Page 36 - 2012 Lake St. Clair Guide

Buckle up, ladies, Thanksgiving weekend...still fishing Joe

this might get exciting Mike

This is Pat from Pat's first
Chicago with his Muskie on
first Muskie on Lake St. Clair
Lake St. Clair...
47 inches. When his Chicago fishing buddy Mike called me early November
to come here to fish Thanksgiving weekend, I really tried to discourage a trip with
how bad the weather usually is by then on the lake. Sometimes we have ice fishermen
on the bay at that time...! The only local boats I saw on the lake that weekend were the
duck hunters ... but these three Chicago guys proved me wrong. They all had a great time and said they'll be back!
I certainly won't try to discourage anyone in the future...whatever floats your boat...water or ice....

The Pickle Boat .... continued waves to twenty five knot winds and the to say if you put six people on a boat for
ten foot rolling waves. We would later 68 hours they are going to know each other
from page 32.......Actually my biggest con- skirt around another thunderstorm (which better after the race than they did before the
picked up the wind again) and go directly race!
cern was how miserable it would be if the through a third. We did not really break down into
low wind conditions lasted for any length Actually one of the things that I shifts. At first we all were on deck and
of time. This obviously put a lot of boats in was looking forward to was sailing at night. contributing, but as time went on a person
the starting area at the same time, making Being a cruiser, and mostly day sails, I would go below for some sleep as they felt
jockeying for a good starting position even had never sailed at night. There is noth- the need. There would always be at least
more difficult, and did add some stress to ing scary about it, in fact quite the contrary. two or three sailors in the cockpit, and if
the start. Linus did a great job of keeping It is beautiful. When you start getting up we got into situations that required more it
track of the revised starting times as we all into mid and northern Michigan it gets very was just a matter of shouting for additional
paid attention to the cannon and horns that dark, and having clear nights you could see hands on deck. Actually since I had never
are the five and one minute warnings for countless stars and many boats near you, done a long race I was pretty wired up and
the start of each race. We actually timed quietly making their way to the island. probably stayed awake too long before I
our start pretty much perfectly, and were The thing that surprised me the most about tried to get some sleep. It made me realize
off to a good but slow start. Actually it is sailing at night were the winds. I always that sleep management is an important part
quite a spectacular view to see all the boats had the impression that the winds typical- of a long race. The less sleep we get the
and their colorful spinnaker start, and it ly calmed down at night. Even though in less apt we are to have the energy and clear
was a big thrill to be a part of it. some cases this is true, we often ran into decision making process that are required
It took us about five hours to get to some pretty good wind conditions at night. for the race.
Lexington, which is where we started from There is a saying in Michigan, “If you don’t GPS is the primary tool for navi-
in the morning. However right about Lex- like the weather just wait five minutes, and
ington the wind started picking up, and we it will change.” This is exponentially true gation these days. The boat is equipped
at least felt like we were truly starting to when sailing on one of the
sail. At about Forester (about half way up Great Lakes! Continued on page 40 ......
the thumb) we saw a storm to our southwest. When you’re not
Fortunately the storm missed us and really needed to sail it is a good
helped pick up the wind and boat speeds. time to have something to
When we crossed the Saginaw Bay we were eat and drink, or to catch
in ten foot rollers for about eight hours. some sleep if you are tired,
One thing about Lake Huron is that it can possibly sit on the high side
dish out anything and everything. We saw of the rail if we were in big
wind. It is also a good
ev- time to just chat and get
ery- to know each other better.
thing Even though four of the
from six of us are from the same
al- marina, it is always nice to
most get to know the other parts
no of people’s lives. Needless
wind
or

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