Monterey

We completed a quiet, foggy, uneventful passage overnight and arrived safely in Monterey Harbor around 7am. Our watches consisted of monitoring the plotter and radar screens for any signs of traffic; there was nothing to be seen visually. It was the kind of night that can give a person vertigo: the engine smootly droning away, the placid water lapping against the hull, dark fog limiting all awareness to the inside of the cockpit.

Thank goodness for radar and AIS. We couldn't do a passage like that without them; we'd have to hunker down and hope the fog went way. The plotter has a split screen to show radar returns on one half and the chart showing our position on the other. The plotter also supports superimposing the radar onto the chart, which can be useful, but I find it easier and quicker to interpret radar on its own screen without a lot of chart clutter.

AIS is a system whereby boats transmit details about their vessel, position and motion. Both displays show AIS targets, but not all boats transmit AIS data. Not all boats reflect radar well either, but by having both systems, there is a good chance we'll see most of the boats out there and they'll see us. Any boat that doesn't, shouldn't be out in the fog. Quijote transmits AIS data and has a mast mounted radar reflector.

Having eaten breakfast and paid for the moorage, we'll head up to the aquarium now. I visited it on my way through twenty-odd years ago and it is world class.

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