on the high mountain lake where i sail the wind pretty reliably turns up between noon and 1pm. yesterday was rated as a 30% rain chance but i hadn't been out on the cat for quite some time and wanted to try out a new mount position on the main beam for my new pentax optio w60 waterproof, interval shooting camera

luckily i had sailed upwind from launch but was on the other side of the lake when the low clouds suddenly dropped down to the water and visibility dropped to 20-50 yards

i've normally a pretty good sense of direction but after a couple of downwind gybes to get back to my launch beach my sense of direction was in disagreement with what the wind said

no gps that day but a quick glance at the sky showed the brightest bit to be where the wind said north should be, and then i remembered there was also an electronic compass built into my casio g-shock phone, which also confirmed i was headed in the right direction and that my "gut" feeling was wrong. funny how sailing/skiing/flying inside a ping pong ball does that to you

biggest worry was the huge catamaran ferry that takes tourists around the lake, they probably shouldn't operate in the fog but as their schedule is tied into tour buses and nobody wants to give refunds they continue to sail in pretty much anything

didn't want that to suddenly come out of the murk on a collision course, wonder if they have radar and if my mast would have given a good enough return...

after sometime sailing in complete white the concrete docks and diving tower of a swimming area appeared and i quickly tacked off to my nearby beach

how do the rest of you handle fog?

attached pic if from when i decided to stop going upwind on the wire and start going downwind on the tramp

What's that behind you?

where the hell is it

i can hear it, must be close

Eric, nice picture (before it was adulterated! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />)

I've been out racing at times when fog would blow in ... if you generally know what direction you were heading, you can count up to a specific number (or use a timer) and start tacking at the conclusion of that time. Say, if you know your point is directly upwind, sail close hauled on each tack for 60 seconds. It's a little trickier downwind but if you maintain trim and know your angles (and the wind is relatively consistent), you can be quite accurate.

I have been caught in sea fog a few times. It is certainly not fun. We have lots of jet skis around and the power boaters don't slow down for much. I just try to get to the beach and wait it out. Usually you can see it rolling in. If you sail into it… you can turn around and sail out to get to a beach.

I have also been caught out when the wind dies and don't get back to beach until well after sunset. I now carry flashlights, emergency strobe lights, and a compass at all times. Plus my cell phone in a waterproof bag. This doesn't help all that much in dense fog, but I am glad to have it when I need it.


In our re-scheduled... hangover regatta (Dunedin Fl) we had fog roll in that blinded the most seasoned sailors. It was so bad they couldn’t tell what direction they were headed, where they came from or where the beach was (this is in the Gulf of Mexico, just offshore). A bunch of cats tied themselves together and floated around until they could see.

Always have a whistle, compass on your life vest and toot every 1-2 minutes or so!! Check bearing to visuals, on dead reckoning frequently if fog is anticipated (dew point near ambient air temp). Know your range, tacking angles and tide changes and sail appropriately to desired course. In fog, tides usually play a bigger role in boat heading, as the wind usually is not blowing.

Rather than write it up myself, here's the correct horn procedure

Signals for Operations in Reduced Visibility (Inland & International Rules 35)

One Prolonged Blast: Vessel is making way under power in reduced visibility (i.e. fog). This signal is sounded at intervals of not more that 2 minutes.

Two Prolonged Blasts: A vessel stopped and not making way but sill under way in reduced visibility. This signal is sounded at intervals of not more that 2 minutes.

One Prolonged Blast followed by Two Short Blasts Sailing vessel, commercial fishing vessel, vessel not under command or one restricted by draft which is operation in restricted visibility. This signal would be used by a sailboat sailing in fog. This signal is sounded at intervals of not more that 2 minutes.

One Prolonged Blast followed by three short Blasts: A vessel being towed in reduced visibility.

Most of my fog experiences have just been quiet and spooky. However, my worst experience with fog inside the shipping lanes of Lake Ontario, adrift in fog, and hearing the screws of an iron freighter bearing down. Not knowing its direction or heading, we got an getting audible (horn) of imminent collision, (sustained blast from the big ship, with general quarters bells) about 1 minute before a near collision. We had about 17 sea scouts on the decks, a radar reflector up (we had no radar) and had to scramble to get the iron horse running to get out of the big boats way. Close enough for my tastes. Moral of the story, don't count on ship's pilots to be watching their radar carefully in the lanes, even in fog, and while you may have right of way they cannot change course. So, those lanes are their turf, so watch out!...

I carry a whistle but i really doubt anyone on a jetski or powerboat can hear it... so i also carry a can air horn

I carry a whistle too but no ferry or motor yacht is going to hear you.

Buy a radar reflector. They are cheap and simple. Most large boats use radar.

Radar Reflector

If I sailed in a foggy area you bet I'd have one on my boat. You can store it and put it up when needed attached to a sidestay.

Mike Hill
N20 #1005

Since there's usually no wind in fog, I think I'd hoist that radar reflector up using my spin halyard.

Get that bad boy nice and high to increase the time other boats using radar have to identify and avoid me....

"while you may have right of way they cannot change course"

Um, in a channel, you DO NOT have right of way (small sailboat vs. large boat restricted in ability to maneuver in a channel). Power vs. sail is not the only rule at play.

Mike

Right of way will not matter when you get run over and chopped up

The ironic part is, some people might just be willing to get sent to Davy Jones' locker to prove their point that they were "right"....

That's an easy rule to remember! Substantially more difficult to decide on that rule when sailing by dead reckoning and are uncertain of position and have no visibility! Made worse by autopilots!! My point is that sailors presume right of way. As you assert, sometimes we don't have that, and knowing your position is sometimes very critical to the decision making process.

How true. When in fog, everything gets crazy.

The worst thing of course is, for every rule, there are people that interpret them incorrectly or just take them too far.

I can recall a time in Buzzard's Bay, we were sailing across the channel on a very clear day. There was a 30-40 foot monohull under power coming up the channel. The channel is several hundred feet wide, and she could have seen us from a mile away. She never slowed, never turned, and almost ran us over. She claimed to have the right of way just because she was in the channel...

Mike

Funny fog sailing story:

1983 - Trip took us around Long Island. Out Mamroneck, down the sound, around Montauk, back along the Atlantic and up through NY harbor in Dad's old Nor'Sea 27. We're coming up the channel towards the Verazano Bridge in deep deep fog. No radar aboard and we're navigating by compass, depthsounder and charts. We hear a naval fog horn in the distance and realize we're in the path of something with radar. A short time later the blasts come again. This time the blast pattern tells us that we're on a head-on collission course from something come out the harbor. We head off to starboard a couple of degrees. A short time later, COLLISSION WARNING BLASTS! We're about to get run down! So we fire up the diesel and head 90-degrees to starboard out of the shipping lane. We're looking around to see if we can spot the boat when the fog about 50 feet astern goes totally black. Then we see the giant white lettering go by as well, QUEEN ELIZABETH II. Yahhh! Britches checks all around! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

50 feet? Yikes!

Yeah. Close enough that I hit the hull with an apple core that I had been eating. And close enough that when she passed, the wake was nothing more than the entire level of the ocean rising up several feet and then settling back down again.

Dad made sure that the next boat (Hans Christian 42) had radar!