One-mile clearance of a big ship in fog is quite close enough for me. In other words, keep the opposition at arm’s length rather than nipping under the stern as you might in clear weather. In poor visibility your best bet is to avoid all close quarters situations. The actions you should take to avoid collision are quite different from those when vessels are in sight of one another: there is no ‘give way’ vessel and no ‘stand on’ vessel.Įven the usual manoeuvring sound signals don’t apply. This is covered in the Colregs by Rule 19: Conduct of vessels in restricted visibility, which is possibly the most misunderstood rule in the book. There is lots of good advice elsewhere about ‘blind’ navigation, so here I will focus on collision avoidance. When planning your cruise think about how you would deal with fog In open waters your attention will be on collision avoidance, but closer inshore you will probably be busy dodging other vessels while at the same time keeping yourself in safe water. With any luck you won’t be in fog for long but while you are, you have two objectives: safe navigation and collision avoidance.
Sailing in poor visibility – fog, heavy rain, even snow – can be disorientating and worrying but some prior thought and basic preparation will help to keep the heart rate near normal and, vitally, you and your crew safe. Not many of us would happily set sail in fog but sometimes it is unavoidable, either out at sea or as we make our way into harbour. When you see the fog rolling towards you, it is too late to start planning. Sir John Harvey-Jones, erstwhile chairman of ICI, once said, ‘Planning is an unnatural process the nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise rather than being preceded by a period of worry and doubt.’
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