Nice gentle film

[ylop]

In my opinion, you don't set out to sea in thick fog. Being caught by it when out is one thing, but setting off KNOWING that visibility is bad seems an unnecessary risk.

I don’t have an AIS transponder (only receiver) or Radar so I would have been reluctant to leave harbour in those conditions but I certainly wouldn’t consider what I saw in the video thick fog.

I’m not sure if it’s just a feature of the geography where I now live compared to where I’ve been before but we very rarely get proper thick fog. I remember going to school in fog so thick that crossing the road was a proper danger because you couldn’t even see the other pavement. I recall 25 yrs ago driving in fog so bad (in pre-sat nav days) I couldn’t read the road signs to know where I was trying to go. Even with radar and AIS I’d not leave harbour in those conditions.

 

[veshengro]

Feeling my way into the Strait of Gibraltar, without Radar although I did have a Radar Detector, paper charts and compass. Virtually nil wind but did manage to sail through a white Fogbow..



Hearing ships blowing and even the thump of an engine and then thankfully a breeze got up and the fog began to lift giving a clue as to what had been hiding from view..



They wouldn't even have felt the bump...

 

[johnalison]

I remember seeing my first fogbow and being very surprised to see a white ‘rainbow’. There is in fact a faint coloured bow underneath which is caused by diffraction. When I first saw it I called it a sunbow and only later found its real name on a very good website about halos in general. I imagine that ArcticPilot will have seen many amazing halo phenomena.

 

[johnalison]

This is a typical example of 'harbour fog' taken when we left Fecamp in 1978. In harbour it was dark and murky and all we could hear was the nautophones hooting away. There were no forecasts to speak of but I must have thought that we may as well go out and see what it was like, only to be greeted by glorious sunshine. We had already spent a week in Boulogne with high winds and were running late in our 3-week club cruise, so I was obviously prepared to go for it.

 

[Minerva]

This is a typical example of 'harbour fog' taken when we left Fecamp in 1978. In harbour it was dark and murky and all we could hear was the nautophones hooting away. There were no forecasts to speak of but I must have thought that we may as well go out and see what it was like, only to be greeted by glorious sunshine. We had already spent a week in Boulogne with high winds and were running late in our 3-week club cruise, so I was obviously prepared to go for it.View attachment 193441

This is exactly the sort of situation where a drone could be used as an aid to navigation. Send it up and you’ll record how thick the fog bank is and once it’s out of the fog, you’ll get an idea how far it extends.

 

[Little Tern]

In my opinion, you don't set out to sea in thick fog.

I don't think they did. It sure didn't look like thick fog to me as they left the harbour.

Either way, although I can understand why you personally wouldn't feel confident sailing in reduced visibility, I don't think you can apply that as a universal rule for everybody. I think it's reasonable for a crew to conduct their own risk assessment.

 

[DanTribe]

We anchored overnight off the beach near Bradwell. Thick fog in the morning but set off for Maldon hoping it would clear. A small motorboat came into view.
"which way is Bradwell?
"head South and you will see the baffle"
" I don't have a compass"
"well you had best anchor and wait for it to clear"
" I don't ave an anchor"
I ponted "it's that way".
I hope he got home safe.

 

[mrming]

We anchored overnight off the beach near Bradwell. Thick fog in the morning but set off for Maldon hoping it would clear. A small motorboat came into view.
"which way is Bradwell?
"head South and you will see the baffle"
" I don't have a compass"
"well you had best anchor and wait for it to clear"
" I don't ave an anchor"
I ponted "it's that way".
I hope he got home safe.

A similar thing happened to my Dad sailing our home completed 26 foot motor sailor in the 70s. In his case he and the small open powerboat were on their way from Ireland to the Isle of Man.

 

[tillergirl]

I have told the tale before but.....

On a v. foggy morning in those days TG was on a mooring otuside Heybridge Lock. We couldn't see TG from the shore but dinghied out to find her. We slipped the mooring and knowing all the moorings well, we crept on the outer line of moorings down Colliers Reach. Having found Hillypool Point, we turned to go down river and I stuck up a course on the Electronic Compass which should pick up the Doubles. I said to my chum (who I ought not name) 'keep the compass pointer on zero and I'll go and put the kettle on. Tea made, I took them to the cockpit. All in fog, nuffin in sight. I looked at the compass and the pointer was way off. I asked why he didn't follow the compass course. He said a motor boat had passed and so he followed them. I looked around and there was no MB in sight, not even a trace of wake! 'They disappeared', he said.

I looked at the depth and we were losing it. Then to port we could see some saltings..... and then a few moments later we could see some saltings to starboard. Given that we both knew the area pretty well, I asked, 'where on earth can we see the saltings so close having left Hillypool Point'? My chum said, 'no, never see that before' (the Decca never worked up river from Osea). And then the penny dropped: we were going round the back of Northey Island!

 

[veshengro]

They say to use all senses in fog, and one occasion that stands out for me was on passage from West Mersea to Newhaven. One of those sea fogs that appear as a bank on the horizon and gradually envelopes you. Not wanting to approach Eastbourne and Beachy Head in poor visibility and wishing to get inshore of coastal traffic I turned North. Soon GPS said off Bexhill-on -Sea and although I could not see the land there was the faintest murmur of traffic on the Coast Road and the very definite smell of the household waste site right on the seafront East of the De La Warr Pavilion. Sometimes a light offshore evening breeze can be really helpful. Good holding close in, I must have found a patch of sand amongst the Shingle..

 

[Poignard]

I used my aerosol foghorn in earnest a few years ago.

I had left Alderney single-handed bound for the Needles. After a short time thick fog descended. I was between Alderney and the Casquets TSS. I didn't have radar but I had that godsend, a GPS.

I did not want to go back to Alderney with zero vizibility and neither did I want to get in amongst the shipping. There was no wind at all and I shut off the engine and drifted for a few hours, plotting my position on the chart every now and then and smoking cigarillos.

The only thing that bothered me during that time was the sound of a powerful engine and a French pop radio station together with a strong smell of fish. Obviously a trawler was near me so I stood in the cockpit (lifejacket on) tooting away with the foghorn. After a while the trawler cleared off. Whether he heard me, I'll never know.

I have since been told that if I had called up Alderney radio they could have seen me on their radar and guided me into Bray Harbour. (Has anyone here ever had that done?)

Anyway, by the time the fog cleared (very suddenly) I felt I needed a few drinks so I abandoned the cross-Channel passage and high-tailed it to Cherbourg.

 

[johnalison]

My wife use to whinge when I 'played' with the radar when it was new to us but soon changed her opinion when we motored into fog off the Jade Weser entrance early one morning when we had a friend as crew. I was roused from my bunk and spent the next hour or so in front of the screen as we threaded our way through the anchorage for ships. In the end it was an encouraging experience as it was the first time we used the radar in anger. Here is a photo taken in much the same place on our return on another cruise a few years later when were more experienced. Having left Cuxhaven early in the morning we had little choice about whether to go on or return, and with it nearing LW there were no refuges until we got to Norderney.