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If it is a small harbor, unless you have someone aboard with pretty good local knowledge of the area....I generally don't recommend making a nighttime landfall. There are just too many ways to get royally screwed for it. For instance, what if one of the buoys has a light out or has dragged..
Large commercial harbors are going to be a bit less risky to enter, but still can have some nasty surprises for you. Entering in the daytime is probably a better bet, even with a large commercial harbor.
A few years back, a friend of mine was making an approach to Rockport, Massachusetts and it was about three in the morning when he arrived off the coast. He was tired and mis-read the buoys and brought his boat over the submerged breakwater that protects Rockport harbor... did a pretty good job on the bottom of his boat... but didn't hole it fortunately. The two buoys that mark the breakwater are on the ends and you're supposed to go around them, not between them, which is what he did.
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Sailingdog
Telstar 28
New England
You know what the first rule of sailing is? ...Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse, but you take
a boat to the sea you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the worlds. Love keeps
her going when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurting 'fore she keens. Makes her a home.
—Captain Malcolm Reynolds, Serenity (slightly edited)
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Last edited by sailingdog : 04-02-2008 at 01:45 PM.
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