HAZARDS TO NAVIGATION       by kendall morse

Did I ever tell you people, about a time long years ago,
When Jackson and I left No Man's, in a fog that hung heavy and low?
From No Man's into Camden, is almost 30 miles, no radar in those days, dead reckoning all the while.
Coming across Penobscot Bay in a fog that was dungeon thick, I knew we could be run down, by tanker or a cargo ship.
We could hear the horns and whistles of those monsters all around, One could ram us in that soup and never hear a sound.
Jack was standing on the bow to get a better view, "We're surrounded Cap'n" he yelled back "What are we gonna do"?
"Throw some of them Maine potatoes, like snowballs, hard as you can, and, if one of them don't splash, I'll know it's time to turn."

We left the channel far behind, but, I couldn't find The Graves,
Our time was up, and it wasn't there, and, the Mate began to rave.
His girl was waiting on the shore, all the time we were at sea,
And the last thing in the world he wanted to do, was spend another hour with me.

He'd had enough of the sea that day, but, I just let him steam, I killed the engine and listened hard, for that buoy off our beam.
We didn't know which way to head, 'cause we didn't know where we were,
The buoy I wanted wasn't there was all I knew for sure.

Then all at once, it came to me, the smell of new mown hay,
And, a real odd sound come with it from somewhere across the bay.
In that soup we didn't know we were so close to the shore,
But, a boy was out there mowing his lawn, we could hear his engine roar!
"We're lost in the fog," I hollered, "After a week at sea, how do you get to Camden"?
He said, "My Dad takes me."
There was no help there, so,we came about to get her well off shore, then, the fog gave up, and there was The Graves, 'twas only a mile or more.
We tied her up in Camden, after a long hard jog, and we promised ourselves that never again would we sail in that kind of fog.