Very nice downwind sailing conditions. Wind ranged between 8&20 knots. One reef in the main for part of the night. Very disturbing near collision experience at 1:30AM. We had been monitoring a vessel that was not on AIS for about an hour. Vessel had a bright white light which was all we could see. Steph woke me because she could not make sense of what he was doing, we thought he was a slow moving fishing vessel due to the bright light. When I came up we immediately realized the vessel was very close. Still could not make out navigation lights. Then I saw a green, which would mean his Stbd side was too me, it seemed he was trolling parallel to us, I started steering away. This was limited due to main on preventer and poled out Genoa. Then we saw it was a sailboat and it was coming at us. I the sails got back winded and it seems he saw us at the last minute. Collision was nearly adverted. This vessel did not have proper nav lights. I never saw a red bow light which I certainly should have based on his sailing direction. His flood light on the mast made it impossible to tell where he was going or what type of vessel he was, also probably blinding him so he had limited visibility to see us. I radioed after we were clear and he refused to answer why he had improper lights or what he was doing. Very scary!

San Simeon-Cuyler Harbor, San Miguel Island

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