Lake Michigan weather

[berniefiedler]

Just came back from Port Washington, WI to Racine WI during midday. Marine weather says waves one to two feet. As I'm climbing the back of a pretty good sized wave and not looking forward to the trip down, I'm thinking, somebody got it wrong. Yet, when I get back to port, Coast Guard buoy reports say one to two feet. Now I'm beggining to understand why all those fisherman are constantly on the phone to each other. Are there any places one can go to to find out what's really happening on Lake Michigan?

 

[South lake]

Have had the same experience on Lake Erie. Last year we spent the night at Middle Bass Island with a forecast of 1 to 2 foot waves for the next morning. We got up and left for the short 9 mile run back to the mainland early. Normally the charter boats would have been out in force by then but we didn't see one on the way in. Those 2 foot waves were coming over the top of the cabin and we were bouncing around pretty good.

When we got back to East Harbor I stopped to fill up with diesel. The charter captains were standing around and were surprised we had just come in from Middle Bass. When I told them that I was going to look for the guy that said the waves were 1 to 2 feet after I refueled they all laughed.

Of course then they wanted to know about this little tug...

 

[berniefiedler]

Thanks for the comeback. I wonder if the charter fishermen have an informal weather net one could access?

 

[trailertrawlerkismet]

Not sure about the fishermen but a source I've used that actually measures the wave height at buoy's, tells you the time of the report, frequency of the waves, etc is an app called 'BuoyData" . Hope this helps. The app states that it is info from NOAA Buoys but at least you can see the information first hand.

Jim

 

[berniefiedler]

Jim,
The Report you are referring to said two to three feet that day. The surprise was the big ones interspersed between those. Think I'll just chalk it up to one more lesson from Lady Mich.
Best part of the trip was my wife turning to me half way through and saying, "We haven't taken off our life jackets,yet!" We always don jackets when leaving and entering a slip and usually have them off as soon as we're underway. Not that day🙂
Bernie