Charlotte the Dragon Lady

We woke to fog with visibility zero at Egg Island. Since it was several hours away and we had a good GPS and Radar System, we decided to go anyway. Don had spoken with someone at the dock the night before who said of the fog report, “Just go slow and use your radar.”

The trip started out with very smooth water. We even had several porpoises darting around the boat as we cruised along. Visibility wasn’t as bad as we had expected. We thought it should all go well. Then we met the dragon lady Charlotte.

At first it started with big swells that we easily went over. No pounding, no problems. However, the fog was getting worse. Our visibility was only about 100 to 200 feet. As we continued on the swells at times became much worse and at times seemed to calm down. But we were truly alone in a gray cocoon not sure of what was on the other side of the next swell.

Let me just say that we have every confidence in the ability of our boat to handle anything we were dealt today. Also, thankfully, we have a very good navigation system-- GPS, auto pilot, radar and AIS. With all of these systems we were able to successfully transit the Queen Charlotte Sound with next to no visibility for more than eight hours. It was exhausting to both of us and when it was all over we felt like we had been inside a washing machine as our boat bobbed like a cork over everything the dragon lady threw at us.

I have to say, speaking only for myself, that this was the scariest experience I have had on our boat. There were two times in particular, that drove home the risk we had undertaken with this journey, first at one point we were entering a way point on the auto pilot so we weren’t on the current page. Because of this we missed the blip on the radar of the only other boat that we saw out there as it came out of the fog straight for us. After that we were paranoid about who else we might meet out there and started announcing our position periodically. The second experience was when we passed by Egg Island and our way point brought us closer to the rocks than we would have allowed if we had had the visibility. Don looked back and saw breaking waves of 12 to 15 feet that looked close enough to break over our boat. While it scared the “you know what” out of both of us, Don’s level head took us out of harm’s way and we continued on. It was at this point, several hours in and no way of knowing how long we would continue in this condition, that I began to wonder if we had made an error in judgment. I did not say anything to Don about what I was thinking because it was stressful enough, but I couldn’t help but think that as tired as we both were, we could make mistakes. It’s not that I didn’t think the boat could handle it, just that we would do the wrong thing at the wrong time. I’m happy to say that we both kept our heads, even though I lost my breakfast, and we made it through. After it was all over I told Don what I had been thinking. He said that he always knew that we would be fine in our boat. However, the stress of the fog was what made him the most nervous. The fog finally lifted at 2 p.m. and we worked our way into Fitz Hugh Sound where everything calmed down. We traveled 110 miles in about 11 hours today.

Tonight we are at the dock at Shearwater. We had a very nice dinner at the restaurant. We will not be getting up early tomorrow morning. We will be sleeping in and taking our time to the next stop on our journey. The Shearwater Resort is a very nice stop. Everything you need is very close to the dock and the Laundry and Shower facilities are nice as are the people.