Reflections of Cruising Lake Erie

For once the forecast had been correct: 20 knots southwest, with waves 4 to 6 ft. Around 0300, I rolled over in my bunk unable to sleep with the sound of the wind in the rigging and the occasional groan of the fenders against the hull.

“Just sleep. There’s no way you’re returning home tomorrow in these kinds of conditions,” I told myself.

With the arrival of morning, though, and with the wind still blowing 20 knots out of the southwest, I cast off lines a few minutes after sunrise in hopes of making the return trip before the predicted late-afternoon thunderstorms had a chance to come rolling across the open waters of Lake Erie…

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