Nov 9, 2007 - Visibility at Sea
by Scott & Ryan Bannerot

Maintaining proper visibility at sea, in my view, has more to do with adhering to a strict routine of simply carrying out what is legally required, and not obscuring or confusing navigation lights and other standard measures by doing something extra or incorrect. This sounds easy enough, but you would be surprised at the number of sailors out there who describe habits like "at sea we leave the navigation lights off at night to save power", or "it seemed like a quiet, low-traffic area, so we left our anchor light off to save the batteries". Sailors are also famous with other mariners for running incorrect lights - masthead tricolor when motoring, steaming lights while sailing, sailing lights while steaming, some lights off, some lights on. Most of the time it likely won't cause a crisis. Sometimes - perhaps in constricted situations, crossing scenarios, poor visibility - proper identification of a vessel and exactly what it is really doing can be the difference between a dangerous misunderstanding regarding right of way, and a benign, routine encounter. Most of us are in small, slow, not-particularly-maneuverable vessels, so it behooves us to signal clearly who we are at all times and make our intentions as obvious as we can.

Ryan pointing out another vessel off the port bow in the lagoon of Majuro in the Marshall Islands, as we cross from town to a more remote anchorage near sunset

The other thing I do is keep a good watch, and be prepared to take proactive measures to increase my visibility if necessary. In an extreme situation, it may be necessary to abandon the standard measures and do whatever is necessary to get the attention of a vessel that may run you down or does not appear to be taking expected action to avoid a potential collision (head-on, overtaking, crossing). "Normal" measures might include turning on one's radar so that a ship will record your signal on its radar and know that another vessel is in the vicinity, or issuing a radio call including identification, position, speed and course. Flashing a powerful searchlight at the oncoming vessel is of course a standard legal danger signal for "potential collision imminent" or "danger". Otherwise, a steady bright beam either on one's sails, or towards the bridge of an approaching ship, could let them know you are there. I have a masthead strobe, and I would flick that on too, as even though it is not a recognized signal it might certainly alert a ship to your whereabouts. I've heard stories of skippers firing flares in the direction of the apparently unseeing vessel, and in one case live ammunition at the bridge of a tanker, but I have never corroborated any of these tales.

When you get a closehand view of all of the steel in high seas fishing vessels, like these purse seiners and factory ships in the lagoon of Majuro in the Marshall Islands, it really makes you want to be sure they can see you. Unfortunately unlicensed purse seiners are also common, and they frequently move around furtively at night with no lights on. The other extreme is that working boats often have so many and such bright deck lights that it is not always easy to see their navigation lights in efforts to determine their course and potential intentions.

One thing I have never done aboard Elan is display proper day shapes while under way or at anchor, or used a radar reflector, even though I have them on board. It's little trouble, and why not? I'll endeavor to pick up the slack in those regards.

I mentioned earlier about my masthead strobe light being of possible use in collision avoidance. The other time I like to use it is while hove-to offshore in stormy conditions. The captain aboard the high seas longliner I worked aboard years ago used to do this for about four hours every night while we drifted and slept. It was a case of bending and breaking laws to create extra sleep, which can easily translate into a crewman avoiding injury or death on deck due to fatigue. I still maintain a watch while hove-to aboard Elan, but having that strobe going when you are "parked" in big seas and sweeping rain showers on an inky black night offshore, huddled in the wheelhouse watching the radar and sipping coffee, is reassuring.

I'll leave you with an anecdote that underscores the points made in the first two paragraphs. I was tacking towards the North Island of New Zealand one blustery, rainy night with two (at that time) inexperienced crew, inbound from Tonga. The wind was blowing a steady thirty knots with higher gusts, and light, visibility-reducing rain squalls passed regularly. We were talking about how faintly some substantial sailboats "paint" on the radar as we tacked behind another offshore cruising boat headed for the same place we were. Low and behold some four hours later, now on the opposite tack, I noted we were on a perfect collision course with another faint target. Out of the gloom I finally made out the pale glow of a white fiberglass sailboat, reefed down, and apparently very slowly motoring, with no lights on, and no one apparently awake, and altered course to steer behind it rather than T-bone them in the starboard side. We'd passed them when a sleepy voice finally responded to my VHF calls. It was the same boat we'd "zigged" by some four or so hours earlier, and by sheer luck we'd have "zagged" them on the opposite tack if we hadn't taken avoidance action. The fellow on the radio casually reported that they were all asleep, motoring along at low RPM-and no lights, as they approached quite a busy shipping lane. I let him know we'd had to steer around to avoid collision, that he was not a strong target for me on radar, and that he was quite hard to see. He seemed not to be bothered much, just another night, same routine. I never heard anything about anyone getting run down that year, so I guess they made it.

In summary it would seem logical to adhere to the proper lights, keep a good watch, and have visibility-enhancing measures close at hand and be ready to use them. There may be additional and higher-tech measures, but this is a good start.