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Though it looked increasingly threatening as the early
morning was passing me by, I knew if I was leaving, then the earlier the
better -- before the afternoon and its probable thunderstorms moved in.
I dropped the mooring at 7:00 am and was on my way home.
Heading out beyond the Scituate Harbor breakwater I ran
into the first of the fog. The forecasts had called for "patchy fog,"
and I've done blind fog before, so I gritted my teeth and kept going.
No wind -- I tried hoisting sails off Cohasset Light but it was a waste
of time. I kept motoring, still hoping to beat any thunderstorms.
Out to sea some 3-5 miles offshore, the fog lessened;
visibility increase from 20 yards to maybe half a mile. The next
challenge was the Coast Guard alerting all boats in the Boston Harbor
shipping channel that an LNG tanker was leaving Port of Boston.
Wonderful. I radioed the CG, gave them my position and situation. They
advised that I'd see the security cordon before I saw the tanker,
proceed with caution. When a
huge ship loomed out of the fog, I thought I'd found it, but it was only
an anchored freighter in the middle of the harbor. I continued
motoring toward Marblehead, as the fog thickened until visibility was
back down to maybe 20 yards.
Before I reached the entrance to Salem Sound from Massachusetts Bay I
was running purely by GPS, utterly blind. Once inside the sound, I
heard the first horn from another boat. Then a chorus of boats' horns
in reply. Immediately we were all signaling each other with horns.
Approaching Salem Harbor the fog suddenly moved off,
visibility increased abruptly and significantly, though the inclined
planes of it were all around I
made it easily to Chip Ahoy's mooring, at about 1:00 pm. It took an hour
or so to put everything together that was coming ashore or needed to be
stowed. I called, told Barbara I'd be taking a short nap before coming
ashore. That was a mistake. An hour or so later, as I was putting on the
sail cover before leaving, the showers started -- followed by a vicious
thunderstorm, followed by another, both accompanied by torrential
downpours. This was the first significant rainfall of the cruise, and
aboard I found a few unexpected leaks
I was on the launch with the camera equipment Pelican
case and laptop case heading for the dock as soon as it looked like
there was a window between storms. Barbara picked me up at the top of
the dock, had me home a minute or so later.
Another seafaring cruise successfully accomplished; at
least survived. (Aug.
5, 2010) |
