browser icon
You are using an insecure version of your web browser. Please update your browser!
Using an outdated browser makes your computer unsafe. For a safer, faster, more enjoyable user experience, please update your browser today or try a newer browser.

Lost in the Fog!

Posted by on January 5, 2012

Anyone who has been lost in the fog knows how disorienting, eerie, and spectacular an experience it can be. For those who have yet to paddle with the mist, here the stage: The fog bank is hanging on the horizon with fog horns sounding in the distance. Then, all of a sudden, it starts to move in and there is nothing to stop it. It envelopes you and your world becomes very small. You lose all sense of direction in your tiny circle of visibility. It becomes very quiet and the once prominent sounds such as the fog horn and the lobster boats in the distance become muted. You are all alone; lost in the fog!

I had been paddling for many years without an incident in the fog. Then it happened. It scared me, I learned from it, and I have now come to enjoy a trip in the fog every once in a while! My first incident in the fog happened on a cool, early summer paddling trip out to Manomet Point in Plymouth. The fog horn at the Gurnet had been sounding all morning long when my friend and I set off from Long Beach. We could see the fog bank lying offshore but we weren’t too worried about it. Our plan was to stay close to shore and I had a small compass in my PFD pocket as a back-up. We’d be fine!

The nuclear power station in Manomet requires that boaters obey a quarter mile exclusion zone marked by a line of white buoys and we gladly obeyed. Then the fog bank quickly rolled in and our view of the shoreline dissolved. It was the thickest fog I’ve ever been in and we were lucky to be able to see 10 yards in any direction. I pulled out my compass only to find that the directional needle had corroded to the pin rendering it useless and leaving us lost in the fog.

    

We were disoriented and stuck until we drifted into a lobster pot buoy. Then another buoy appeared at the edge of our circle of visibility. We paddled toward it and spotted the third buoy. It was then that I remembered that lobstermen tend to lay their pots along rock bands and these bands happen to run out to sea perpendicular to shore. By following the buoys we knew that we would be traveling either into or away from shore. Luck was with us and we soon came within sight of the rocks. Lessons learned: 1) Always have a working compass and 2) Be prepared to think outside of the box!

-Kayak Dave

4 Responses to Lost in the Fog!