"Lloyd Sumpter" wrote in message
Final question: if the fog was thick (vis. maybe 100 ft) and you had radar
(and
GPS, etc) would you go out?


In New England, especially Down East, that's not a good question. Since fog is
dependent on the water temperature, its quite common for harbors to be clear,
while the fog lurks just off shore, waiting to be brought in by the tide.
Casting off means accepting a fair chance of running into thick stuff.

The first time I took my wife to Maine we got socked in at Jewell Island (the
outer island of Casco Bay) in fog so thick we only got occasional glimpses of
the boat anchored next in front of us for four days. Although we had radar, I
had never used it and didn't think it prudent to learn there. For a day or two
it was romantic, then my wife started complaining that she didn't want to spend
the entire vacation there when LL Bean was only 6 miles away. We discovered,
when we got up the nerve to poke out a bit, the we were actually on the inner
edge of a bank, and the fog had never made it to the inner parts of Casco Bay.
After that, we learned how to have faith in the radar.

So the answer is, while we might decide to wait for a morning fog to burn off,
we won't be held hostage by it.


--
-jeff www.sv-loki.com
If you can't say something nice, say something surrealistic. -Zippy