FOG !!!

Woke up Tuesday morning and we were socked in. Couldn’t see the shore. Definitely couldn’t see the Newport Bridge. Our plan was to get underway at 0630, heading east through Buzzards Bay towards Woods Hole, and spend the night in Quissett Harbor. That was the plan.

We waited until 1000 when the fog started to burn off. We need more RADAR practice and we figured Narragansett Bay (inshore) would be a safer place to maneuver. The fog had lifted over the land… over the water was a different story. Once we got south of the bridge the fog was still fairly thick. The fog would thicken and thin as we traveled down the Bay, to the point that we could not see more than 200 yards in front of us.

It is amazing to see (well sort of) someone moving at a fairly high speed and NOT making any fog signals. It is quite scary when they pop into view just to cross your bow. Although those idiots wouldn’t hear my fog signal anyway because they were nicely tucked inside their bridge out of the elements.

Jo was stationed below watching the big screen split between the RADAR and chart plotter. A couple of times she called out something moving FAST (+20 Kts) CBDR (constant bearing decreasing range) Not a good thing for a mariner. I adjusted course to open up the separation and out of the fog pops a large motor yacht. I am sure glad Jo took the RADAR refresher course this past winter. It paid huge dividends.

The fog broke around 1130 and so did the anxiety and stress level. The rest of the day was spent motoring on to Quissett as there was no wind to speak of. Arrived at around 1530, picked up a town mooring, loaded the bikes into the dink and went ashore for a ride to Woods Hole.  Tomorrow: Provincetown on the tip of Cape Cod.