Lemme see, you first had a following wind, southwest or so, then a nice NW breeze then at about 4 min it looks like you have a southern breeze again, based on boat heel. It must have been scary to hear that weather report!! How far to the nearest harbor when you heard that?
I did the trip solo from Waukegan Harbor to South Haven then up to Holland solo in a Catalina 22 in the late 1980s using dead reckoning. I was super lucky and the weather was almost too calm. I fell asleep in the cockpit that night in a dead calm but a breeze picked up out of the west in the morning and saw the Michigan coast at about sunset the next day. I spent four days in Michigan and then sailed south along the Michigan shore and then tacked back to Waukegan to find my truck had been broken into in the parking lot and some stuff stolen. It was a nice trip except for that.
I am diggin this video thanks for sharing, and I applaud your taking off in bad weather, its not all sunny skies, in life , its the trials that make you stronger. I am from St Joe.
Nice video, glad you survived! For being caught at sea with the storm, you did everything right, good job Skipper. My boat's berthed just up river at tower marine in Saugatuck/Douglass.
I'm wondering why you set out if a huge storm was coming? Didn't they have the weather channel back in 2008? My guess is you had faith in your ability to handle it. PS we did the Chi-town to St Joe crossing in just over 8 hours July 24 2006- oddly we had constant 8-15 kt winds from the north. But no storms. We also sail out Belmont Harbor. Nice video!
One thing I’ve learned about living in Michigan for 25 years is that the weather can change dramatically out of nowhere. Especially in the Summer. The weather reports are only right half of the time. My father & I launch our jet skis on Lake Huron & Lake Michigan on days where the weather says it’s going to be sunny & clear all day...but then a severe storm will just pop out of nowhere.
I remember that day, my father and I were riding our stand ups and got caught in a part of it. Talk about rough, I thank the lord neither one of us were hit by lightning that day.
Nice vid! As a fellow great lakes sailor I know how things whip up! I had my first taste of the Atlantic this year, and I have a vid posted up of the tossing we got.. That feeling of being out there with no where to run, not an easy thing to explain, eh?
35' boat should be ok except for a lightning strike. Lake Michigan can have bad weather but not near as bad as the GOM, Atlantic or any other ocean. Thinking the Great Lakes are the worst place to be in summer is well.... try it for yourself and find out.
lumping all great lakes together is unfair. Superior will whoop you. i've taken that same hunter 35.5 off shore 25 miles in the pacific. ive seen scarier things in superior...
