If Frank broke out the life jackets it was rough.

I assume you all no this but with a North wind,at places like the casino it looks calm because the island provides a wind barrier

Of course. We were on Sandusky Bay Saturday night. Left Marguaritaville and headed for Demseys. Wild, wet and fun ride back ... but having said that, we were sooo glad we werent on the lake side in a small boat :eek: The wind was howlin pretty good. Cant imagine what those out east were dealing with :party-smiley-004:



Pretty much sums it up :D

yep this time of year it can get ugly and usually out of the north/northeast. That bay you were in is nice and protected where the ferry comes in. The other side of that island is also where the lake starts to get deep. couple years ago i left Toledo in my 34 Scarab and made it to right where the ferry crosses from Marblehead in about forty five minutes (roughly thirty miles). Took me every bit of another forty five minutes to make it the last three or four miles to Kellys. The waves were so steep and tall that the all i could do was just a few miles per hour of plowing and as the nose of my boat dipped through a wave it would run down deck then the transom would rocker up out of the water and cavitate the props. Scared the crap out of me because it would act like i blew a coupler until i put the boat in neutral and started all over again.

This afternoon the coastguard was stopping boats from leaving Put-in-Bay it was so rough. A guy from our marina made it back and said he stuffed his bow multiple times . . . . . . he was in a fifty SeaRay :eek:

Yep.
 

I've left Leamington Ontario in my old 24' Sonic and had a great/fun run untill I got to the passage between Kellies and Marble Head.
Definately need to be on your A game.

Never even heard of the Coast Guard doing that???
Bunch of us got weathered in at Leamington several yrs back and as we paid dockage for the 3 rd day (!!!!!) a guy was there telling us in an hr he would be having beers at PIB thanks to his new 41' Tiara. We paid our bills and walked out on the break wall to watch.
After being stood on end for the 4th or 5th time, the Tiara was back at dock.

As to that water by Kellies,........add in that there are more unskilled idiots piloting that stretch of water at any one time than anywhere else.............
Most convinced that size/price tag equals right of way.
Love that lake and miss that lake. Also have tons of spooky stories from it.

My dad went out Sunday am from Port Clinton, he's a mate on a fishing head boat, he said they pulled out of the Portage river in 60' and had to almost idle out to Rattlesnake to keep from taking them over the bow. 10+ footers Sunday am.

Funny thing about that lake too....,
 

when I was still in Cols I'd check weather every place I could before starting the 2 1/2 hr tow north. Even the webcams I knew of, NOAA, Coast Guard etc, etc.
Would always be "waves 2' or less, wind out of S. S.E. @ 10 mph or less".
Then 3 hrs later I'd actually be there and wonder where the hell those forecasts came from.
Would normally wake up Sat morning in the cuddy some place like this ;)

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...ontofbar-1.jpg

Course there's always fog too ;) Pelee Island after popping a motor on the way. Was geeked to get their early in the season only to find that their ferry was down (from Canadian mainland) which is their life line and ended up being the only tourists there! Temp's never got out of the mid 40's and everything on the island was closed.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...udderinfog.jpg

We came back from PIB early yesterday and stopped at Kelly's for breakfast. Lake was big but overall pretty manageable. It was really windy and some passengers got soaked. Didn't hear or see anything about a boat going down. Also, I could count other boats on the water with us on one hand! You know it's rough out when you go 20 miles and see 4 other boats!

man you know that place all to well :D I grew up on this lake and have been out there since i was about five. At twelve i had a sixteen foot Lyman Islander with a 35 Rude on it that i ran all over the lake, it was my grandfathers boat. We were on the water right by Davis Besse (long Beach). I ran that little boat to West Sister and The Bay all the time. You learn respect for the water real quick out there. The biggest thing about Erie is the shortness of the wave span combined with heigth. Makes a very steep wave.

Hey do you remember where you posted that story of your trip to Pelee Island? I always thought that was one of the best stories ever on here and have looked for it several times with no luck.

Yep.
 

Lymans are bad ass!!! Buddy of mine restores them in Sandusky.

Which story? Had many. My love was always Pelee Island and most trips were not favorable for 24' boats. I blew up and broke a bunch of crap getting there and back.
Always wished I could be smart like my friends and be content to go hang at the Casino for the weekend but noooooooo ;)

Not sure which story you're referring to but probably the most popular was over on S/F and the one about the weekend of the fog in the picture above.
I did a lot in that 1st Sonic in a lot of water that people wouldn't believe. Used to have a house in Vermilion and did one trip @ night to Huron that we should not have. Met friends there (Huron) and some of them posted about seeing us coming in from the lake and no one in the marina could believe it.
Was typical lake forecast in Cols but we got to the lake late. Drove to the shore to make a judgment call on whether to go to Huron by boat or trailer. Where we were you couldn't really see past the break wall to judge.
I chose to splash the boat. Where you come out of the Vermilion River there is a break wall at a 90* angle protecting it so you still can't see the lake. Cleared that wall, popped it on plane and headed north and it instantly hit the fan! Was cloudy and dark so poor lake vision. Was rolling solid 6's straight out of the north and straight for shore by us. Is a very shallow shoal right there so couldn't abort and make a turn w/the waves and too rough to turn against them. (maybe if I could have seen the waves coming) I spent as much time figuring out how to make that boat go slow as I did fast. When I bought it min. planing speed was 30. When I was done I had it down to 20. About 10 mins in that boat @ 30 in that lake in 3's (from the wrong direction) would have been the end of it.
So 10 mls to Huron in a 6' beam sea in a 24' boat. That boat did amazing things in nasty water because it had so much power (for it's size) to get out of trouble and was small enough to run between the waves compared to the bigger boats above the are always on at least two. Problem was you couldn't see the waves to set the boat up for them that night:0
I would only see the crests reflecting from the moon light just before they hit us. Still remember clealry, looking up and seeing wave crests 2' + taller than the top of my windshield just before hitting us!
Worst part was making the Huron light and having to turn S/with the waves. Ran GPS to stay as close to shore as possible (but could not see it) to keep that leg as short as possible. Came very close to stuffing on every wave. If anything had gone wrong on that trip, no one would have known until finding the boat the next day.
W/the boat on the trailer after the fact, I've done the math over and over. Those were 6'+ waves and worst part was not being able to see them.

Guess thats one of the reasons I like that lake so much is due to the respect it forces you to have for it. Seen too many take it lightly and end up on the front page of the Sandusky paper Monday morning.