Fog in Solent now - some not coping

Another fog experience comes to mind, about 1978...
We were sailing up the Baltic in a Gaff Cutter belonging to a friend to make for Stockkholm, then for Turku, in Finland through the Archipelago. We were positioned between Oland and Gotland a very busy route for merchant shipping between Kiel and the Gulf of Bothnia, etc.
The viz dropped to a pea souper and with hand lead, echo sounder and compass were able to close Visby, a fishing port, nerve wracking on DR and soundings all the way because the bottom there contains lots of iron ore, that can drive the compass to do cartwheels..:eek:... The pea souper lasted three days while we were holed up in there. I never had so much Baltic Herring in my life, eaten raw and accompanied by a good Malt.:eek:
 
I recall dinghy racing in a fleet of 30 or so on a reservoir when down came the fog. We were obviously at no risk from shipping, but it became an object lesson in total disorientation which swung from the hilarious to the frightening once you realised how helpless you were. We had no compasses and eventually race control used the starting hooter to give us a reference, but even then the fog seemed to dissipate the directional aid the hooter was suppose to give us. Even if you found a marker buoy, you had no idea where to go from the mark.

Needless to say boats ended up all over the reservoir, and in retrospect it was a very good lesson conducted in almost total safety.

Not sure how I'd cope in the Solent to be honest, but contour hugging seems the best bet, along with a trusty chart plotter in the absence of radar..which I couldn't operate anyway.......:confused:

Tim
 
VTS help ?

I'm new to the Solent and after ten years in the peaceful West Country I find the traffic volumes scary. I thought I knew what VTS was but assumed it was mainly for policing and controlling traffic. How could it help a small boat creeping along gingerly in the fog? How does it identify you? Can you just call up and ask for a position?
 
VTS can tell you what big stuff is where and where it's going for one.

Own experiencve of fog is 2 awful occasions, first SWMBO & I were in Cherbourg and had delayed a day through fog that didn't clear early enough. Went out second day when it looked OK, got 5 miles offshore and eventually realised horizon had disappeared. We were misled as there was nothing else around and sunshine above us. Finally, woke up to the fact hat we could just see the bows on our 30 footer. Decided it was mist thaty would clear with the sunshine and kept going but put radar on. Then saw something coming straight down the EBL at us, we put engine out of gear and waited, whereupon he did a big turn to starboard and passed about 1/2 mile astern - we could hear his engines but couldn't see him. It was reassuring that he could obvioulsy pick us up on his radar. Carried on and the fog slowly thinned and we had about 2m visibility when we crossed the main shipping area, but had radar going almost all the way across.

Second was in Yarmouth with a friend of mine who was desperate to get back by early afternoon. However, we literally couldn't see one set of pontoons from the other lot, it was really thick. (That was the time the Lymington ferry - we think - took out one of the piles in Lymington river. Someone was interested in their AIS and noted the ferry was sat there a long time and when he finally got to Lymington the post was gone). We wanted to catch the tide to get to Portsmouth and tried to leave at 10am but were swept through the trots outside harbout cos we couldn't see a thing but had just enough visibility to find our way back in fast.
We eventually thought we could leave around 2pm although the tide was foul by then and visibility had improved to about 1/2 mile. We were monitoring all VHF channels - VTS, QHM and CG etc, and had radar and chart plotter etc when my pal decided he had to make an argent business phone call. He went below to do so and got so excited he leant agaisnt the switch panel and turned everytthing off. He was immune to the increasingly irate shouts from on top of "turn the radar back on" as he didn't want to miss anything on his phone call. It ended eventaully and we turned it all back on, one of the more unusual hazards but yet another example of why you shouldn't use a mobile when driving!
 
I've been around the Solent for the last 40-odd years; I would call the Coastguard on channel 67 if I was really bothered, not VTS.

Most of the time I'd suggest it's a case of going into shallow water where big ships etc can't get at you, next thing to consider is fast ferry traffic; if say off Portsmouth entrance it could well be worth calling QHM on channel 11, the big snag of course is neither you nor them can be much help to the other if you can't give an accurate position.

BTW The Western Solent on the mainland side is very amenable to navigation by depth contours, which is why it's used a lot for yachtmaster exams.

Towards the East though it's nigh on impossible !

I once had a total electrical failure AND failed main compass ( 28 yr old Plastimo Contest leaked dry in a rush, one minute a slight bubble which had been there for months, then when I needed it, bone dry - beware of that one, I wasn't ! )off the Southsea 'Dolphin' passage through the anti-sub
barrier.

Briefly thought about carrying on with a spanner on a line for sounding and a hand bearing compass, but the depth contours of Chichester just don't show the entrance when offshore.

I pointed North as the fog appeared and was able to get into shallow water, off the rhumb line track of anyone going to & from Langstone / Chichester & the Dolphin, and waited the night at anchor.

Not fun ! Chief worry was some fishing boat trundling at warp 9 relying on radar, I had a reflector up but not much confidence in that or fishing boats.

Which is why my Anderson 22 now has a top of the range battery, and a JRC radar...I already had a good chart plotter with 30 watt solar panel and a charging coil on the engine ( and a NASA battery monitor which was a mistake, going to fit something better this Spring ).

I can run the radar in short bursts, unlike old style sets, that and the plotter help a lot, and monitoring the battery is vital - the snag which left me in the lurch was a 2yr old battery failing all at once, rare but not unknown, it had been left unused until I fitted it a week or two before, fully charged; what I didn't know was it didn't hold charge under load - but I'd never set off in fog deliberately, if a case of 'getting back for work', better to leave the boat and catch a train.
 
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May 2004, my quite new to me, boat was in Oare Creek (Faversham). Wishing to bring her round to Folkestone; son was over from Plymouth and we thought best opportunity to bring her round before he returned; the day before, brought her down to confluence with Faversham Creek at high tide. Drive over to Oare next am by 0600. when we cannot see 30 yards across the creek, son who generally less risk taking than me, said, "We'll go - last opportunity this year, any way I've borrowed a GPS."; we cast off, get into the Swale and find the GPS is U/S we decided to carry on by buoy hopping - we had a good compass and charts - the buoys were coming up on the nose less than 50 yards ahead, it did extend to 100 yards by the end of the journey. We made it in 10 1/2 hours, motoring the whole way, although we did have our sails up. The only ship/boat we saw at sea the whole way was a Seafrance ferry which gave way to us - we had radioed in to Dover that we were passing beyond the harbour.
 
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pugwash said:
I'm new to the Solent and after ten years in the peaceful West Country I find the traffic volumes scary. I thought I knew what VTS was but assumed it was mainly for policing and controlling traffic. How could it help a small boat creeping along gingerly in the fog? How does it identify you? Can you just call up and ask for a position?
Click to expand...

If the latest MAIB report is to be believed, you should always let them know where you are.

Couldn't believe the Race Committee in the Solent decided to start in fog by shortening the start line.
 
I agree starting a race in fog is plainly daft, to put it mildly.

For small boats to call VTS is pretty unusual though.

During the last day of my yachtmaster offshore we had a solid F9 gusting a lot more, and the ultra-experienced examiner asked me to call VTS as we passed ( we were only going from Ocean Village to Warsash, but he wanted to assure them we weren't merrily setting off into the blue ).

VTS reacted with what seemed bewilderment at a yacht calling them, I might as well have been calling from the Space Shuttle; I'm fairly confident it wasn't my radio procedure, understandably I was on best behaviour !
 
VTS v. CG

My take on it and the fog situation.

The VTS job is managing the coming and going of the big/fast/dangerous stuff and to this end need to know what may interfere with those operations. Unidentified vessels don't help with that. I think the issue is that in fog VTS see targets on radar but are not able to identify them and with no visual reports from other vessels have no clue as to their type/size/intentions. The same applies for the commercial skippers/pilots.

Listening in on CH12 (as we should be in the area) there is a continual exchange of information between VTS and commercial traffic as well as between commercial vessels, this was particularly active during the fog of Sunday. It was obvious that some yachtsmen (power and sail) in or near the main channels were aware of the VTS concerns and although not normal practice called in their position, vessel type and intentions, which seemed to be appreciated by VTS.

I also heard a couple of small boats call VTS to say they were lost/disoriented and could they have some help (one was decidedly panicky), something that should have been directed at the CG. VTS did deploy a harbour patrol boat to assist in one case as the boat concerned was in the main channel. Other calls I heard were directed at/handled by the CG as you would expect and resulted in either lifeboat assistance or help by other yachtsmen.

Does seem to reinforce the view that in fog you either can or can't cope, not much of an in-between situation apart from chance.
 
Seajet said:
I agree starting a race in fog is plainly daft, to put it mildly.

For small boats to call VTS is pretty unusual though.

During the last day of my yachtmaster offshore we had a solid F9 gusting a lot more, and the ultra-experienced examiner asked me to call VTS as we passed ( we were only going from Ocean Village to Warsash, but he wanted to assure them we weren't merrily setting off into the blue ).

VTS reacted with what seemed bewilderment at a yacht calling them, I might as well have been calling from the Space Shuttle; I'm fairly confident it wasn't my radio procedure, understandably I was on best behaviour !
Click to expand...

Whenever I've called VTS they've been helpful, professional and thanked me for calling telling me they'd use the information. Must have been an off day when you called. I've only ever done it to report things though - pillock on a jetski, lobster pot in the main channel that sort of thing.

I would however definitely call them if using or crossing the main channel in fog, but not to tell them I intend to stay out of it.

Anyone from VTS want to comment on what they'd like us to do?
 
AHoy2 said:
Very foggy now in the Solent and there seem to be several "leisure" boats not coping - causing a lot of work for CG and VTS. Bearing in mind that the forecasts were for fog/poor vis there seem to be several skippers who are not prepared and don't know their accurate position or route to harbour/safety.

By way of balance there have been several leisure skippers calling in their location and progress to VTS who seem to have it all under control - and being very cautious.

Me - I am moored up and out of the way. Can't see across Southampton Water though.

What category above do you fit in? Or is that a redundant question for members of this forum ;>)
Click to expand...

Does that mean North Island is cut off from IoW?
 
pugwash said:
I thought I knew what VTS was but assumed it was mainly for policing and controlling traffic. How could it help a small boat creeping along gingerly in the fog? How does it identify you? Can you just call up and ask for a position?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't call them without good reason, but I would certainly listen. The ships (especially the ferries) report as they pass various waypoints, and VTS will also tell a ship of any traffic that's relevant to them. By listening to this you could potentially build up a kind of "manual AIS" rough idea of what was going on. Would probably need to be a nearly-fulltime job, mind you, I couldn't do it in my head while steering.

Pete
 
We were there yesterday moving our boat from Fareham to Southampton for the winter. Left Portsmouth in bright sunshine but as we entered Southampton Water the visibility started to drop. I would guess that by the time we reached the entrance to the Hamble visibility was down to 50 yards.

A rescue boat off Hamble entrance kindly stopped to ask if we needed assistance. After that I believe we only saw one other boat moving. We stayed on the eastern side of the channel between the shallows and the the main shipping channel. We aimed at the Southampton dock head and then continued north close to the docks.

Our calls to VTS were to get clearance to cross the main shipping channel. They were obviously beeing challenged by the conditions but were most helpful and advised us to hold pending a number of movements. I feel sure such action was helpful to both parties and we arived at our destination in one piece!
 
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