Summer sun sets sooner (08/29/04)

August evenings give the first hint of the end of summer. Days are noticeably shorter, the sun sets earlier than just a few weeks ago. An evening boat crossing of the lake at 10:30 pm in June was a delight of pastels in the southern sky. In late August, those pastels are fading just after nine.

Still, there are places to go and neighbours to visit. For me, this requires travelling on the lake. I knew when I headed out after dinner that I would be home after dark. I made sure the lights on the boat were working, and carried a powerful flashlight.

Just after 10 pm, my friends walked down to the dock with me to say goodbye. It was dark out there. Thick clouds denied any hint of starlight to guide me, thin mist rose from the lake. Not the best of nights for motoring across eight kilometres of lake, but not too bad either. I could clearly see the lights from the camps nearly a kilometre across the bay. I was just glad it wasn't raining.

I zipped back the centre section of the boat cover so I could stand while driving and get the best view of the land around the water. I pulled slowly away from the dock, as I let my eyes adjust to the darkness. The red and green bow lights reflected off the fog, making it a little harder to see. The bright light on the tail of the boat reflected on the wet plastic windows of the boat cover. I dropped the cover to darken my view.

Driving a boat at night is far different than driving a car. With no set path to follow, only darkness can show me the way to go. Artificial lights just make it harder to see. But I couldn't turn the lights off - it was just too important for other boaters to be able to see me - not that there were likely to be other boaters on the lake that night. But you never know and boating at night is wholly dependent on knowing the lay of the land.

You have to recognize the silhouettes of the hills and the valleys. You have to recognize islands that appear and disappear. And you have to know how far out from land the shoals lay - to give them a wider berth than in daytime.

It took a little longer than usual to get home that night. With diminished vision from all my own lights reflecting on the mist, I drove very slowly through the narrows - close to the east island to avoid the rocks to the west - but not too close - I didn't want to bump into the shallows at the islands edge. Just this once, I thought I'd use the flashlight to zero in on the rocks to the west. The powerful beam of light hit the mist and beamed right back to me. I couldn't see a thing.

I drifted for a few minutes while my eyes adjusted once more to the darkness. Then, clear of the narrows, I scooted on home comfortably down the middle of the lake. Familiar silhouettes to the east and the west, I found my way home despite the little glow of light that surrounded me.