Being seen...

A couple days ago a friend in the BVI mentioned that they had yet another night time dinghy accident... Sadly this happens so often in the Caribbean that unless someone gets killed people don't pay much attention. Then again people DO get killed all the time in night time dinghy accidents!

Part of the problem is that lights for dinghies are problematic at best and a pain in the butt the rest of the time. Batteries don't hold up in dinghies and unless you have your light chained and welded to your boat some light fingered fellow will take it home while you are off running errands.

So yes they are a pain... Though if you take a moment and think about the pain of being run down by some idiot in a my dick-is-too-small-so-I-got-a-big-motor powerboat, I think you will find that messing with a dinghy light is a much better option! That said of course a lot of the accidents with dinghy/boat collisions are caused by drinking and sheer stupidity and even the best light in the world is no insurance against drunk idiots going fast!

Seattle Sports makes a nice light that works well for dinghies... Has an all around white plus various other modes (including an LED strobe) and as it is compact and uses a suction cup it is no hassle to take with you leaving the light fingered at the dinghy dock unhappy campers.

While we are talking about Seattle Sports gear
you should take a serious look at their flashlight which has a feature I have been looking for for a long time... LASERS! Seriously lasers are a great way to point out stuff at night and an even better way to get someones attention. Throw in the fact that the cats think it is some kind of wonderful made in heaven cat toy and you have some kind of a winner!

It gets even better as the flashlight in question is powered with a hand crank that even allows you to charge your IPOD... How cool is that?