IN HIS SEAMANSHIP COLUMN FOR BOATING’S JULY 1960 ISSUE, Elbert Robberson wrote: “In daylight, objects around you are easy to identify. They are big or little, short or long, round or square, and they appear very plainly to be bridges, docks, land, beacons, buoys, or boats of various kinds heading one way or another. But at night, all of these familiar shapes disappear, and all that is left are pinpoints of light: some white, some green, some red, orange or whatever. If you cannot ‘read’ these lights, you should be ashore, preferably at home, studying navigation lights.”
A lot about boating has changed in the decades since Robberson penned these words, but the need for understanding navigation lights is a seamanship skill that still applies today. This is precisely why…
