That reminds me of another incident. I got caught out in the fog last summer and was trying to return to port around sunset one evening. The foghorn on our local lighthouse was broken, and the fog was too thick to see the lamp from more than about 100 ft. There was a steady 10kt breeze blowing the fog and rain across the water.
Following me several hundred yards back, was our local tall-ship. We were both sailing at about 5kts, trying to get to the channel before it became totally dark. I thought I was being extra careful and zoomed the GPS map waaay in, trying to pick up my snail track and waypoint into the channel. It was zoomed in so far, that the shoreline wasn't visible on the map. The shore was actually less than 1/2 mile away. I turned out to be a bit south of our channel. I had been checking the depth sounder every couple of minutes because the 0/0 visibility was disturbing. I had been 60+ ft of water. The next time I checked, I was in 12ft of water. We decided to come about ASAP, being careful not to impede the tall ship. Luckily he figured out what was going on. I assume he was looking at his chart plotter and not just following us. I got the GPS map straightened out, furled the genoa for better visibility, and motored into the channel. My oversight probably would have run us aground if we weren't religiously watching the depth sounder. My depth alarms are set for 4 and 8 feet. While that is great for navigating from the marina to Lake Michigan, 8 feet really doesn't give enough warning to be useful on the Lake. They say any landing you walk away from is a good one...The same holds true for docking... Art Snapper Sabbatical #6610 http://lakemichiganfun.com On Dec 15, 2007 9:56 PM, Don Brooks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Earlier this year, I was on a yacht delivery on a 39ft trawler across the > Gulf of Mexico. The weather went crappy and we had 6-7ft following seas. > The ship's Danforth compass had poor dampening and constantly swung 40 > degrees making steering by it impossible and a broach very likely. We set a > waypoint on the GPS and entered a GO TO. Then zoomed in to a 300ft screen > and steered by keeping the line on the screen vertical. Kind of like an > attitude indicator on an aircraft. Worked like a charm. > My point is to use all available nav aids and cross check between them > all. > Don, #6293, Niceville, FL > >
