They all can kill you

Worst water I've ever been in was the 2006 Chicago Poker Run on Lake Michigan; with 30+ mph winds straight out of the North.

This one time, when I was a little kid, in the bath tub, it was so rough the my little red boat, my little blue boat, even my green boat, they all capsized!!

The thing about the Great Lakes is not the wave size, but the frequency/distance trough to trough. Add in rapid weather changes, tremendous susceptibility to weather's influence due to shallow waters, and irregular waves, where it isn't just troughs and peaks but more washing machine slop, and it is no joke. There are even places where waves collide (end of Long Point on Erie).

The harsher weather often tends to miss the northern coast (of Erie), so the apparent weather and/or forecast on shore can be a totally different animal than what happens out on the lake, so best to check the NOAA forecast. You can go out on a beautiful sunny morning running 60+mph nice and smooth in a 30 ft boat, and come home in fog and rain with everyone either wondering if their teeth are going to rattle out, or worse still no hope of being on plane and everyone miserable just wondering when the hell the marina is going to come into view. Binderr dundat.

And like at Boyne Thunder a Powerplay put on a good show! Black 38 OSO Steve brought......

What is an average depth of the lakes? How deep are the holes?

We have a lake nearby, very small comparatively, mile wide and 55 miles long and it can turn to chit in a hurry! It is very deep in places.

The Western 2/3rds of Erie maxes out at 60-70 feet deep, which is nothing for a body of water 10,000 sq miles. About 20 miles offshore north west from Erie PA, right in the middle of the lake, it can be as shallow as 35 feet. Almost the entire western 40 miles is between 10-30 feet deep if I remember right. The eastern 1/3rd has areas approaching 200 ft deep however.

Edit: If you're interested - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ymetry_map.png

1m = 3.3 ft

Interesting info on Lake Superior..if drained it would cover north AND south America in a foot of water

OK, so it's just a different type of water. I've seen it all except the major storms on the Great Lakes. Western Erie gets the worst as there is no sense or pattern to the water; Just giant waves and holes from every direction. Like being in the bathtub that sunk all of Phragle's boats. Had to idle home over 6-8s from PIB once. Water breaking over the bow over every wave. After 20 miles of that I planed out in 4s and it was a wet, wild and not fun ride to the Detroit River. Planed very briefly in 6s on Lake Michigan. Hopping from wave to wave. Saginaw Bay had some very close spaced 3-4s once and I was able to skip across the tops, which was fun, but slammed into about every 15th wave. So, yes, it gets bad out there but then I watch Alaska's Deadliest Catch and I just can't picture water that big. It sends the big fishing ships to harbor and sinks some. One just sunk a few days ago there in the Pacific and the Coast Guard rescued the crew. Kind of cool to know that I'm boating in the World's roughest water in a 22' boat :)

ocean obviously gets much bigger. Difference in the great lakes is the unevenness of waves, unpredictability of weather, and the fact there is shoals, rocks everywhere.