Photo J Doll, CC BY-SA 3.0.jpeg){kind=link}
Fog and coastal wind
Why the fog comes in over the headland, what the wind does around it, and how to move in both.
What you need
- A compass and a bearing taken before the fog arrives
- A marine forecast for the area, not the town forecast
- A whistle, and a light after dark
- A phone track running, and a paper map as the backup
- Bright colours on the outside of your pack and coat
How
- Learn the sign. Warm damp air over cold water is fog. On this coast a southwest wind over the cold water in spring and early summer makes it in an hour.
- Take your bearing back to the landing, the road or the camp while you can still see. Write it down.
- When it closes in, stop and think before you move. Fog kills distance, direction and sound all at once.
- Move slow on a bearing, counting paces, and check the compass more often than feels sensible.
- On the water, stay close to shore where you can see it, and cross open water only when you can see the other side.
- Expect the wind to funnel and speed up round headlands, through tickles and down valleys, and to drop flat in the lee.
- An offshore wind is the dangerous one. It looks calm at the beach and it is blowing hard a few hundred metres out.
Do and don't
Do
- Trust the compass over your sense of direction. In fog your sense of direction is wrong.
- Leave a trip plan with your route and your turnaround time.
- Turn back early. Fog usually thickens before it thins.
Don't
- Do not walk a cliff edge or a headland in fog.
- Do not paddle out past the point in an offshore wind to see what it is like.
- Do not count on a phone. Fog and the coast are where the signal ends.
Watch for
Danger
- Sea fog can drop visibility to a few metres in minutes and hold for days.
- Wind against tide in a tickle or a run stacks the sea up short and steep.
- Cold and wet in a fog on a headland is a hypothermia setup even in July.
- Sound in fog is a liar. A boat or a brook can seem to be in the wrong direction entirely.
Notes
The bearing you take before the fog is worth more than anything you do after it arrives.
On this island the fog is normal, not unusual. Plan the route so that losing sight of everything does not lose you the way home.
Updated 2026-09-20
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