Lost in Fog on xmas day!

[apollo24]

Yesterday I decided to go for a xmas day spin since wife had to work a half day at the hospital. It was around 70 degrees and sunny enough...

I trailered the boat down to the ramp, which is around 3 minutes from my house. The bay was quite foggy, but I figured I'd just hug the shoreline down to the Grand Hotel and back- the shoreline is lined with boathouses and piers. Well, I loaded up and pulled out and started heading South. Literally, a minute into my trip the fog got pushed in to me and I lost sight of land. I was probably .3 miles out, so I veered to port, thinking I'd see a boathouse. Somehow I must have made a complete 180 as the fog thickened. I don't have a depth gauge on my boat, otherwise it would have been easy to head for land, since Mobile Bay averages around 6' deep.

After stopping a couple times and killing the engine, I finally heard some noise from kids on a pier and managed to find them. I wasn't far from where I had started, but it was still hard trying to get back to the ramp. It was too shallow to stay within sight of land (I don't have tilt on my drive and it is only a couple feet deep even 700-800 feet out), so I had to stay on plane and guess where the ramp was. I finally made it back- lesson learned- Carry a compass or GPS, don't get mixed up with fog and assume the sun is going to burn it off, and don't let your wife beat you back to the house on xmas day when she has been working. :bonk:

I actually had a camera with me and took some pics. I will post shortly.

The fog did finally burn off around 3 yesterday so we put the boat back in and took about a 12 mile "wine and cheese" trip up river.

[zelatore]

Been there a couple times on SF Bay - always a nervous time!

At least I had a compass and was able to sight a bearing before heading into the stuff. Last time I was bringing a trade accross from Sausalito to our Oakland docks. Clear weather to start and finish, but solid fog drifting in through the gate. Sight a bearing and put accross at about 5 knots toward SF...I didn't see a thing until I was within 50 feet of a breakwater! 10 minutes later, and it was all clear and back on plane.

Even on boats with radar and a chartplotter, it's unnerving to be in a white out.

[Jraysray]

Yesterday I decided to go for a xmas day spin since wife had to work a half day at the hospital. It was around 70 degrees and sunny enough...

I trailered the boat down to the ramp, which is around 3 minutes from my house. The bay was quite foggy, but I figured I'd just hug the shoreline down to the Grand Hotel and back- the shoreline is lined with boathouses and piers. Well, I loaded up and pulled out and started heading South. Literally, a minute into my trip the fog got pushed in to me and I lost sight of land. I was probably .3 miles out, so I veered to port, thinking I'd see a boathouse. Somehow I must have made a complete 180 as the fog thickened. I don't have a depth gauge on my boat, otherwise it would have been easy to head for land, since Mobile Bay averages around 6' deep.

After stopping a couple times and killing the engine, I finally heard some noise from kids on a pier and managed to find them. I wasn't far from where I had started, but it was still hard trying to get back to the ramp. It was too shallow to stay within sight of land (I don't have tilt on my drive and it is only a couple feet deep even 700-800 feet out), so I had to stay on plane and guess where the ramp was. I finally made it back- lesson learned- Carry a compass or GPS, don't get mixed up with fog and assume the sun is going to burn it off, and don't let your wife beat you back to the house on xmas day when she has been working. :bonk:

I actually had a camera with me and took some pics. I will post shortly.

The fog did finally burn off around 3 yesterday so we put the boat back in and took about a 12 mile "wine and cheese" trip up river.

Scary way to get a cool pic!

[gcarter]

And even w/a compass and GPS is no guarantee you won't hit a fishing boat or something.

[zelatore]

And even w/a compass and GPS is no guarantee you won't hit a fishing boat or something.

You can go slow and keep your chances of hitting somebody/something pretty low, but my real fear is that a container ship might mow you down. They'd never even feel something that small.

Heck here in the bay, even the bridges aren't safe from those guys....Cosco Buson ring a bell?

[apollo24]

You can go slow and keep your chances of hitting somebody/something pretty low, but my real fear is that a container ship might mow you down. They'd never even feel something that small.

Heck here in the bay, event the bridges aren't safe from those guys....Cosco Buson ring a bell?

What was the Cosco buson?

[zelatore]

Cosco (China Overseas Shipping COmpany) Buson was a freighter outbound from the port of Oakland that hit the Bay Bridge in the fog last year and spilled something like 50,000 gallons of bunker oil in the bay.

While that's not a huge amount of oil compared to other spills, because it was in the contained area of the bay it made quite a mess. There was also some controversy over the initial response as early reports from the ship indicated only a couple hundred gallons had been spilled.

Bunker oil, btw, is more like tar floating in the water than oil after a few days. Nasty stuff if it gets on your boat. Or a beach. Or wildlife.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_San_Francisco_Bay_oil_spill