Danger in the dark

When I was a cruising instructor I became so familiar with my home patch that it led, frankly, to overconfidence. I would gaily expect my upper-level students to pilot up the twisting, largely unlit upper Beaulieu River, full of moorings and other hazards. I now consider this to be unfair.

Well-lit harbours, on the other hand were, and still are, good for training so long as the instructor knows there are no surprises waiting inside. However, it’s important to stress that just because you ‘can’ doesn’t mean you ‘should’.

One night during this period I took a sail training boat with 10ft draught into Bilbao at 0200. Some time in between Notices to Mariners and my arrival, an otherwise honest mariner had parked a barge in the entrance and hadn’t seen fit to illuminate it. I nearly wrecked my ship and I learned an important lesson: avoid entering strange harbours in the dark, even well-lit ones, unless you have to. It may look easy on the chart, but you never know what’s inside until dawn reveals all. What’s the rush? Why not heave to, set a watch, take a snooze and be sure?