Yet, from the beginning there were difficulties. Fog and strong winds soon caused the "Miss Columbia" to fly southward off course, even though they were able to roughly maintain a flight plan similar to that of Lindbergh's. However, as they were approaching the European continent they had a stroke of good luck in that they spotted the famous Cunard liner . The ship had been on its way from Southampton to New York and utilizing a copy of the "New York Times" they had on board the plane they were able to ascertain the "Mauretania"s sailing date and thus calculate their position and realign themselves on a trajectory towards England and within hours, they had land in sight.