Fog … Monday 2nd – Tuesday 3rd July 2018

Fog   …   Monday 2^nd – Tuesday 3^rd July 2018

A pre-dawn start, beautiful sunrise out on the water, a long laid-back motor sail up the coast of Long Island in light winds and a peaceful, reflective night, returning to our home port of East Greenwich, RI under starry skies … this was what was supposed to happen. We were fortunate to get most of this, but by 8 pm, as the sun was starting to set, we began to realize that visibility was far from ideal. By the time we reached Montauk Point we were totally socked in by fog. It was pitch black and the few stars we could see did little to lighten the night and even these soon disappeared. We didn’t see Montauk light, despite being less than two miles away. We didn’t see the lights from any other vessels, although there were plenty of them around. The moon wasn’t due to rise until 11.30 pm but we just kept motoring into the gloom relying totally on our electronic instruments to direct us and reveal obstacles in the way. We do have a great radar system (Simrad) and the AIS (automatic identification system) is outstanding, but only shows boats that have that system. Under these circumstances it feels like you are flying along and you simply have to trust the instruments, just like aircraft pilots in cloud or fog. We passed Block Island before midnight and it seems the breeze flowing over the warm land helped reduce the fog and we caught a brief glimpse of the moon. However, as soon as we passed the island the fog settled in thicker than ever. The whole boat was cold and soaking and we were wrapped up in full foul-weather gear. We managed to navigate our way around a tug and barge on our way to the entrance of Narragansett Bay; we ‘saw’ them on AIS / radar and spoke to them on the radio to clarify our actions, but we never actually saw them. Then we briefly saw the lighthouse at Point Judith as a faint glow and could not see Beavertail lighthouse even though  it was only half a  mile away. By 3am were close to the Jamestown bridge when we realized that all the fancy GPS and radar wasn’t going to help us find the correct passage between the pillars – the whole thing would appear as one uninterrupted barrier. We decided that it was smart to pause at this point and take a break, so we pulled in to Dutch Harbor and based purely on instruments found a safe spot to drop the anchor. What a relief! The last 7 hours had been some of the most tiring sailing of my life.

We slept a few hours and got up at 7.30 am to find the world still cloaked in fog. But after a leisurely breakfast, the fog lifted and we could see where we had anchored. It looked pretty reasonable! We left shortly after 9 am and headed up the bay back to East Greenwich. It felt stiflingly hot under a blazing sun with just enough southerly wind to cancel out the breeze our forward momentum. We made a quick stop at the dock to wash the deck and fill the tanks with fresh water, and then we were back on our mooring. We feel a mixture of pleasure / accomplishment that we completed the trip, excitement to be going back home and starting new activities, and sadness that the adventure is over. In our final blog (for this trip) we will reflect on what we thought of our Caribbean adventure … coming soon!

Mike

A picture perfect sunrise - the water was glassy ... no wind no waves and next to no swell. p.s. If you are wondering there is no extra saturation or color added to this shot. This is what it looked like ... albeit through a telephoto lens

Fishing boat in the early morning light off Sandy Hook

Motor-sailing in dense fog - I'm moving around during the course of the exposure (~ 3 minutes F11) because we couldn't afford to leave the instruments un-attended in the fog

Jamestown Bridge on Tuesday morning after the fog dispersed ... B&W negative