Let's ponder a situation for a moment. While embarking on a trek across the
Gulf Stream from the Bahamas to South Florida (Jupiter Inlet) after a month
long fishing and diving trip. The last
thing on your mind as you go over your checklist (extra batteries, extra props,
extra fuel pumps, extra filters, etc...).
Little did we know how important our extra Lopolight ( LED Navigation Light ) that came with boat was going to turn out to be the most important
piece of nautical equipment we had stowed on the boat?
About an hour into our return trip home
our vessel encountered rough weather.
Nothing out of the extraordinary that we haven’t seen before. That is until our mast was struck by
lightning. At that moment everything starts to happen
in slow motion. The sparks flying out of
the top of the mast and then the echoing boom / explosion. All power was lost and not restored until
re-powering the generator. At this point
everything comes back on except our nav lights.
We now find ourselves bobbing around
in a major international shipping lane with zero visibility to other
vessels. On the horizon at night all you
can see are the Navigation Lights of major cruise liners and shipping freighters
bearing down on you. Dodging one goliath vessel after another is not much fun when in a slower and much smaller boat.
Remember at top speed our Gulfstar
Sailboat might get 11 / 12 knots without sail power. As soon as we get around one boat another appears
out of nowhere. These freighters average 1000 feet so they were
running right on top of our little 62 foot sailboat without ever seeing
us. A few times crew members on the aft
sections of these freighters would yell at us about our not having a nav light
amongst other choice boating tips.
amongst other choice boating tips.
Suddenly a lightbulb goes off in my
head. I remember when purchasing the
boat, the salesman kept mentioning these new LED Lopolights over and over. Like this was going to be the tipping point in a half
million dollar boat sale. Immediately I
start rummaging through cabinets looking for this Lopolight Light. Suddenly the round silver tin container with
the words LED Navigation Lights appears.
At the same time the sound of a large Cruise Liner was blasting its air
horn rattling and shaking our poor little boat. As I pop my head out of hatch and wonder how we narrowly avoided another collision while gazing at this huge cruise ship.
Immediately we rigged the light to
one of our spare batteries and displayed it right in front of the pilot house and helm area. Mounting on the mast at night while dodging
1000 foot freighters was not an option.
As soon as we lit this beautiful Lopolight you could see other vessels
recognize us and alter their courses to not run us over.
Let’s go back to the original
scenario – a boat traversing one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. Doing this sans Navigation Light was easily
one of the most harrowing experiences of my life. Having a spare Navigation Light was easily
the luckiest single event I can recall in my lifetime.
To this day – that tin coffee can
package that the lopolight came in sits on my desk at home. Every time my brother visits and walks by –
he picks it up and kisses it.
Thanks Lopolight.
Gulfstar 62 - "Barmad"
