Back to the main site

Do you boat at night?

My parents had me and all of the siblings water skiing by the age of 5 and there are numerous home movies of us kids water skiing in my fathers arms at age 3.  Talk about indoctrinated.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Both our kids were at the sandbar with us at 4 weeks old, proper sun protection and you're good to go! As for boating at night I just breadcrumb my Gps and were good to go. Nothing's better than a late night cruise back from the ice cream stand at the public dock!!!
 
keithkz said:
That's what the docking lights are for.  We have a channel that connects our lake with the next lake in the chain of lakes I live on.  My docking lights do a very nice job of lighting everything up.  I just installed those brighter Sylvania ones this past weekend that people on here were talking about earlier this Spring so I'm looking forward to seeing how much brighter they are.
Click to expand...

Concerning docking lights I have the stainless steel, my friend has the plastic on the S.  We went out on his boat Saturday night and when he turned them on I was amazed at how much brighter his lights were, not even close.  Now I would like mine to be brighter but not sure how to go about it
 
Link said:
Concerning docking lights I have the stainless steel, my friend has the plastic on the S.  We went out on his boat Saturday night and when he turned them on I was amazed at how much brighter his lights were, not even close.  Now I would like mine to be brighter but not sure how to go about it
Click to expand...

Link, there's nothing you can do to your lights to make them brighter. I have the plastic ones and installed Silverstar ultra bulbs in them.
 
cwag911 said:
Link, there's nothing you can do to your lights to make them brighter. I have the plastic ones and installed Silverstar ultra bulbs in them.
Click to expand...

How come the plastic can be made brighter but stainless can't? :huh:
 
Thanks CWag
 
cwag911 said:
Link, there's nothing you can do to your lights to make them brighter. I have the plastic ones and installed Silverstar ultra bulbs in them.
Click to expand...





Yup...that's what I did....installed those as well.  Like I said, looking forward to seeing how much brighter they are compared to the stock ones.  Have to admit, I thought the stock ones were pretty bright....especially lighting up the channel.
 
Our night boating was picking people up at the dock to take them out to the house boat.  We might be 10 miles from the dock back in a cove off the main channel.  The navigation lights would kill your night vision.  I would drive with no lights on, about every 30 seconds close my eyes and turn the nav lights on.  Cumberland is easy to drive in the dark because it is wide channels with steep and high shorelines so there is a big contrast between shore and water.   Biggest danger was debris in the water and all the over served passengers in the boat along for the ride to pickup friends.  God we had fun.  
 
Remediation, we've had some incredible times on Lake Cumberland. I know I lost a bunch of my brain cells in that cove. And sitting in the hot tubs under the stars drinking was great! But then you have to grow up.                    As far as running around on the lake at night, we left our boats tied off to the house boats and stayed put all night. Thinking back makes me :rolleyes: . What goes on at Lake Cumberland,stays at Lake Cumberland!

Remediation said:
Our night boating was picking people up at the dock to take them out to the house boat.  We might be 10 miles from the dock back in a cove off the main channel.  The navigation lights would kill your night vision.  I would drive with no lights on, about every 30 seconds close my eyes and turn the nav lights on.  Cumberland is easy to drive in the dark because it is wide channels with steep and high shorelines so there is a big contrast between shore and water.   Biggest danger was debris in the water and all the over served passengers in the boat along for the ride to pickup friends.  God we had fun.  
Click to expand...
 
Blondie and I went out last month at night.  Beautiful, calm night in Gulf of Mexico, waters as flat as a mill pond.  Her father had just passed away one week earlier, and her son was murdered one year ago to the day that her father passed away, so we decided that we wanted to do a Japanese lantern display for each of them, along with one for my brother and mother.  Anyways, to do this you must be 12 miles off shore down here in Florida.


We went out about 7:00 pm in order to get one of our perfect sunsets here on the west coast of Florida, had us a nice picnic, watched a beautiful sunset, and stopped about 15 miles offshore.  It was now evening, we lit the lanterns and watched them gently float up into a beautiful star-filled, cloudless night.  There was a new moon, so the amount of stars that could be seen was simply amazing.


We stayed out until after midnight, then followed my GPS "get-home-safely" route, coming home nice and slowly - just a wonderful night.


If you are going to boat at night time, KNOW YOUR BOATING AREA WELL, have your safety gear readily available, and take your time.  There's nothing better when boating!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Nice TCpip, some light those lanterns at the lake.  I like them but nervous over starting a fire.  Also what about the debris in the water or woods?
 
The entire product is paper/cardboard based.  Literally the entire product was biodegradable - and very quickly.  We sacrificed one of them at shore to see what would be left when one landed.  We were very concerned about birds, fish, or other wildlife eating the material.  The results were impressive. Since it's mostly paper, the paper dissolved almost immediately.  (While in the military I used water-soluable paper that would dissolve completely in a bucket of water; this was nearly as fast).  The fuel source was a cardboard disk that was soaked in wax, (which, by the way was very difficult to get started), and the frame was made out of wooden loops.  The wooden loops are about the thickness of a popsicle stick.  Here's a link to these lanterns:


Japanese Lanterns


Because of the risk of fire, I would not want to use these anywhere near land.  We were southwest of Sanibel Island, and we had a wind blowing to the north-west so I was not fearful of using them.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Jack M said:
Those lanterns are banned in Northern Michigan ,because of the fires .
Click to expand...

Yes, they're banned in many states.  That's why we had to go out into international waters to light them.  They truly can be a fire hazard - especially in hot, dry conditions.
 
Better rethink it and pass based on these replies
 
We are getting into more night cruises with our pontoon on the ohio river in Owensboro KY. Every friday night in the summer there is a city sponsored free "Friday after 5"   concert on the patio of our fine River Park Center, and the city and street lights make it nicely lit  near the banks for evening boaters...we just anchor out for a few hours and enjoy the free music with the other boaters, followed by a nice cruise back to the ramp before midnite. I have under seat led's installed, and just yesterday ordered my underdeck  lighting kit to install this week. We only idle speed after dark and its so relaxing...of course we have to be watchful of the occasional barge traffic...no anchoring out in the channel, day or night
 
I was finally able to test out my new Sylvania light bulbs that I put in my docking lights when coming back through the channel after watching 4th of July fireworks on one of the other lakes in my chain of lakes and all I can say is wow.  I was actually pretty happy with the stock bulbs but these new Sylvanias are noticeably better.  It lit that channel up so well even my passengers that didn't know I had upgraded the bulbs were saying "Holy crap those lights are bright."  Very, very happy I did this.  Thanks again to all of you who recommended them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top