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Fog / navigation - when spearing from shore

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Mr. X

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I had a unusual and unsettling experience while spearfishing in Devon this Summer. While out at sea a sort of hazy fog formed late in the dive and, with the light chop, it caused me to completely lose sight of the shore line. Quite unsettling and potentially scary.

Fortunately I was diving over the large tidal reef at South Milton beach, so I knew I wasn't far from shore. Also, I had just dived through the prominent rock arch from the back, so knew that I should be facing shore - but then it occurred to me that I didn't really know at what angle the arch was to the shore. I started to swim slowly towards where I thought the shore was. Fortunately I bumped into a SIT kayaker and, being higher up, he could see the shore and pointed me to my entry point. Had I continued I would likely have reached shore but a bit further down, as long as I didn't get any further disorientated.

So, no harm done but I decided to cut my dive short at that point and call it a day.

I wondered if anyone else had a similar experience? Or had any tips?
 
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Fyi I had an emergency whistle on my float but no compass. I used to wear my small Sunnto mountaineering compass clipped on my watch strap (a very useful tool when accurate navigation is essential, as it allows fast, frequent checking) but had got out of the habit of wearing it. Found it very useful in the Tetons and Cascade mountains.

A compass would have been reassuring in the case above. I will probably add one to my float now. Wearing a compass would be safer though, if you become separated from your float (fairly unlikely for me, as I always keep my speargun clipped to my float).
 
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As you said a Compass would have got you out of the situation. I wear one all the time as it is very partial to fog here in the north with the cold air hitting the warm air from the south but i also use it under water for navigation whilst snorkeling from area to area rather than surfacing to look where I am so spooking the fish.

A Jotron divers strobe light on your float might be an idea so showing where you are to other watercraft, they often come up on Fleabay cheap rather than buying new and use one C cell battery so it lasts a long while. You can also use them as a marker beacon on the shore for night time spearfishing and on the bow and stern of a Kayak so you can be seen by other vessels.
 
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I had a unusual and unsettling experience while spearfishing in Devon this Summer. While out at sea a sort of hazy fog formed late in the dive and, with the light chop, it caused me to completely lose sight of the shore line. Quite unsettling and potentially scary.

Fortunately I was diving over the large tidal reef at South Milton beach, so I knew I wasn't far from shore. Also, I had just dived through the prominent rock arch from the back, so knew that I should be facing shore - but then it occurred to me that I didn't really know at what angle the arch was to the shore. I started to swim slowly towards where I thought the shore was. Fortunately I bumped into a SIT kayaker and, being higher up, he could see the shore and pointed me to my entry point. Had I continued I would likely have reached shore but a bit further down, as long as I didn't get any further disorientated.

So, no harm done but I decided to cut my dive short at that point and call it a day.

I wondered if anyone else had a similar experience? Or had any tips?
Fortunately never been in that situation... But I try to keep my bearings by noting wind/ wave/ current direction (even if it's just keeping track of which direction my float is being pulled, though that's going to change over the tidal cycle)
 
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Yes, good point about float pull. There is a headland I swim around and back. It's useful to know which way the current is pulling before committing to the most exposed section. Unfortunately it does change during the dive occasionally.
 
As you said a Compass would have got you out of the situation. I wear one all the time as it is very partial to fog here in the north with the cold air hitting the warm air from the south but i also use it under water for navigation whilst snorkeling from area to area rather than surfacing to look where I am so spooking the fish.

A Jotron divers strobe light on your float might be an idea so showing where you are to other watercraft, they often come up on Fleabay cheap rather than buying new and use one C cell battery so it lasts a long while. You can also use them as a marker beacon on the shore for night time spearfishing and on the bow and stern of a Kayak so you can be seen by other vessels.
Thanks. Several interesting ideas. Yes the strobe might also be useful if washed out to sea and/or needing helicopter rescue.
 
strobe idea is interesting for marking the shore. So far I used lantern to mark the trailhead and where my backpack is, but lantern can be easily mistaken for some other lights on shore.

I have been nearly lost once, when BC was raging with wildfires and there was to much smoke in the air. But that was different, I knew there was smoke and turned back, scared shitless, when shore was just barely visible. Thank you Mr.X for bringing this up. I spearfish from shore, much like you, and we do get a fair share of "arctic smoke" here in British Columbia. In retrospect, I really should have geared up for navigation long time ago.
 
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strobe idea is interesting for marking the shore. So far I used lantern to mark the trailhead and where my backpack is, but lantern can be easily mistaken for some other lights on shore.

I have been nearly lost once, when BC was raging with wildfires and there was to much smoke in the air. But that was different, I knew there was smoke and turned back, scared shitless, when shore was just barely visible. Thank you Mr.X for bringing this up. I spearfish from shore, much like you, and we do get a fair share of "arctic smoke" here in British Columbia. In retrospect, I really should have geared up for navigation long time ago.
I was diving a very familiar local reef on a low tide when a very thick fog suddenly appeared out of nowhere and caught both my buddy and I by surprise. We could not see the beach or any other familiar landmarks as the fog was so dense and to make matters worse the viz underwater was 2-3 metres at best.

When we were swimming out to our regular hunting spot, the reef was on our left side so we figured we would swim back in and keep the reef on our right side, however there is a sizeable gap in the reef which we swam through without realising and the reef was now on our right side making us believe that we were heading back to the shore.

We ended up getting completely disoriented and we both had a different opinion on which way the beach was. We decided to stay where we were and hope it lifted or eased off as we had plenty of time before the cold would set in and stronger currents would become an issue. Fortunately we heard a dog barking and swam in that direction while maintaining a visual on the reef, it was a frightening experience to say the least and I don't know what would have happened if the dog had not come along.

I now have a small Garmin eTrex mounted on my float and a cheap Silva orienteering compass as a backup. I also have a waterproof pouch to keep my phone on the float as well. The Garmin does not have any built in maps but it has a Track Back function which will guide me back to where I started from and it works perfectly as I did use it in fog when I was 2Km out to sea in my Kayak. Just be aware though that a gps may not work in fog and can lose 'sight' of the satellites but you should at least have a recorded track and the compass to set you in the right direction.
 
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Great post Derekn. I figured I probably wasn't the first person to encounter this problem. The potential seriousness of the problem starts to dawn on you quite quickly. I wasn't even aware of any fog when I started my dive.
 
Great post Derekn. I figured I probably wasn't the first person to encounter this problem. The potential seriousness of the problem starts to dawn on you quite quickly. I wasn't even aware of any fog when I started my dive.
The same for us, the fog appeared without any sign of it coming about half an hour in to our dive which was on a fine, late summer evening when we started out. We were about 300 metres from the shore on a low tide in 1-2 metres of water, hunting the reef so we were heads down most of the way out and completely oblivious to what was coming our way. Two hours later though and it could have been a very different and highly dangerous situation. It was frightening at the time when I realised I had little or no idea which way to go and at risk of getting into some serious danger.

I like the strobe idea for my float, especially at night, but I'm not sure how visible it would be in a very dense fog. The key takeaway for me from my experience was try not to panic and that if it is safe to do so, stay where you are until you can determine your location and which direction you need to swim.

Without visual reference, you could try to listen for audio cues such as fog horns, bells, boat motors and maybe even road traffic to give you some idea of where the shore and open sea are. We were lucky when we heard the dog barking but maybe there could be horses or livestock grazing on a headland or shore that would occasionally make some sounds.

I definitely agree that a compass would have been the single most effective instrument that would have gotten us out of our situation without any doubt. A basic gps with track back would also have been very useful and has got me out of trouble in a similar situation. They're also very useful when simply snorkelling or spearfishing especially when you have a wrist worn compass and want to track a heading while keeping your head in the water, the gps I occasionally use to mark underwater points of interest and I can download my tracks along with time/distance data and import them into Google Earth for my own interest.
 
Dumb question but was the sun not easily visible as well? Couldn’t it be used for basic navigation provided you notes it’s position when you were on the shore?
 
Dumb question but was the sun not easily visible as well? Couldn’t it be used for basic navigation provided you notes it’s position when you were on the shore?
For us the sun was not visible, the fog was very dense and I don't remember for sure if there was much cloud cover when we started out without any fog present. I think that dense fog would also have the effect of diffusing the sunlight making it very difficult to determine the direction of the sun, but if it had of been visible it certainly would have helped in determining our direction.
 
Good idea re. Sun but living in GB the sun is often not visible. I don't recall on the actual day but suspect the fog would have made it difficult to locate the sun, even if it were visible elsewhere (and it may not have been visible elsewhere). Worth considering tho.
 
Fascinating and educational discussion. A situation I've never experienced. One addition that might help. Stick you head out of the water and look around every now and then. You will see stuff coming that will save you a lot of trouble. A while back, we were spearfishing, drifting with the boat(maybe 50 yards away), everybody in the water, 3 miles offshore, when a big squall came up behind us and we did not see it coming. The wind started fast and hard and the boat started drifting almost faster than I could swim, over a hundred yards away before I even noticed. The only thing down wind was Cuba. Scary as heck for a few minutes. Ever since, I've looked around regularly.
 
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Good advice and I must admit it's not something I do very regularly, it would depend on where and what type of tide I was diving on. A low tide on my favourite reef brings very shallow water, maybe 1 metre or less and I tend to spend longer with my head in the water scanning the reef for fish. On deeper dives I would tend to look around more as I breathe up, I can only imagine how terrifying it must have been to be in open water and see your boat drifting away. You were very lucky to have spotted it in time and able to catch it up, I've not tried spearfishing from a boat yet but I think I would like to anchor it and stay tethered to it if possible but it's not something I have any practical experience in.
 
I have never actually done this but could you follow swells? Swells will be heading right toward shore of course. May not have been any and won’t work on a boat dive of course
 
Using swell direction would seem obvious, but it didn't work for me. Years ago I swam out about half a mile from the beach and heavy fog rolled in. I couldn't see the sun. There ws a very small swell that wasn't obvious on the surface, I dove to the bottom at about 45 feet and could see the short kelp moving back and forth but I couldn't tell which direction was toward the beach. Finally the fog burned off.
 
Good idea re. Sun but living in GB the sun is often not visible. I don't recall on the actual day but suspect the fog would have made it difficult to locate the sun, even if it were visible elsewhere (and it may not have been visible elsewhere). Worth considering tho.
I had a similar situation recently. I was diving off a kayak this time, a really cold but clear day. While I was messing about in the water a thick fog rolled in, really thick, I'd say visibility was down to less then10m. Luckily I was near the kayak so I jumped back on, but then realized I had no idea of any direction. I could just about make out the faint glow of the sun. I knew the time from my computer, it was about midday so I had an idea where the sun should be in the south and knew that land was to the SE of me. So keeping the sun on my right I paddled and paddled until I could just about make out land. I headed for the land but couldn't see anything like the pier I had left from. I figured if I hit the shore I'd at least be on land and could walk somewhere. At this stage my paddle broke in half! You couldn't make it up! Literally up sh*t creek without a paddle. So I kept going anyway with my half a paddle and eventually realized i was about a mile upshore from where my car was parked. Paddled back and a happy ending. So I guess the takeaway from this is you can use the sun even in really thick fog but definitely a good idea to always have a compass if going any distance offshore.
 
A compass might be the answer to this. In a boat seems like u should have one, hopefully on you, even if there is no fog.
 
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