[Paddlewise] Crossings in Fog

I'm interested in anecdotal descriptions of crossings kayakers have
attempted under poor visibility (fog, mist, scudding clouds on the deck,
poor lighting, etc.).  I've read and digested "theoretical" approaches
to such crossings and have a fair grasp of how to attempt one:  figure
out the heading for the route, estimate the deflectingeffect of
current/wind, run the hull speed/current speed triangle to get the
actual heading I would need to make the desired course over ground in
the direction I want, and estimate the crossing time.

But, I'd like to know of the experiences of others on the water who have
used those techniques to make actual crossings.  

I've only made a couple, and there wasn't much to them.  One was in
dense fog in full-on daylight on my home paddling water (Lower Columbia
River) to a 200-yard-long island a little over 2 nautical miles out in a
very open stretch of the River (at least 2 miles to any other
shorelines).  The current was pretty much slack, so that my paddling
buddy and I just dialed in the magnetic heading for the upper end of the
island and went for it, timing our progress so that we knew
approximately when to look sharp for the outline of the island.  Turned
out that it was not much of a challenge, because the fog lifted as we
paddled, and gave us 300 yards of visibility as we reached the vicinity
of the island, making it easy to spot.

FWIW, we would have passed the island about a hundred yards upstream of
its upstream end on our actual course, a displacement which translates
to something like an "error" of 1.5 degrees to 3.0 degrees.  (Over that
distance, each 100 yards to the side of our intended mark is worth about
1.5 degrees;  because our compass heading was for the "upper" end of the
island, we "missed" our mark by about 1.5 degrees, with the center of
the island another 1.5 degrees downstream from the mark.)

I think this might just have been beginner's luck, however, because I
don't think I can read my deck compass to better than +/- 1 or 2
degrees, and even in flat water (which this was) I don't think I can
HOLD a compass course any better than that, either.  I'd guess this
amounts to an error of at least +/- 2 to 3 degrees, on a good day.

If this island had been 4 nautical miles off, our error would have put
us maybe 200 plus yards upstream, and we might have missed the island
entirely, even with improving visibility.

This was a "just for fun" crossing we attempted purposely in the fog, to
test ourselves, so it probably does not count.  What experiences have
others had?  I'd like to know.

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR
sea kayaker, sometimes lost in fog
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