We left Gijon about 11.30 a.m. after cleaning the outside of the boat, which was filthy after nearly three weeks in the river at Ribadesella. There was a flat sea, but visibility was very poor with fog, thunder, lightening and heavy showers which showed up on the radar.
On Susannah we tend to adopt standard fog procedures; fix position before losing visibility, plot a paper fix every half hour (using dead reckoning and estimated positions – verified by GPS), ensure that our See Me active radar reflector and navigation lights are on. We wear lifejackets, clipping on when the sea is rough, but remaining unclipped in more benign conditions. The theory being that recovering a man overboard in fog would prove very difficult and constitute a greater danger than being hit by a larger vessel and being dragged down with the sinking ship. Sheila monitors the radar and keeps a visual lookout while Roger keeps a visual lookout and blows the foghorn. If sailing we furl the headsail to slow us down and improve all round visibility and, if possible, we navigate to shallow water where there is no chance of being run down by big merchant shipping.
In the event we had thick fog nearly all the way which just lifted a little as we approached the difficult entrance (i.e. rocks and shallows in the approaches) to Luarca. Luckily, we managed to spot the leading marks – just as well as the chart plotter was completely wrong (i.e. the GPS position according to WGS 84 was, of course, accurate, but the electronic cartography – probably based on old local harbour charts was not).
We arrived about 7.30 p.m. and had to lasso one of the buoys, which are metal and close together, and then dinghy ashore with a line to hold the boat away from the other buoys.
On Susannah we tend to adopt standard fog procedures; fix position before losing visibility, plot a paper fix every half hour (using dead reckoning and estimated positions – verified by GPS), ensure that our See Me active radar reflector and navigation lights are on. We wear lifejackets, clipping on when the sea is rough, but remaining unclipped in more benign conditions. The theory being that recovering a man overboard in fog would prove very difficult and constitute a greater danger than being hit by a larger vessel and being dragged down with the sinking ship. Sheila monitors the radar and keeps a visual lookout while Roger keeps a visual lookout and blows the foghorn. If sailing we furl the headsail to slow us down and improve all round visibility and, if possible, we navigate to shallow water where there is no chance of being run down by big merchant shipping.
In the event we had thick fog nearly all the way which just lifted a little as we approached the difficult entrance (i.e. rocks and shallows in the approaches) to Luarca. Luckily, we managed to spot the leading marks – just as well as the chart plotter was completely wrong (i.e. the GPS position according to WGS 84 was, of course, accurate, but the electronic cartography – probably based on old local harbour charts was not).
We arrived about 7.30 p.m. and had to lasso one of the buoys, which are metal and close together, and then dinghy ashore with a line to hold the boat away from the other buoys.
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