Stuck at Nantucket Shoals (6-6-08)
Where Next?
Bob Williams
Fri 6 Jun 2008 12:30
Course: North East Speed: 1.5 knots
Wind: East, very light breeze
Weather: Overcast, patches of fog, cool
It sure is taking a while to get around Nantucket Shoal. I had worked
things out quite carefully so as to come around them along the top of the
traffic separation scheme thus avoiding the big ships and the shoals and
rips. Last night we had less than two miles to go until the southern most
point of the shoals and then we would have been around and heading for our
next way point, Cape Race, the south eastern tip of Newfoundland. But at
1.20 am the wind gave up completely and we found ourselves drifting. As
luck would have it the tide pushed us right into the shipping lanes, not a
good place to be drifting around in the fog. Nonetheless we survived the
night without incident and at 10.30, after breakfast and bit of a read over
a cup of tea, I finally resorted to motoring, as much to charge the
batteries as to clear the shipping lane. As we were motoring along a big
container ship went past sounding its fog horn. I thought this was strange,
as I could see it a good six miles away. Another odd thing, as it got
closer it looked like it had no bridge. I realized after a closer look with
the binoculars that the bridge was actually up in some very low cloud, so
they were in fog where we were not. I could see it but it, or at least
those on the bridge, probably couldn't see their own bow.
By 12 pm we were exactly 12 miles behind where we had been 12 hours before,
just a tad frustrating. I stopped the motor for lunch to drift a bit more
and now it is 3 pm, we have some very light breeze, I have set the drifter,
we are making slow progress mostly in the right direction it seems, and we
are back to where we were last night.
Bob Cat has slowly emerged from his hiding place after his scare a few days
ago, and is now curled up on the settee, a comforting sight.
All is well.
Bob Cat:
There definitely seems to be a correlation between the loud noisy thing
under the floor boards and the bunk moving a whole lot less. The data set
is probably too small to be statistically significant at this stage and if
there is in fact a correlation then it begs the question, what is causing
what? Something to sleep on. Zzzzzz.