Night navigation is not day navigation with the lights off. In daylight you see a buoy a hundred metres out. After dark you see a small light and must decide what it means before it arrives. That decision is the job, and it is learned, not felt.
Check your lights half an hour before sunset, from the shore at distance, where a dead bulb is actually visible. Lights are not decoration; they are your identity on the water.
On a small open boat with no mast, a hand-held white light is a fallback, never a substitute.
Two lights, red and green, means it is coming at you head-on: both alter to starboard and pass port to port.
Red only means the other boat sees your green, and you are the give-way vessel. Green only means you hold course and speed. A single white light high up with no colours is an anchored boat or a mark.
Two reds stacked mean a vessel not under command, so the avoidance is yours. In Kuwaiti waters, assume the worst about unlit shapes: plenty of small launches and skiffs run with one weak white light or none.
At night a buoy has only a light and a rhythm. Learn four:
The Shuwaikh and Shuaiba approach channels run paired buoys close together, and the common error is entering between the wrong pair because darkness flattens distance. Slow before the entrance and do not commit until you see the next light ahead.
Travel at a speed you can stop from in half the distance you can see. Inside Kuwait Bay that is genuinely slow: jet skis appear out of the dark with no warning.
Your eyes need twenty to thirty minutes to adapt, and one white flash resets the clock. Dim every screen, use red light in the cabin, and lift your eyes off the plotter every minute.
This is where the B7R app helps: check sea state before you leave the dock, and tides for Shuaikh and Shuaiba, because water level at the channel entrance changes a lot after dark. The marine tools work out distance and timing instead of guesswork. Free on Google Play.
The first is navigating by city light: the corniche glow lets you see the channel, then swallows the red buoy into orange background.
The second is silence. Brief the crew before you leave: one person does nothing but look, life jackets on, kill switch attached, VHF on 16, and test the SOS button at the berth first. The third is entering at your usual speed on a falling tide.
Night work rewards routine over courage: lights checked, speed down, eyes up. Download B7R marine app free on Google Play and have the tide and sea state in front of you before you turn the key.