I figure that being seen at all is way better than NOT being seen.
Having been out there a number of times and coming up MIGHTY close to other sailing vessels, not ever having seen their lights, I'm not terribly confident in standard navigations lights ability to let a ship know I'm there. I mean, I've missed seeing SHIPS, before, because they've only been showing the standard red and green, plus a couple of small lights along the superstructure. If I miss him, how on earth is he gonna see ME?
I remember in the 1995 Longpac, getting out to the turnaround point and watching strobe lights coming at me. Yeah, sure I didn't know exactly what their heading was, but I could see them for miles. I did see one set of green lights. ONE....and I had to stare and stare and stare to make them out. But the strobes were *WHAM* right there. That was lesson enough for me.
I now have two xenon strobes on the boat, or will, soon. One goes at the Masthead, the other is about 10 feet off the surface, right below my Radar Reflector mounted n a sterm pole. both of them run, or will run off of 6 volt big flashlight betteries. They bloody well run forever on these big batteries and the advantage of this is that the whole system is totally separate from the boats electrical system. If the boats system goes down, those 6 volt big lantern batteries will keep the strobes going all the way to Hawaii and beyond.
Honestly, I would think hard about hoisting a couple of armband, battery powered strobes when within 100 miles of the Farallones. I mean, light the freaking boat up! There's a shipping lane out there and the north-south barge traffic runs about 20 miles out past the rocks. I want those guys to know I'm there! The electrical cost is next-to-nothing for a heck of a lot of visibility.
if I could buy lights that didn't eat electricty like a fat kid on M&M's, that could actually be seen 8 miles away by a guy on a ships bridge who just looked up for a few minutes to scan around while he's busy reading Penthouse, I'd buy them and use them.
I personally don't show a strobe when I'm inside the Gulf of the Farallones. That's just my personal thing. I don't want to be mistaken for the Lightbucket, you know?
Last edited by AlanH; 10-19-2007 at 03:42 PM.
1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"