Two Missing Fishermen Found

[A1Sailor]

About four years ago I was steering a tug from Rosyth down to the anchorages at Kirkcaldy when a thick Haar came in as we went through the bridges. We could not see the bow bits from the wheelhouse- a distance of about fifteen feet. When we went under the rail bridge ( a pretty substantial structure I'm sure you'll agree.) we could only see a slightly orange tinted fog.
Now this was a run we had all done many times before, hundreds of times in the skippers case. At that time we didn't have GPS and we were basically dead reckoning from the chart and our magnetic compass.

Just an idle thought - not relevant to the two lucky fishermen. Is there a local magnetic anomaly in the vicinity of the Forth Rail Bridge? I presume a compass right up against it might struggle to point sensibly, but how far away from a stonking big bit of irn does one have to be?

 

[cryan]

Just an idle thought - not relevant to the two lucky fishermen. Is there a local magnetic anomaly in the vicinity of the Forth Rail Bridge? I presume a compass right up against it might struggle to point sensibly, but how far away from a stonking big bit of irn does one have to be?

Not that I have experienced. Although the rock of the hills and cliffs on the north side are apparently laden with metalic deposits which can affect radio signals. But I have never seen any effect on the compass.