Re: [Paddlewise] Foggy Crossing

Jerry and All,

Most definitely, foggy crossings are more dangerous. My forecast that day was for patchy fog. As it turned out, four hours or around 13 nautical miles is not patchy. But I probably still would've done the crossing with a worse forecast for fog. Traffic, not navigation, is my biggest concern in the fog. Not having strong currents and aiming off makes the navigation pretty easy.

Like I always say, it's not the big ships that scare me. They are really good about sounding their fog horns, and even if they aren't, the ships have a pretty loud hum, making it easy to identify where they are at. They also go pretty straight, making it easy to get out of their way.

The smaller, high speed boats scare me. Fortunately, they don't venture out in the fog much. But sometimes you get caught in the fog with them. I can hear them coming for miles.

On this crossing, I heard the hum and fog horn of a ship in the north bound lane, and I could easily hear it was going to pass far behind me. Later, I heard a smaller boat, which I think was a sport fishing party boat, going about 15 knots. For a while I heard it coming pretty much head on, so I knew it was going to be close. Visibility was about 50 yards at that point, so I turned sideways to be ready to move either way out of its way and stopped paddling to tune in better to the sound. Quickly, I was about to tell it was passing to one side. I could hear people talking on the boat, but I never saw it.

These channels down here are pretty big, and surprisingly, there isn't much traffic in them. I think crossing a small crowded lake in the fog would be much more dangerous.

People have different ways of doing things. I think using a radio to try stay out of trouble wastes a lot of valuable time that could more reliably be used listening and paddling to get out of the way. I know roughly by time and speed when I'm around the shipping lanes, but I treat the whole channel like a shipping lane and assume no one sees.

That foggy crossing is among my favorites, because it's amazing how much more you tune into sound when you can't see. When you stop paddling and listen occasionally, it's amazing how much you can hear. For at least a couple hours, I heard the rumble of surf and car traffic on the coast. As I came closer, I was shocked how loud the coast really is. It was like someone put a microphone on it and cranked up the amplifier.  

Duane
Southern California
***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed
here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire
responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author.
Submissions:     PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net
Subscriptions:   PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************