New England weather

6 June 2008 09:45UTC 40'16N 069'12W

Shipping lanes, fishing grounds, thick fog. One of my least favourite combinations. I don't know if we have a magnetic boat (or maybe it's just my personality) but every lump of floating steel we see on the radar seems to be drawn right towards us.

The big ships are all very professional and we often talk on the radio to confirm we've seen each other and which way we will pass. Sometimes it's not even necessary as they alter before that. Fishing vessels are another story, the one approaching ignored or didn't hear my radio call, then loomed out of the fog about a half mile away, turning slow circles presumably to set out or recover fishing gear. I know they are out here in this weather day in day out so they are probably pretty good at it but I need more reassurance! Anyway, in the end it's up to us to look out for ourselves and avoid everyone else as a last resort.

Right now we are about fifty miles south of Nantucket Island, and we will shortly cross the main east/west shipping lanes out of New York. These lanes are each four miles wide, so it take three quarters of an hour for us to go over each one, that's one hell of a zebra crossing and there's no lollipop lady to stop the traffic for us (US readers might need to check google.co.uk for those references). Normally I'd be pleased to be crossing in daylight but this fog makes us blind as bats, I reckon we have less than half a mile visibility.

Thank the heavens for affordable small ship radar.

All's well, if a little cold. N.

Oh, yes and we saw whales yesterday, a pair of, maybe sperm whales, very square heads and about fifty feet long. They wandered over to see us, gently spouting as they swam within a hundred feet of the boat before turning and heading off astern. A beautiful sight. We also glimpsed two pods of dolphins on a mission, they were heading west fast, leaping over the waves in formation but too far away to capture on a photo.

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