Nothing scares me as much as fog when I am out on the water. While I am seeing radar on many more small boats than ever before, I have never had that luxury. I have always had to navigate through the pea soup by the seat of my pants and some times that was not always successful.
Before I had good sense and I thought I knew everything about navigation, my friend Lark Bonelli and I set out from Bayshore Campgrounds in Ocean View in his 21-foot Grady White up to Brandywine Light in Delaware Bay. It was a foggy day, but he was a private airline pilot and I had been assigned to the navigation bridge while in the Navy. We could navigate anywhere – fog or no fog.
No problem getting across Indian River Bay and out the Inlet. Ran up the beach and into Delaware Bay without missing a single buoy. Headed to Brandywine Light right up the shipping channel.
Then it got dark real fast. Then our little, tiny boat got pushed aside by the bow wake of a very big ship. I could have reached out and touched the hull as it passed by. Then, as if I was not scared enough, the ship sounded its fog horn. Why I did not die of heart failure, I still do not know.
Once Lark and I regained our voices, we decided to head for Brandywine Shoal because the water there was too shallow for big ships. Once there, we began to regain our senses and noticed swirls on the surface. Sure enough, they were trout and we caught all we wanted. We came home through the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal and across Rehoboth Bay.
If you find your self out in the fog with no radar, slow down, post lookouts fore and aft, and maintain your heading. If you don’t have radar and it is foggy, don’t leave the dock.
Thunderstorms
Getting caught out in a thunderstorm is a good possibility right now, as they pop up during the summer months. They will scare even the most seasoned sailor no matter what he or she may say.
My friend Herb Gorden had a couple of inexperienced saltwater anglers on his 21-foot center console out of Rudee Inlet when a thunderstorm came up between him and the inlet. It was a big, black cloud with thunder and lightning, wind and rain, and Herb was heading right toward the center. One of the passengers asked if Herb was going to run through the storm.
“Unless you can teach this damn boat to fly, I am,” was his reply. And he did.
Thunderstorms are not to be messed with. The lighting is dangerous, so drop all antennas and outriggers. Have all hands don PFDs and stay seated. The wave direction will determine your direction. You must keep your boat headed in a safe direction even if you are not headed in the direction you wanted. Once the storm is passed, you can make the proper correction.
No GPS
If you should lose the use of your GPS for whatever reason, would you be able to navigate home without one? Lark and I made that run from Ocean View to Brandywine Light long before GPS or even LORAN were in use. We used our compass and charts to navigate the route. Believe it or not, but I still keep an eye on the compass and the sun when running offshore just to make sure the GPS is working.
If you have no experience with how to navigate without the GPS, I suggest going to one of the classes held by the Coast Guard Auxiliary. I am sure there are classes online and books on the subject as well.
Since navigation without the GPS relies on your compass, make sure that piece of equipment is operating correctly. Since most boats come with the compass already installed, there should be no problem, unlike the boat I was asked to test with the compass installed over the VHF radio.
We headed east and fished offshore with me complaining about the compass being way off. On the way home, we passed north of what the other two on board claimed was the Delaware Lightship Buoy.
When we first saw land, I was very upset. I knew we were somewhere off the coast of New Jersey, but I had no idea where. There was another boat nearby and when I asked him how far south Cape May was and he said about 10 miles. Running by sight of land, we ran to Cape May, then down to Lewes and on down to Indian River Inlet where this saga began.
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Eric Burnley is a Delaware native who has fished and hunted the state from an early age. Since 1978 he has written countless articles about hunting and fishing in Delaware and elsewhere along the Atlantic Coast. He has been the regional editor for several publications and was the founding editor of the Mid-Atlantic Fisherman magazine. Eric is the author of three books: Surf Fishing the Atlantic Coast, The Ultimate Guide to Striped Bass Fishing and Fishing Saltwater Baits. He and his wife Barbara live near Milton, Delaware. Eric can be reached at Eburnle@aol.com.
