Fog

Sailing with Dummies (Seattle to The Dalles Edition)
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
by Mike

The fog continued all night and all morning. And all day. Water temperature was high 40s. Air temperature was mid 40s – until late afternoon when it broke into the 50s.

I left Puget Sound through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and arrived in the Pacific Ocean proper around 2:00am. Giving Cape Flattery a wide berth, I turned left and headed down the west coast of the United States. I stayed about 8-10 miles off the coast of Washington. It was just outside of cell-phone range which cut me off from the world. That was nice for a change.

The fog limited visibility to about a quarter mile most of the time. By late afternoon I was near Grays Harbor, where I planned to stop and anchor for the night. It is kind of scary entering a new harbor in the fog. Also, Grays Harbor bar (the sand bar in the ocean) can be tricky sometimes where the tide meets the out-flowing current of water from rivers and does strange things in the changing depths. The weather reports forecast it to be “light-to-moderate” conditions on the bar.

I relied on GPS and radar to keep me in the right spot. And to keep me from running into buoys. Or other boats. It was desirable to keep the speed of the boat fairly fast to ensure good maneuverability in case a strange current appeared. So I had to trust the GPS and radar.

The channel leading into the harbor is marked with several buoys. Green on the left and red on the right (when returning to the harbor). The charts showed where the buoys were, and the GPS chartplotter showed where the Minnow was. I sat outside and peered into the fog hoping to see a buoy. Sure enough at about a quarter mile the shadowy image of a buoy started to appear. Luckily it was right where the chartplotter said it should be.

The rest of the buoys showed themselves as I continued down the channel. It was interesting that sometimes the buoys would disappear into the fog for a few moments, even when they were as close as 100 yards away. The buoys also have bells that ring as they bob in the water. They sound eerie in the fog. Probably they sound the same in sunshine, but it seemed like they sounded eerie. Hmm.

The anchor was set and I laid down for a nap around 6:30pm; I was tired. The fog made it really comfy and easy to drift off. About 7:15 I awoke with the sensation of sun shining in my eyes. That sure made me wonder where I was. I got up and, sure enough, the fog had lifted and the last hour of the day was sunny. After 24 hours of nothing but fog, it was nice to see the shore.

Daily Cuisine:
There’s still a water leak still hiding on the left side of the boat. That is the side that feeds the kitchen. So, with no water in the kitchen to wash dishes, I opted mainly for easy to eat food. It’s a nice way to justify being lazy. Some items from today’s menu were pop-tarts, popcorn, crackers, cheese, potato chips, tostito chips (and salsa), bologna sandwich (extra thick) and the rest of the oatmeal cookies. I’m pretty sure I gained weight today.