What may seem like a good idea at the time may not be such a great idea in the end....

I have noticed lately that there are many boats on the water that that are being captained by some very talented individuals, but sometimes their minds can get in the way and actually make things unsafe.  Lets take night time navigation for an example.  There are many captains that have a mindset that the more light they can throw at what is in front of them, the safer that things will be.  Yes, the more you can see in front of the boat, the safer you may be. 

 But, there is always a catch, think about the human eye and its extraordinary ability to see things in the dark. An eye takes what little light there is and magnifies it so that you can see what is in front of you.  If you start turning on lights, it will light up the immediate are in front of you, but will make anything beyond that a complete blur, making things unsafe.  Lighting up the area directly in front of you will allow you to see obstacles such as buoys or other vessels within about 15 feet of the boat.  At this time, there is not enough time to react.  If there were less light, you would actually have been able to see a greater distance in front of you and had more time to react should something cross your path.  

I bring this up because of a few boats I saw navigating while using their bow mounted spot lights.  Spot lights are a great thing to have on a boat in such situations as moving around a dock or lighting up the area for a person handling an anchor.  They are not however good for navigation. 

Next time you are out and about, think about what you are doing and how it effects the safety of you and your passengers.  What may seem like a good idea at the time may end up to be something that you regret.