Personally I have found that a waterproof bike or diving light (10 watt low 30 watt high - even though watts don't really matter, lumens and wavelength are what make one light more visible than another) works good for getting you noticed, and generally turn it on when there is traffic in the vicinity. I use my bike helmet to mount it on and put the battery in the cockpit with me or in the PFD when walking around camp. This works great if you already have one because you bike alot (or like to buy lights), but can be a bit pricey ($100-$300 USD depending on the model). It is however too bright to leave on all the time unless I want to deal with reduced night vision, so for my on all the time use lights I have white LED bike lights, and contrary to what many of us think, you can turn them on, but not have them blink. The switch has three positions, off, blink, and solid. No matter how you look at it, as a little bitty teenie weannie kayak, that doesn't want to go splat, you need to be aware of what's going on around you and would do well to periodically take a 360 degree look around. My approach is to assume that I will seldom if ever be seen except when I sweep the high beam around (in the general direction of the oncoming boat, but not at the bridge), and make it a point to stay out of the way. - The LED's seem to be most useful for everyone in the group to have an easy time keeping track of each other, and have the benefit over a flashlight of having a long battery life, so they seldom go dead even if someone forgot to check theirs at the start of the trip. Happy paddling - Saul At 08:24 PM 6/30/98 -0700, Jonathan & Nadine MacLane wrote: >I was shaking my head at this train of thought, and finally decided that >this looked like a good place to jump in. > >On land, how far can you reaal see those little blinkey things?? >At sea, the thing to think about is, Will I Be SeeN?!?!? >If you have ever looked for a sailboat running lights, then remember, those >were 5 watts each! and maybe found by accident at a range of 1-2 mi. >Here you are, sitting with your backside lower than your waterline, talking >about putting your life under a few milliwatts of LED going blinkey blink. > >The rule does state that a rower/paddler carries a flashlight, etc and turn >it on as needed, but the bigger and better lit your light is, the less >likely you will get splatted by a tugboat on his way to dinner. > >The reason for not going outside of the rule, is that this way others know >what they are looking at, and what their resposibility, etc is toward you. >As an example, mounting that white light on your mast/helmet makes you a >small motorboat, going from the most priviliged class of vessel (rowing) to >the least (motor), and the red/green set puts you in the middle with the >sailboats. As far as colours that blink, "aids to navigation" have, in >white, red, or green, anything from "quick flash" at "in excess of" 90 >flashes per minute to 6 or sometimes as low as 1. Whtch bouy does _your_ >bike light look like? And if you didn't know it was there, how far away >would you see it?? > >All in all, there are good reasons for the rules of the road, and if you go >out on a "navigable" waterway, you NEED to know them. They tell you not only >what type of boat is approaching, but also what he should be doing, which >way he is going, what he is carrying/pulling, etc > >A really good comprehencive source for all of this is "Piloting, Seamanship, >and Small Boat Handling", by Charles Chapman. > >On the other hand, NEVER nevernever............ point a high powered light >like a searchlight at the bridge of anything except in the last seconds, as >after that, they wont be able to see you or anything else and can't tell >which way to turn. > >I also feel compelled to point out that your best defence is to find them >first, and remember that a rather large fast commercial boat can be really >dark and amazingly quiet, if you just heard the wake then it's way to late. > >As a simple way to get a good light cheap, think about a 12 volt lead/acid >battery like they put in computer power backups and (I think) camcorders >which hold about 10 amp/hours, or 12 watts for longer than we get darkness >in the lower 48 states, or quite a few critical minutes of a 30 watt >halogen searchlight. The whole mess weighs less than 10 lbs. > > >At 08:02 AM 5/9/98 -0700, rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com wrote: >>> Again which regulaton?, since what I found in the USCG booklet was that only >>> white lights that flash between 50 & 70 times per second are considered >>> distress signals. This would imply that things like bicycle blinky LED's >>> would be OK - The down side would be if they distract other boaters into >>> thinking you're in trouble, in which case it doesn't matter what the regs >>> say since it's not fair to your fellow boater to put them through that type >>> of adreneline rush. >> >>I think you mean per minute as per second would look like a continuous >>light. But I am not trying to be cute. The problem with any flasing >>light is that it can be mistakened for something else. If you had a >>white light the was at a greater or less a frequency than that of a >>strobe, whose counting the intervals? A flashing light is a flashing >>light. Same for red or green. Various navigational aids like buoys >>have flashing red or green lights. There flash may be at a much lower >>rate than the bike flashing lights, say every 5 seconds, but unless >>conditions are absolutely calm, your flashing LED light going at 1 flash >>a second (or whatever rate) could be obscured here and there by swells >>or movement of your paddle or turned head so that to an onlooker on a >>boat it may seem to be a buoy. >> >>So say someone is coming in through a channel, sees your red flashing >>light, mistakes it for a buoy, goes to the left of it and hits >>something. That is why no flashing lights of any color on the water to >>be used on any type of vessel. White flashing lights in distress strobe >>use are the exception. >> >>I really wish the rule weren't this way. There is no question that >>running a strobe or LED lights on a night outing would make your >>presence known. Maybe christmas tree lights strung around the entire >>perimeter of your boat would do the trick. :-) >> >>It just shows how extra careful you need to be at night. >> >>best, >> >>ralph >Jonathan and Nadine MacLane, San Diego, Cal. USA. >jonathan_at_lanz.com > > >*************************************************************************** >PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List >Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net >Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net >Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ >*************************************************************************** > > Saul Kinderis saul_at_isomedia.com tel:(425)402-3426 *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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