White Defender coming out of Eastsound last “night” probably a bit past 4pm with a bow light that was pretty bright and a good RPM clip going.
Curious if you are also using a thermal camera to spot logs or if light bar is sufficient?
Hi! Noticed you were on the buoy last week, we run a few things at night integrated into 2 mfds and a laptop running time zero pro.
-Furuno DRSNXT radar set with about a one mile range which gives us the ability to pickup and boats but will also pickup kayaks, etc.
-Flir pointed straight forward, it’s not great for logs but will pickup pots in the evening, and very good for people, birds, etc. by the morning pots won’t show as they cool too much.
-A large light bar that really does a good job with logs but I make sure to turn it off when other boats are around.
-A ptz searchlight integrated into timezero which gives me the ability to target radar targets as well as have a more focused light ahead if other boats are around.
We also broadcast AIS, I don’t trust it to know where others are as the refresh can be slow on class B units.
I cruise at 3900 at night down 4100/200 during the day, I also trim down more at night as steering is much more responsive.
I’m still determining if running on auto pilot is better as it lets me focus more on logs versus my position.
Lastly I go much slower by myself, when it’s two she watches the radar and flir, I stay focused on logs and position on the chart.
Winter boating means a lot of night runs for us, I think we have it fairly well setup now, I do find I’m exhausted at the end of each run as you barely feel like you can blink. Have yet to hit a log (knock on wood)
Happy to show you the setup anytime.