughy where you are you can look and see what approximate bearing a light should be on. Check and cross check…

The exception is in some areas of the world where those responsible for navigation marks are less imaginative. I recall transiting the Delaware estuary where every starboard hand lateral mark had the same light characteristic! We had to sail close by each one and shine a torch in it to read its number.
 
I enjoy easy places like St Peter Port & sailing down the Little Russel ; or somewhere like leizardrieux, Treguier & l'aberwrach. They are well buoyed . The chenal Du Four is an interesting navigational game at night without any form of plotter. However, knowing it was going to be an issue I made copious notes
But I found first time, with no GPS & not expecting to arrive after dark, so not ready, that Cherboug was difficult when coming from Le Havre the first time at night.
I was following a fishing boat but when it suddenly went behind the sea wall, I was lost. There were loads of lights , not only for the outer harbour but the inner one as well. One really needs a copy of Reeds to hand when entering a strange port.
 
S
Daydream believer said:
I enjoy easy places like St Peter Port & sailing down the Little Russel ; or somewhere like leizardrieux, Treguier & l'aberwrach. They are well buoyed . The chenal Du Four is an interesting navigational game at night without any form of plotter. However, knowing it was going to be an issue I made copious notes
But I found first time, with no GPS & not expecting to arrive after dark, so not ready, that Cherboug was difficult when coming from Le Havre the first time at night.
I was following a fishing boat but when it suddenly went behind the sea wall, I was lost. There were loads of lights , not only for the outer harbour but the inner one as well. One really needs a copy of Reeds to hand when entering a strange port.
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So what you’re really saying is that it’s sensible to have up to date navigational data on hand. I use Navionics all the time but night time is one area where a paper chart is really helpful. Instead of having to interrogate each mark regarding its light characteristic one can read them straight off the chart.
 
DanTribe said:
I recall a Peyton cartoon. A crewman with binoculars telling the skipper, " the fixed red now says Watneys and the occulting yellow is a pedestrian crossing"
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That's going back a bit! Watney's Red Barrel was the lowest of the low. The only time my wife complained about the smell on my breath after an after-work drinks party was when we'd been to a pub that only served Red Barrel.
 
Daydream believer said:
I enjoy easy places like St Peter Port & sailing down the Little Russel ; or somewhere like leizardrieux, Treguier & l'aberwrach. They are well buoyed . The chenal Du Four is an interesting navigational game at night without any form of plotter. However, knowing it was going to be an issue I made copious notes
But I found first time, with no GPS & not expecting to arrive after dark, so not ready, that Cherboug was difficult when coming from Le Havre the first time at night.
I was following a fishing boat but when it suddenly went behind the sea wall, I was lost. There were loads of lights , not only for the outer harbour but the inner one as well. One really needs a copy of Reeds to hand when entering a strange port.
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Cherbourg is easy to enter. The problem starts once you are into the outer harbour in the dark. Somewhere in the maze of lights are the red and green for the inner harbour, and having negotiated that you have to find the marina, lit with red and green that are quite easy to see when a couple of boat-lengths away.

As you say, a copy of Reeds or equivalent is essential, even in daylight. Reading a harbour plan and memorising the details is a useful skill quite separate from normal navigation. Harbour plans are far more useful than the glossy aerial colour photos that ‘pilots’ like to fill their pages with to justify the exorbitant price.
 
AntarcticPilot said:
That's going back a bit! Watney's Red Barrel was the lowest of the low. The only time my wife complained about the smell on my breath after an after-work drinks party was when we'd been to a pub that only served Red Barrel.
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The yacht "Trophy" famous for the loss of her crew in the fastnet 79 was a Crouch YC boat from Burnham. I am told that Her owner was a publican. I do not know if that was true. East coasters will know. . The crew used to complain that the sizeable spinnaker had a massive glass of foaming Watneys Red Barrel imprinted on it. So sailing for home they had to stare at this massive pint of beer. I could understand their frustration as the boat came up behind us one Burnham week in light weather & the pint could be seen a mile away getting bigger all the time whilst we sweated in the heat.
 
Puffin10032 said:
... for stripping paint :D Actually Burton Ale (not sure if you can still get that) was supposedly based on the Double Diamond recipe. I don't know if that was true but Burton Ale was a very nice beer.
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Ind Coope Burton Ale isn’t actually a Buton Ale, it is a pale ale made as a stronger version of DD, the generic term Burton Ale refers to a dark sweet beer which is stronger still. The most popular Burton Ale in Scotland is McEwan’s Champion, known as the ‘Wee Heavy’. In my local there used to be an old guy who came in every lunchtime and had a Wee Heavy, a nip of Bell’s whisky and a pickled egg. He would sit and drink the heavy slowly over the hour he was there then he would toss the whisky into it and use it to wash down the pickled egg. He was 98 when he died a couple of years ago.
 
Gustywinds said:
Ind Coope Burton Ale isn’t actually a Buton Ale, it is a pale ale made as a stronger version of DD, the generic term Burton Ale refers to a dark sweet beer which is stronger still. The most popular Burton Ale in Scotland is McEwan’s Champion, known as the ‘Wee Heavy’. In my local there used to be an old guy who came in every lunchtime and had a Wee Heavy, a nip of Bell’s whisky and a pickled egg. He would sit and drink the heavy slowly over the hour he was there then he would toss the whisky into it and use it to wash down the pickled egg. He was 98 when he died a couple of years ago.
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Interesting (apart from the pickled egg LOL). The Burton Ale we used to get here (almost line-of-sight to Burton-on-Trent) always tasted like a bitter to me. But perhaps the distinction between a bitter and a pale ale are a bit arbitrary. It's all a good 30 years ago and how things have changed. Ind Coope/Bass are gone, sold to Coors. Coors themselves are only capable of making chilled rat's urine so Marstons used to contract brew Bass for them. Then some time ago Marstons sold off their brewing operations to Carslberg leaving just Burton Bridge Brewery (who recently combined with Heritage Brewery) as the only British-owned brewers in the town (unless there's some very small micro-brewery there that I've not heard of).
 
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