Radar Exercise

After a pleasant four hour sail from Block Island yesterday, we anchored in Dutch Harbor near Jamestown. This morning we awoke to fog, but it gradually lifted as we drank coffee and ate breakfast. By the time we were ready to go at 9:30, there was no fog, but being in these potentially foggy New England waters, we thought we should brush up on our radar skills.

I know we're supposed to have our radar on while underway, but mostly we don't. So we cranked it up, did a split screen, and tuned it for gain. Then I stayed at the nav station and told the Captain about potential targets. In these fog free conditions, we were able to visually confirm all targets and boost our confidence for this foggy area.

Above you see a target circled in pink on both screens, and below

you see the actual target (a little lighthouse) beyond the bridge. Our exercise worked on several boats and channel markers too.

And now we are in Bristol, Rhode Island on a mooring. We took a mooring because it's breezy, and the harbor is large, and our dinghy is wet in these conditions. With a mooring, you get free launch rides to shore.

It's times like this that I'm glad we don't have an anemometer; but it's blowing at least 20 kts because the wind is howling in the rigging, the boat is bucking like a wild bronco, and the water is whooshing through the bow thruster making an awful racket down below.

From no wind and fog to over 20 kts in the mooring field. Ain't cruising great?