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Swimming In The Fog

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Walking down to start our swim on Tuesday, we were looking forward to a new experience, swimming in the heavy mist that increased and became FOG! The board training team were already in the water and the mist appeared thin enough to be interesting but manageable.  

A different story unfolded as we entered the water to find the mist closing in around us like a veil, becoming fog and causing a great deal of confusion. On losing sight of the beach and seeing not even a faint glow from the morning sun, all sense of direction was lost and our group soon began swimming anywhere but parallel to the beach, criss-crossing each other’s paths and even swimming around in circles.

We lost Neil briefly as he headed toward NZ then someone called out “There’s Neil” and Sean took chase to reel him back in.  Meanwhile our visiting swimmer Carmen, mistaking “There’s Neil” for “There’s a seal” got all excited and went off in search of her first seal encounter.  

Some of us hit the beach prematurely at various places while others eventually picked up their direction again as the fog slowly burnt away and thinned into light mist.

A lonely boat was sighted by some swimmers who wandered too far in the eerie silence and imaginations ran wild as the “Marie Celeste” was discussed over coffee.

It was suggested by some that Neil carry a waterproof wallet with his passport and NZ Dollars next time, just in case.

Commentary courtesy of John L. and Ross W.

Was it fog or mist? Quoting ‘Geography Wiki’ “the only difference between mist and fog is visibility. This phenomenon is called fog if the visibility is one kilometre (1,100 yards) or less (in the UK for driving purposes the definition of fog is visibility less than 200 metres, for pilots the distance is 1 kilometre). Otherwise it is known as mist“.