It’s Not Summer in Maine
29 June 2013 | Rockland, Maine
Donna
We saw some sunshine and not much fog this morning so we decided to make a go for it. The fog started rolling in again as we were pulling the anchor up though. It took a lot longer to bring the anchor up because it was so muddy. By the time we got the anchor up we really should have put it down again, but we didn’t. The visibility was OK and it wasn’t raining. By the time we got out of the harbor the fog warranted using Bill’s newest toy. (I can feel our daughter rolling her eyes right now) It’s the FogMate Horn Controller. It automatically blows the boat’s horn for the right pattern for whether you are motoring or sailing. We were motoring, that means the horn needed to be blown one long blast every two minutes. We heard a couple of other horns out there but nowhere near as many as there were boats. It’s important to have some kind of signal because by the time we got out in the bigger water you literally could see less than an eighth of a mile in front of you. We saw a big power boat coming at us at twenty knots on our AIS. Bill called him on the radio but there was no response, we turned out of his way just to be safe.
In retrospect we probably shouldn’t have gone but fog is a fact of life in Maine and with radar, AIS, and GPS charts it’s not too bad at all. It was cold, and wet, and more than a little exhilarating. Above is a picture of a navigation mark we went by in the fog. We are now anchored in Rockland though, and the Internet is better here at least. It’s a much bigger city, which we hope to explore tomorrow. The fog lifted enough for us to find a good anchorage right outside the mooring field. Only problem is we seem to be on top of a lobster pot that is banging on the bottom of our hull. We’ll have to move a bit this afternoon so the lobsterman can pick it up in the morning.