Powerboating by Ken Kreisler

Author:Ken Kreisler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Seahorse Publishing
Published: 2016-04-07T04:00:00+00:00

You might be in clear weather with fog lying ahead of you and still quite some distance away. If at all possible, alter your course and either return to your dock or seek a safe berth at a nearby marina. Always use the utmost caution when dealing with this particular weather phenomenon.

At its simplest, it is a very low lying cloud located at the earth’s surface, and, of course, right at your dock, that is made up of either water droplets or, if it is just cold enough, ice crystals. Fog usually occurs when the relative humidity, that is the amount of moisture in the air, is at 100 percent.

I am sure you’ve heard your always-happy and way-too-perky local weather forecaster point out how humid it is and one step outside on a day where it is fairly high is all the confirmation you are going to need. Sticky and uncomfortable and almost feeling as if were thick enough to cut the proverbial knife through, fog, and the ever-present bad hair day it brings, is no fun for boaters. None.

SOME FOGGY FACTS

Phileas Fogg, Jules Verne’s protagonist in his 1873 novel Around The World In Eighty Days, never did have to deal with the atmospheric condition of his namesake on his Victorian trip that circled the globe. As I’ve channeled Shakespeare for you boating intellectuals already, you are most likely quite familiar with this quote on his reference to limited visibility in Macbeth: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Hover through the fog and filthy air.” The result of which is murder, mayhem, treachery, and war. Go figure. As well, the father of our country, George Washington, used the cover of a handy local foggy layer to make a clean getaway from lurking British forces during the Battle of Long Island in August of 1776. Lucky for us or we wouldn’t have that extended weekend we now enjoy. Tea anyone? On June 6, 1944, the Allied forces used the fog lying across the English Channel to conceal the greatest armada of ships and fighting personnel ever amassed as they landed on the beaches of Normandy, France for the D-Day invasion. It’s a toss up for the foggiest places on earth; some say it’s Hamilton, New Zealand while others tend to lean towards the Grand Banks off of Newfoundland. Of course some Downeasters might opine that coastal Maine gets the nod. Then there are those snooty Point Reyes, California, habitués who hang their hats on the fact that their location has an average of some two hundred foggy days each year. And let’s not forget the dean of American poets, Carl Sandburg’s take on the subject: “The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on.”

Fog is heavily influenced by several factors including local topography, that being the landscape and geography, wind, and proximity to bodies of water. And while we can extend this conversation and discuss radiation, ground, advection,

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