We were dead in the water because of heavy fog. A merchant ship decided they would ignore the fog and came within feet of ramming into us.
Good Lord. My wife and I went on a Windjammer Cruise off the coast of Maine a few years back, one other couple, and the Captain and Mate.
On the morning we were returning, early morning was a thick, peas soup fog, but the sun, as it rose, could be seen above us, and we were in the center of a “cylinder” of clear zone in that blanket of fog.
The ship didn’t have a horn, so the mate stood near the bowsprit, blowing a party horn at intervals!
Then...we heard a boat. Probably a lobster boat by the sound of it. The growl of its Diesel engine getting louder and louder.
It sounded like it was coming straight for us, and I will say, it was a bit frightening.
Then, about fifty yards in front of us, the lobster boat broke into the cylinder of fog free area, and passed perpendicular in front of us, the white bow wave standing out.
I can’t imagine being on a large ship, and seeing another large ship appear out of the fog like that anc seeing a ghostly apparition like that appear, coming right for you.
I would want to make sure I had my brown pants on.
You were likely lost in the radar clutter and it could not ‘see’ you.