Lost in the Fog: A Terrifying Tale from the Common Flats

Utterly terrifying experience on the common flats this morning. Um, I didn’t bring any of my gear. I really wasn’t expecting to go out on the common flats. It was foggy when I got down there, but the conditions seemed okay. Um, I thought the tide was going out, and in all actuality, it was coming in. My goal was to make it to the third break. If the tides going out, you follow the tide, uh, knowing you got to get into the water for a little bit of the ways. Um, you know, knee deep, waist deep, chest deep. At one point, and I got about halfway out, and the fog just poured in. The fog bank just rolled in out of nowhere. And at this point, the sun had already risen, and it was about a half an hour after sunrise. But it didn’t matter. You couldn’t see anything. You had about 10 feet of visibility. And normally, I can look at the waves and determine, like, kind of where I’m going from the. The way the waves are. And on the common flats, the waves can come in every different direction. From the side, from behind you, from in front of you. It just depends, because the current is all over the place out there. You’re on the elbow of the island. So this was supposed to be what I thought was the second break, um, right here, and I guess it was part of it. Right there, you can see a seal or whatever that was popping up by the seagull. I’m just trying to get my bearing. That’s the harbor master on the common flats. Because I think the fisherman heard somebody talking, which was me, um, into my phone. I was trying to get phone signal to call one of my buddies, um, to see if you come get me. And that’s the edge of the world. I did make it out to the edge of the world, and my gut told me that I should have turned around halfway. And right now, I’m basically doing a 3 60, showing basically my surroundings. I couldn’t get a phone signal. I kept trying, and I honestly, at one point, as embarrassing this is as this is, was going to yell for the harbor master, but he did a circle, and then he took off. So I knew I was stuck, and I was disoriented, and I started walking back in. And again, the fog was so thick, I couldn’t tell. And I had crisscrossed like I do sometimes to avoid Shark Alley. It’s September, you know, and it was just a bad judgment call against everything I always talk about not to do. And the fog bank was so thick, I couldn’t see. And so after crisscrossing so many times, getting out there, even coming back in, and I done a few three 60s trying to figure out my bearings. About what side? North Beach. Island is on. Where’s Monomoy? Reserved. Which way’s the shore? And what ended up happening is I ended up turning back around, not realizing, making the same mistake so many people have made before me, and walking back out towards the edge of the world. Where I thought I was walking to the shore, I was walking back out to the edge of the world with the tide coming in now at a really fast click. Um, and by the time I realized my error, panic set in. Like, real panic set in. And I didn’t have a compass. And see, right here. Now I’m walking back to the edge of the world. You can see the dark circle. I mean, the dark line right there, where the water just drops right off into the abyss. And now I’m like, oh, my god. Like, I just wasted an extra 45 minutes to an hour, um, disoriented. So now I’m like, all right, just turn around and do a straight B line. But now, instead of having the three different breaks of land for safety, I had nothing but open ocean, um, on the common flats. And, yeah, there were areas where it was up to my ankles for a little bit, and up to my knees and up to my waist, but for the most part, it was up to my chest. And I’m real lucky that the pull wasn’t really that strong today. And this is me. I finally Made it back to the first break, and I realized I was gonna be okay. But it was hairy, and it was really, really scary. It’s the most I’ve ever panicked out on the common flats. And it was stupidity. It really was. And, um. So, yeah, it was a good two hours of being in the water for long stretches without any land for safety. Um, and I stayed closer. I stayed on the common flats rather than walking on the Shark Alley line. And this is me finally making it back to shore and thanking god, because, honestly, at one point, I really didn’t think I was gonna make it back in. I’m like, this is it. This is it. This is how I’m finally gonna die. I was convinced of it. I am so grateful that didn’t happen.