fog scares me!
- Thread starter jon hansen
- Start date
Tom, You are correct. In order for it to work you need it on, and you need to be at the wheel observing the radar and keeping an eye outside. Doing 30 mph with the boat on autopilot figuring he was out of the main shipping channel, no need to have someone at the helm I got to get my fishing gear ready. It is opening of shrimp season.
Even in Maine almost no one uses fog signals these days. Too hard to hear over the engine noise. But fog is much less scary for me than it used to be. The answer is to have an AIS transponder. Even though not everyone uses AIS - the ones you really care about - like ferries - do. And they watch the AIS display a lot more carefully than their radar. To sail near commercial traffic in the fog without an AIS transponder is downright foolish.
Some people don't need fog to make themselves appear foolish.
Fog is why I bought ais and a new radar....... sometimes it just shows up!
greg
greg
Not at all. I respect it and stay in harbor if visibility warrants. But as @NYSail wrote above -- sometimes fog happens when we're out there, and we have to cope.
I remember this sail in the fog. Our modest speed (3kt?) gave the illusion that we were in the middle of a clear dome with an approximate diameter of about 100 yards, and the dome was following us.
With the near total silence inisde the dome, we could hear a lone motorboat miles away.
Speed up to 6-7 knots, the dome would have closed in around us to a few yards of visibility.
Speed up to 10 knots and you'd get the typical frantic radio report, "Fog is so thick I can't see the foredeck!!!"
Meeting another fog sailor. We'll wave but neither one of us will break the enjoyable silence.
With the near total silence inisde the dome, we could hear a lone motorboat miles away.
Speed up to 6-7 knots, the dome would have closed in around us to a few yards of visibility.
Speed up to 10 knots and you'd get the typical frantic radio report, "Fog is so thick I can't see the foredeck!!!"
Meeting another fog sailor. We'll wave but neither one of us will break the enjoyable silence.
"enjoyable silence" which was then interrupted by the one long and two short blasts on your air horn every two minutes (or less). compounded by the other vessels one long and two short blasts on their air horn every two minutes (or less). and the horn from the distant motor boat, every two minutes or less. right?
call me crazy, but listening to my fog horn signals for hours on end sucks. that's right , i said it. that is my opinion.
.......................... or, were you not blowing?
......................... if you were not signaling, then you join the crowd of boaters that "scares" me when i"m sailing.
call me crazy, but listening to my fog horn signals for hours on end sucks. that's right , i said it. that is my opinion.
.......................... or, were you not blowing?
......................... if you were not signaling, then you join the crowd of boaters that "scares" me when i"m sailing.
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This is the kind of fog I enjoy. Fogged in for two days at Cuttyhunk Harbor in MA, with my sister and her husband on their boat. Total relaxation.
I've sailed in Maine when we couldn't see the bow of our center cockpit, 56' schooner and when it seemed pure chance that I managed to get withing the 20' visual distance of the can I was dead reckoning to while we 28 kids rowed our two pulling boats, but most of the time I've spent in the fog on the water, was in a rowing dinghy looking searching, questing for our invisible boat on a mooring somewhere in that direction, or was it in that direction?
-Will (Dragonfly)
-Will (Dragonfly)
Jon it's like driving in Boston, the light turns and everyone continues going through the intersections. I asked my son about that. He said everyone counts to three after the light changes red. I asked him where he had learned that. He said from his friend Joe.
A little while later we were waiting for the green with my son driving. It turned green and we just sat there. Confused, I asked if we were going on this light or waiting for the next cycle. He said "Just making sure Joe isn't coming the other way".
A little while later we were waiting for the green with my son driving. It turned green and we just sat there. Confused, I asked if we were going on this light or waiting for the next cycle. He said "Just making sure Joe isn't coming the other way".