Dark Sky Bioluminescence Kayak Tours

The same tour, on the darkest nights

This is our Stargazing & Bioluminescence tour on the nights when the moon is out of the sky from launch to landing. The route, the guide, the pedal kayaks and the price are the same. The only difference is the calendar on this page, which shows the dark nights and nothing else.

What counts as a dark night

A dark night is not only the new moon. The moon rises about 50 minutes later each day, so on many nights of the month it has either set before we launch or is still below the horizon when we land.

We check each tour on its own: where the moon is at our launch, from the minute we push off to the minute we are back. If any part of it is above the horizon at any point, that night is not listed here.

• The new moon. Dark all night.
• The days after the new moon. A thin crescent that sets before we launch.
• Several days after the full moon. The moon rises later each night, and soon it rises after we are off the water. These nights are easy to miss on a moon phase chart, because the moon still looks more than half full.

Why the dark matters

Your eyes take 15 to 20 to adjust to the dark. Moonlight on the water undoes that and washes out faint light: the trail off a pedal fin, a comb jelly a few feet down, the Milky Way overhead. On a moonless night you see all of it.

Can't make a dark night?

Come anyway. A moonlit lagoon is a good night out in its own right, and the tour runs on plenty of other nights. Every date is on the Stargazing & Bioluminescence tour page, and the moon calendar shows what the moon is doing on your dates.