# Big waves on Lake Michigan



## Mizer (Dec 21, 2012)

Check out these waves, this was a big hang out place when I was growing up. I am not sure how big these are but they have to be over fifteen feet.
http://www.spyglasshill.com/Webcam/Default2.htm


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## Kevin (Dec 21, 2012)

It's hard to tell from those pics but looks quite a bit higher than 15' to me. One thing I learned about flying over the GOM so many times was that the seas always look smaller than they are. Get in a boat and out in it and suddenly what looks fairly tolerable from the air looks like mountains of water in the trough of a wave! Those are big waves.


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## LoneStar (Dec 21, 2012)

And since Rob was on LSD, they probably looked a lot bigger :wacko1:


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## Kevin (Dec 21, 2012)

LoneStar said:


> And since Rob was on LSD, they probably looked a lot bigger :wacko1:



:rotflmao3::rotflmao3:

With pink elephants hanging ten in the pipelines, and polka dotted midgets riding purple bicycles just beneath the plaid waves.


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## Kevin (Dec 21, 2012)

Joe Rebuild said:


> LSD Lake Shore Drive.  although I do recall a time or two...:wacko1:



So you're saying you've "taken a trip" or two down LSD? 

:i_dunno:


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## LoneStar (Dec 21, 2012)

Joe Rebuild said:


> LSD Lake Shore Drive.  although I do recall a time or two...:wacko1:



Sure that's what I meant  Standing on Lake Shore Drive, the waves looked even bigger


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## Kevin (Dec 21, 2012)

Joe Rebuild said:


> I did "run" from the CPD once by swimming out at night (in the summer) far enough that they could not see me. At least until the water rats showed up  There may have been some mind altering fungus in my tea at the time :dunno:. They gave me a ticket for underage drinking and sent me on my way.



Probably a good thing we didn't grow up together.


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## Kevin (Dec 21, 2012)

:lolol:


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## woodtickgreg (Dec 21, 2012)

If we all grew up together we would be in trouble for sure, that's why I'm never gonna grow up.:lolol:


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## Dusty (Dec 22, 2012)

Kevin said:


> It's hard to tell from those pics but looks quite a bit higher than 15' to me. One thing I learned about flying over the GOM so many times was that the seas always look smaller than they are. Get in a boat and out in it and suddenly what looks fairly tolerable from the air looks like mountains of water in the trough of a wave! Those are big waves.



It's impossible to take photos of the waves from the deck of a small sailboat to show other people what they looked like... Here's a link to a website I built in 2001 when I helped a friend take his 30' Beneteau sailboat from Boston across the North Atlantic.

http://www.first285.com/atlantic/ 

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The waves in the pictures look like a flat sea... Only this flat sea was 45 degrees and higher than our mast, which was 35' tall and the base was another 10' above the water line. At the top of each wave it felt like you were at the edge of a 5 story building and looking off in the distance at the line of waves, it looked like the Rocky Mountains all the way to the horizon. We sailed through the storm for 4 days in conditions like this. The auto-tiller couldn't handle anything like this, so we hand steered almost all the way. At night you could only see the glow of the GPS to hold course and everything else was black. You had to steer by feel because you couldn't see the seas comming at you. If the course you steered was off by only a degree or two it would have been a disaster. Too steep in the bottom of the trough of the wave and the boat would have pitchpoled, end over end. Too shallow an angle and the boat would have capsized. We also had every line aboard trailing with our anchors and anything we could find to slow our progress. Our average speed crossing the Atlantic Ocean was about 7 knots, but at night in this storm with only a tiny amount of sail on the jib and the 70 knots of wind pushing on the rigging I saw 13.5 kts going down the back side of a big wave! 

Here's what I looked like at the tiller after the storm was mostly over. I didn't have time to take any pictures till the wind had dropped and the rain and clouds had cleared up. The waves were still huge and we were running with the wind speed still between 30 and 40 kts. 

http://www.first285.com/atlantic/storm/t8.jpg 

Hal


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## Dusty (Dec 22, 2012)

Joe Rebuild said:


> I have played a bit in.the Pacific and the Sea of Cortez. But saw nothing near that  you are lucky and talented seamen to have braved and survived that trip.:hatsoff:



I don't know about brave, and I sure can't claim anything about being smart... But, I loved the voyage. There was only 3 days of bad storm to deal with for the entire journey. In July the chance of seeing storms in the North Atlantic is only about 1%. We had the same combination of storms they had in the movie "Perfect Storm", only it wasn't November storms with waves 100' tall. We also had satellite e-mail to get weather reports and an emergency satellite transmitter along with an ocean worthy life raft. We never had to use any of our emergency supplies, but for a couple of days & nights, I did spend my sleeping time in my watch clothes and rain suit, just in case. The rest of the voyage was fantastic. The sunrises & sunsets on the ocean were spectacular. My site has about 300 photos of the trip. We spent so much time exploring in Marblehead, Halifax, and the Azores that we ran out of time and the owner left his boat docked in the Azores till the next Summer. One day I'd like to take my boat to the Azores. The fishing is the best in the world there and it never gets hotter than 80 degrees or colder than 70 degrees... Food and beer are cheep and the living is good! The islands are beautiful. I sure wish I was warm right now! 

http://www.first285.com/atlantic 

Hal


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## Kevin (Dec 22, 2012)

Dusty,

Those pics are great. Anyone who's ever been to sea will recognize those waves as pretty darn big. Many members will not click you link and navigate your friends site so if it's cool with you I'd like to post some of the pics in your first post where the link is. Thanks for sharing them with us!


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## LoneStar (Dec 22, 2012)

Very cool story and great pics on the website. The biggest seas I have been in were 14-16 in a 52' boat on the GOM. I have great respect for the ocean, she has made me very nervous several times in life. I wouldn't like to meet her on a rough day in a small craft !


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