Ocean Liners in the Mist

It’s official: I love the fog.

Today, there’s still something deep and mysterious about sailing through foggy conditions.  The sea is generally quite calm, and there’s an unsettling stillness in the air: no birds are around, marine life is rarely seen, and your view can be limited to less than a few feet.  

No wonder the Vikings were terrified of the stuff.  It doesn’t take a lot to imagine the overpowering fear that must have washed over those hardened warriors as they lost all sense of direction, time, and heading.  Legends and tales of mythical beasts emerging from the fog aren’t all that foreign to any lover of horror movies.  

Today, of course, sailing through the fog isn’t the harrowing experience it once was: modern navigation systems like GPS and radar have seen to that.  Still, the deep-bass sound of the fog horn sounding its low note every two minutes serves as a reminder that it wasn’t always this way.

Photo © 2010 Aaron Saunders 

In contrast with the Vikings, I love the stuff.  I sleep like a baby when we cruise through the fog, and the denser it is, the happier I am.  

While the two sea days on our recent Canada / New England cruise aboard Celebrity Summit were socked in, the remaining port days were mainly sunny.  Be sure to watch here throughout the week as we tour the 2001-built ship and take a look at some of the best ports along the Eastern Seaboard.