Night sailing on Lake Harriet

Although great any time of the year, fall is the perfect time for night sailing! The earlier sunsets bring darkness sooner and the fall winds hang around longer than the typical summer breezes. It's an amazing feeling sailing at night. You sail much more by feel. The feel of the wind on your cheek, the feel of the helm in your hand. The lake is different as well; mostly empty, dark, but dimly light by the Minneapolis skyline. As larger keelboats, our lighting requirements help too. If you are going to make way, you have to be seen. Make SURE your lights are operational! Here are some other tips:

  1. As dusk settles, scan the lake for other craft. Most sailboats will be off, but count on at least one fishing boat, and note the state of their running lights. Some do better that others. For the most part, they will hug the shoreline. Keep mental note of their location and heading.
  2. Remember the three black cans on the lake! They are dark, big, and unlit, and I would not want to run into one of them. If you have a GPS, mark their locations.
  3. Again, make SURE your running lights are on. We also like to have a light shine on our mainsail. Not only does it announce our location to other boats, but it allows some visibility in the cockpit.
  4. Have a good plan for getting back to your buoy. Know it well and/or have a flashlight to find it. The buoy field is very dark; darker than the rest of the lake at night. Have your procedures down cold. Nighttime is no place to practice things for the first time.
  5. Remember that you cannot park your car on the Lake Harriet parkway past 10PM. If you plan on being out later, leave your car on a nearby street. This is also true for Lake Calhoun, but with the much more limited parking on the Calhoun Parkway, maybe less of a problem.
  6. Have several flashlights to help your find your buoy and make the boat shipshape before you leave. It's much harder in total darkness. I suggest LED headband flashlights for each member of the crew. They are amazing, put light where you are looking, and are cheap.
  7. Speaking of LEDs, see this post on replacing your existing bulbs with low power LED ones. HERE


Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 22, 2009 at 9:34 PM

    Hi. How late are you allowed to me on the Lake?

    ReplyDelete
  2. claySeptember 22, 2009 at 9:38 PM

    The Minneapolis Park regs say that boats need to be off the lake at Midnight. Clearly that does not apply to sailboat with buoys, so the actual rule here is unclear. For sure you can sail until midnight. Maybe later.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DNR map of Lake Harriet

Image
The Minnesota DNR publishes a bottom contour map of Lake Harriet. Although not really intended for ship navigation, it shows good anchorage locations and is handy to have on-board. It also shows that unlike Lake Calhoun, Lake Harriet is uniformly deep, and that means that is is mostly free of the nasty Milfoil that plagues its sister lake. The full-size map in PDF format is HERE . FYI, a map of Lake Calhoun is  HERE .  If you own a Garmin handheld GPS and are interested in a FREE depth chart of the lakes, be sure to see this post HERE .
Read more

Motors - Electric only!

Image
One of the biggest challenges faced by cruisers on Lake Harriet is the prohibition of Outboards. Because gas motors are NOT allowed by the city, you have to use an electric trolling motor. In almost any sense this is a compromise, as a typical 50-lb thrust motor generates the equivalent of about 0.75HP. For anyone used to having their boat pushed around with a 8HP motor, this can be daunting. In practice, however, it is rare when it becomes a problem on Lake Harriet, as we all go back to mooring buoys, which we can sail to. The size of the lake allows getting to the lee side in a strong blow. The biggest challenge is power management. The motor will be the biggest draw on your boat's 12V system, and a dead battery means either no way to get home, or no lights for the evening sail. You have for factor in how you plan to keep it charged. See this related article on power management HERE. . Regarding size, choose a 50-LB thrust as a minimum, and look at 24v as opposed to less effici...
Read more

Keeping an eye on swimmers

Image
Maybe it's just me, but it seems there are a LOT more people free-swimming across the lakes. I'm sure it is people training for the triathlons, and I didn't give it much thought until last night, when we almost ran over one. We were reaching at about 5 knots, sitting on the low side to induce some heel when we quickly slipped by a swimmer. We didn't see him, and he didn't hear us. I don't know who was more surprised, but I DO know who was in more danger. There was over 20 boats on the lake last evening. Under these conditions, swimming in the open water is just dangerous. I knew the MPRB was thinking about setting up open swim areas, but was pretty sure they had not done so. I called them, and they confirmed that open swimming was illegal, and pointed me to THIS page on their site. In addition, that told me I should call 911 to report swimmers. I'm not sure that I'll do that, but I would really hate to hit one, or even come close. I don't know ...
Read more