Do you ever look at people who 'Do It Themselves' and think, 'what the hell?! How do these people have the time for Do It Yourself (DIY) projects?!'. I think that. I do. I mean, I really do. Yesterday, I painted nav lights red. With nail polish. Why? So that our bridge can stay light sensitive friendly! As I was painting the bulbs I thought to myself, 'How is this not diy?! This is totally diy! Look at me rocking this diy project.....what a nautie badass!'.

A little background....at night on the bridge we use red lights. This helps preserve our night vision. I need to be able to go into the chart room - see the chart - fix my position - and returned to the darkened bridge and be able to spot other vessels. Your pupils need to get big and stay big. Red lights make this happen. I only had white lights.

I tried to paint my white lights red. I used spray paint - but it didn't hold up to the heat and when the bulb got hot it would peel and flake all over my chart table. I tried a sharpie - it just wasn't dark enough - even with lots of coats. Then I thought: Nail Polish!

I went ashore in Spain (more to come on that...) and bought three nail polishes. Only one of them worked.

For the record: Revlon polishes cannot sustain exposure to heat. Who would have thought that?!

I poked a hole in the bottom of a Styrofoam cup to hold my bulb upright and applied polish to the clear bulb - when it dried I screwed it in - and Voila! A red light!

Consider this a Shipping Girls Guide to Nautie Projects.....that you can do yourself.....or assign to the cadet.....your call.