Sailing St. Mary's Channel, Vessel approaching traffic @ Night

This is not just a film of a darken lens. This is film of sailing the St. Mary's Channel at night, about 1am.Show more

Filmed August 23rd, 2014, hired by ASL, on the American Integrity, a 1,000ft Laker, I filled the rolls as watchman, Steersman and Bosun. Here as watchman, I was temp replacement personnel.

On this date we were sailing the St. Mary's Channel, I was assigned bow night watch.

The Channel goes north from the Straights of Mackinaw, In the middle of no where, dark is beyond dark, the only thing you could from the deck is the flashing navigational markers outlining the channel.

On occasion I would think I saw something or heard something, but you really couldn't tell.

In this case, during this 3:24 second video, I thought saw something/heard something and it took 3 plus minutes to see the flickering lights of an approaching freighter.

Not exciting, but sorta shows the importance of watch standing. Had I been in a smaller boat, with out radar, etc., you'd very well may be run over.