T&T: Sailing at Night without lights

[Truelove39@aol.com]

I couldn't get this link to work, but I suspect it has to do with avoiding  
pirates.
 
That's standard procedure for pirate avoidance when sailing from Trinidad  to 
Venezuela (PLC) 
 
It may also be one reason why a Pacific Seacraft 44 got T-boned by a  
commercial trawler one night just a few miles off the Boca. The trawler  didn't stop 
(that's not uncommon here) and the sailor and his wife  were lucky to be 
aboard a robustly-built boat -- although holed below the  waterline, they were able 
to make port without sinking. 
 
His wife, who was asleep below at the time, told me that her husband "saw a  
faint red light" off his starboard side and went below to look at the radar. 
He  had been there only a few seconds when the collision occurred. A better 
choice  would have been to turn hard to port and away. The bright nav lights we 
are  all used to in first-world are seldom seen here except on ships and boats 
from  first-world countries. The local boats often have dim lights, and 
sometimes none  at all.
 
Regards,
 
John
aboard "Truelove," in Chaguaramas, Trinidad
 

This is a most interesting account of why sailing vessels of the  early 
1800's did not carry lights. And why it was well founded that they  not.

http://tinyurl.com/2pj9xh


<BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> AOL now offers free 
email to everyone.  Find out more about what's free from AOL at 
http://www.aol.com.