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By D. Clay Hays Man it was foggy this morning, I couldn't even see across the lake! It's gone now but it took the sun a good 3 hours or so to burn it off. Happens alot this time of year around Lake Hamilton. You see, the water is still relatively warm but the air temps have fallen as low as the upper 40's. Mix those two together, add a dash of dew point & humidity fluctuation and poof - instant fog! But it doesn't have to be this time of year! I've seen the same thing happen in August but in reverse; cold water released from Blakely Dam mixes with warm water & hot air and again, poof! Which reminds me of one memorable moonlight cruise a couple years ago. My wife & I were on our way home from dinner out with another couple when we ran into "instant fog" as we neared the Hwy 270W bridge. Actually, for those familiar with Lake Hamilton, it was right about that last bend where, after rounding the bend to the right, you're looking directly at the bridge. Now mind you, after rounding this bend you're not more than about 300 yds from the bridge. So we run into the fog just before the bend, and it's that thick, "you can feel it going by" kind of fog. Couldn't see a thing! Luckily, my trusty navigator was with me. No, not the other guy with us that also worked in the boat business, but my lovely wife! In fact, it seems like I said to this guy, "Boy, some Popeye you are!". He was no help at all as he spent most of the ordeal hiding his eyes and mumbling "We gon' die". (He really said it just like that, he's a Cajun boy. I suppose I should add that his lack of support in the matter was surely due to his blood-alcohol level at the time, not his being Cajun!) Anyway, you may wonder why my wife is the official navigator. It's because her fav thing to do on the lake is creep along the shoreline looking at everyone else's house! And let me tell you people, she knows every inch of that shoreline! She can tell you which houses are newly built, who added-on, who repainted, who needs to repaint, and whether or not they have lights down on their docks or along the water! Thank goodness though, because it was her knowing the pattern of the lights along the shore that got us home! At one point, if she hadn't yelled out "One, two, three, four lights in a row, that's So & So's house, turn right!", we would have run aground right then and there! After that we were pointed in the right direction but it still took another hour or so to go those last couple hundred yards. We probably stopped and killed the engine three or four times to make sure we were still headed in the right direction by listening for the cars crossing the bridge! We're talking fog, you hear me? Tried turning on the docking lights once but that was like throwing a great big white sheet up in front of us! We were practically right under the red & greens on the bridge before we could see them but home wasn't far then. Whew! I turned to my wife and said, "That's my girl! Now can you come and pull the vinyl from my seat out of my ass please?". What was your most harrowing boating experience? Next time..........Clay If you'd like to comment on this post please use the Contact form.
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The Fog
