RedactedNarrative: On 10/05/2018 at approximately 4:30 am, vessel2 came into contact with vessel1 outside of the Southport Channel.  Operator2 was thrown from his vessel, but no one was injured in this incident.  Operator1 was operating her sailboat under mechanical propulsion during the time of the incident, while her husband was asleep below deck.  Operator1 had been sailing all night from Charleston South Carolina.  
  
  Operator2 was accompanied by his son who was using a spot light to help navigate the water while it was dark on their way to go off shore fishing.  Operator2 stated his son would turn the spot light on for a few seconds at a time to help spot floating debris after the recent hurricane.  As they where traveling, Operator1’s son stated they saw Operator1's vessel at the last minute and yelled “Woah Woah” and Operator2 turned left to keep from hitting her vessel, but it was too late.  Both men stated the sail boat was not displaying any navigation lights.  
  
  Operator2's vessel came into contact with the sailboat's right side and continued down the vessel to the stern.  At the moment of impact Operator2 was thrown from his vessel and into the water.  Operator2’s son reached over and cut the vessel's engine off.   Operator1 stated she was operating her vessel at the time of impact.  Operator1 said she saw the vessel approaching and became scared that they were going to crash.  She began to yell for her husband for help.  Before he could reach the top deck, the second vessel had already made contact.  Through my investigation, I came to the determination that Operator1 was not running her navigation lights and she was the give way vessel which led to this incident.  Operator1 was cited for careless and reckless operation and failure to display her red and green navigation lights.
  
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