I went down to take a quick she-she (that’s Hawaiian for pee-pee) and left Jade at the helm. When I came up I remember thinking “hmm, that’s funny, visibility is pretty poor. Was it like that when I went downstairs?”. It probably was, I just hadn’t noticed the haze slowly creeping in on us. Within five minutes, we couldn’t see more than 200 feet in front of us.
There are all sorts of rules on what you’re supposed to do when you find yourself in fog. I remember studying them for the sailing certifications exams way back when. I also remember thinking “I’m purging this from my brain. No way I’m ever going to find myself in fog in the Bahamas”. That just goes to show you how little we know about weather.
I can handle this. No need to bother Meredith, who was downstairs catching up on a few winks after a rolly night at anchor. She and Jade don’t sleep well when there are waves. Something that I wish we knew before buying a boat. Anyway, she was asleep, and I can handle a little fog.
What did the book say? Slow down. Ok, done. We were screaming along at 8.3 knots (about 10 MPH), and I pulled back the engines so that we were going about 6. Listen. Ok, no problem, I turned off the music. Should be all good now, right?
The kids were downstairs doing school, so I didn’t want to bother them. When Jade came up for a breather, I put her on the starboard (right) side of the boat to watch out for other boats that I couldn’t see around the jib (the sail up front). Did I mention that I left the sail up? Idiot.
All was well for awhile, and I kept thinking that I’d wake up Mere if things didn’t clear up in about 10 more minutes. Eventually, she woke up on her own and came upstairs to the scene. What had unfolded slowly for me was in stark contrast to what had been the reality when she laid down. We had almost no visibility. The sail was up. We were still going pretty fast (6 knots) for a sailboat in fog. I had a kid peeking around corners to look for possible collisions.
It was, at about that exact moment, that we saw the other sailboat. It was gliding through the fog about one hundred feet in front of us. We could barely see its ghostly shape through the mist as it crossed perpendicular to us, and it was obvious that they couldn’t see us. No lights. No fog horn. No calls on the VHF. Nada.
Just like us.
That woke us out of our lull quickly. First we took down the sail and got our full 360 degrees of visibility back. The nav lights came on to make it easier for others to spot us, and to know which way we were moving. We slowed down to a crawl. The radar was switched on.
As we made our way slowly along, we pondered “sounding off”. You are required to blow your horn at a set interval in fog, so that others can hear you if they don’t see you. Our “horn” is one of those handheld air horns that people sneak into football games…but marine grade. We pulled it out and Jade was instantly curious. “What’s that?”. I guess we didn’t do a great job showing her all the safety equipment on the boat. “That’s our horn Jade. Wanna hear it?”. I depressed the button without waiting for a response. Inside the enclosed helm. About two feet from both of our ears. Whoops. It looks like we’re both going to operate with one ear for a bit.
The fog didn’t lift for quite some time. We had the whole family on deck looking in various directions for other boats. It took an hour or so to start to break up, which is about the time we saw the second boat. This time the radar caught it, and it was heading right toward us, and into the fog. We dutifully turned ten degrees away from them, and they passed safely into the fog bank as we glided out of it.
As we cranked our engines back up, we pondered how lucky we were to escape unharmed. Luck really does favor the prepared, and we were not prepared. Hopefully the other boat that we saw with no lights or horn also made it out ok. Fog can happen pretty much anywhere, and just because all of the postcards show sunshine doesn’t mean the islands are immune. If you’re out on a boat, please review what you’re supposed to do in fog, and make sure that you are ready.