Blind Faith....
2004-08-02

I got out of work a little bit early and we headed straight to the boat. The weather was perfect if you don't count having the wind directly on the nose. Blah. We cast off and motored into the bay. Life was good.

We popped in some tunes and I had a grapes while Ken had a beer. We were making great time and soon passed H0pe Island and a few boats including this guy from the club that everybody hates. I didn't even look as we went by. It wasn't like he was going to wave.

Just after this point, things started to go downhill fast. The visibility dropped to a quarter mile, then an tenth. Pretty soon all we could see was white. I had Ken drive while I fired up the two global positining units. we got a fix and a heading and kept on going. I brought out the horn, a couple of life jackets and the handheld radio. I hoped that what ever was out there was being careful and could spot out radar refector set high in the rigging.

The fog muffles the sound pretty well so when we heard the massive horn, we knew somsbody was pretty close. I tried to raise them on the radio but no luck. God I wished I had radar at the point. We strained our eyes and soon, an 8 story high car carrier was on our port side about 75 feet away. We bore off to the right as this massive ship slowl cruised past. We didn't see a soul on deck. A fairly close call, but not too bad.

A small powerboat hopelessly lost in the fog spotted us and began tailing close behind. I guess he figured that we at least had some of a clue. We were almost to the Newport bridge when another shape came out of the fog. This one was completely silent and much closer. I yelled at Ken to turn hard right and fortunately he did. We barely missed a tug and barge. That would have easily put us on the bottom. UGH...

I dropped speed to three knots and oward we went. We could hear, but never saw several other vessels, and almost banged into the center support column of the Newp0rt Bridge. I took the safe route and we made it into the harbor with out ever seeing the fort on one side or the condos on the other. Our first inkling of arrival were the boats moored in the center mooring field. Phew, we were there.

The powerboat that was following us gave a wave of thanks. I hailed that he owed us a beer. He replied that he owed us more than that. We got into the YC docks and M.E. and Joyce were waiting. We tied up, registered and settled in for a well deserved drink and retelling of our voyage. The boat we passed with the YC butthead came in an hour and a half later. I guess the tug almost hit him too and he got so afraid, he just stopped. Oh well.

We had a nice Mex1can dinner a very relaxing sit on the YC deck and were sound asleep by 11:00. We had a big wedding to attend the next day you know. To be contiunued.

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