It was foggy in Great Cove yesterday morning, but the show went on for the WoodenBoat School sailing classes, as you see. At times, the Cove was entirely engulfed in seemingly impenetrable fog. Then, the fog would retreat several hundred feet, and sun would pour into the surrendered area.
The WBS 12 ½- foot classrooms would appear and disappear. Sometimes, a laugh or conversation would emerge from the shifting cloud, but not the little boat from which it came.
Learning to sail in fog in a small boat without radar and GPS is a valuable experience. And, the relative safety of Great Cove is a good place to have that experience. Especially if you’re wearing a life jacket (or personal flotation device, as they now say), which all WBS sailing students and their instructors must do when they’re on the water. (Most other summer sailors don’t wear them.)
Sailing in fog with your butt at or below the burbling water level is hard to imagine, if you’ve never done it. Listening and looking become heightened senses as the fog drifts in and out and the winds get confused. The literal meaning of the term dead reckoning can occur to you as you estimate where you are by dead reckoning. But the students yesterday seemed to be enjoying every minute of their sailing. And, of course,, all ended well.
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 25, 2026.) See also the image in the Comment space.