I have always loved navigating after dark. As a youngster, I did it often during offshore racing, yacht deliveries and big summer cruises. I love to see the lights on the water—all the lighthouses, buoys, ships and other boats—and the twinkling distractions ashore. Alas, most of what I do afloat these days is compressed into the hours of daylight, which is why a recent trip aboard a Sunseeker 100 Yacht proved a rare treat.
This particular Sunseeker 100 Yacht had spent the previous 10 days at the Southampton International Boat Show. I went along for the ride to the Sunseeker yard, where the boat would be cleaned and prepped for its owners. This would be a four-hour passage starting around 5 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon. When our lines slipped, it was just shy of high water, which meant we would increasingly get tide help for much of the 60 nautical miles or so that lay ahead.
Our course down Southampton Water was broadly 135 degrees, which we held for around 10 nautical miles before easing around to Calshot Spit. Once into the Solent, we headed west on a ground track of approximately 250 degrees for 20 nautical miles before edging up to 285 degrees for the 23-nautical-mile Poole Bay crossing.
Once across, we headed northwest through the harbor heads and up the narrow 10-knot channel that weaves from the Poole Bar buoy to Sunseeker’s West Quay Road yard. This is where all of the builder’s biggest models are fitted out and commissioned. The latter half of the voyage was in darkness and increasingly wind-over-tide choppy, with a southwesterly whisking up a 4- to 6-foot swell.
