Finally Favorable Winds But No One Forecast Fog, Fog, and More Fog

Today was finally our chance to head NE up the coast of New Jersey to NYC as winds had shifted to SE.  Harry had planned our departure for 10-11 am so that we’d have favorable currents as we passed through New York’s East River on Tuesday around noon when he figured we'd arrive.  But we awoke to a heavy fog with visibility of about 200 yards.  We secured the dinghy on the bow and were ready to depart by 9 am but waited an hour to see if the fog would lift. Conditions didn’t improve at all and as we were anxious to go, we left Cape May barely able to see the edges of the breakwater about 30 yards away. Once in the Atlantic, seas were moderate, about 3-5 feet owing to the previous day's strong winds.  While the wind was SE, it was only about ten knots which wasn’t sufficient to keep the boat moving through the seas so we motored through the fog using auto pilot to steer a straight course and radar and AIS to spot other boat traffic. As a sign of the dangers that lurked, we listened to a distress call from a sailboat who’d run aground in the fog. The Coast Guard had trouble locating him to render assistance because the mariner couldn’t see any defining features onshore to guide them to his location. He was eventually found by some shore personnel out on patrol. The fog held all day and we eventually managed to sail from 2:00  until 7:30 pm but with storms approaching, we doused all sail before dark and motored blindly into the fog, wondering if setting off in these lousy conditions wasn’t one of our better decisions.

A moment of better visibility as we prepare to raise anchor