Vancouver looking like a city in the clouds.
Last week Team SEA WEASEL headed out for the latest installment of the VRC's Polar Bear Series. Vancouver had been socked in for over a week with thick pervasive fog. The morning of the race Curtis, Dave and I made our way down to the marina. The fog was supposed to completely lift by noon and in the creek it was a little lighter giving a half mile of visibility. We decided to fire up the GPS and head out there to see if the race would go ahead after the fog lifted.
As we motored out between the Ganville and Burrard Street bridges visibility roped off to 20 meters. We found ourselves motoring out with SHAWPA and FANCY FREE. It was eery with nothing visible at all. You could not tell where the city was the shore or the sun. I did not have the start line pre-programmed into my chart plotter so I opted to follow FANCY FREE who did and also had radar.
We arrived at the start line and as we drifted we saw the dim ghost like shapes of sail boats moving around us. I thought we were the only people fool hardy enough to head out in these conditions. There we sat waiting for the fog to lift. The only point of interest was listening to a temporarily disabled PSYCHO DUCK calling for a tow lost in the fog. FANCY FREE even with radar and GPS was unable to meet up with PSYCHO DUCK until they were able to get their engine back on.
Finally after a long wait the fog just got worse and the Race Committee threw in the towel and the race was cancelled. We fired up the GPS and motored back blindly. In the fog with less than 10 meters visibility we radioed the Vancouver Traffic VHF channel and were given a green light to head into false creek. The chart plotter really proved its worth guiding us all the way back to the marina. In all this was the third failed Polar Bear race due to weather.
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