On the return trip we ran into a rather thick fog bank.

1. The first picture shows the infamous red day marker # 42 denoting the beginning of the 2006 Memorial Day Storm saga.

2. What's that up in the distance. There's something big on the radar. A big blob. It looks just like the big blob showing on the radar behind us. The blob behind us is the tow we recently passed. We were keeping track of him and he was keeping track of us. And now, we have a new blob. We move to the right side of the channel.

3. We can see it now. It's a southbound tow.

4. Now you see it and now you don't.

We called the tow to inquire how we showed up on his radar and he informed us that we were big and bright.

And yes, during my days aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Rambler I encountered many days and nights of dense fog where navigation by radar and charts (no GPS back then) was a frequent occurrence along the coast from Mobile Alabama to Carabelle Florida.

The difference? At that time I was with grizzled experienced boatswains mates, Chief Warrant Officers and others who knew what to do. They gave orders that I as a young helmsman followed with a sense of immediacy and precision.

Kicking the antique radar from time-to-time seemed to clear the snow from its screen and enhance clarity of the blobs on the radar. The buoys, shoreline and traffic were made clear. We rang the bell and shined high powered lights in search of buoys to guide our way through the narrow channels we sailed.

HOWEVER...

This is the first fog experience for Kem and me alone. Here we were in the ship channel where we relied almost completely on our radar to identify blobs (moving targets most often ships or tows), chart plotter to identify our position relative to the blobs position, and VHF radio to call for identification and passing agreements.

Our next purchase will be an AIS receiver so that we can see the vessel on our chart plotter along with their type, name and cargo.