Lake Superior was pretty benign this last weekend. RangerMark and I tipped over repeatedly off
the end of the Washburn coal dock, the only place we could think of with any
sort of conditions, weak though they were, for some rescue practice. Beggars can’t be choosers with a 6-7 knot SW breeze and a few rebound waves
off the side of the coal dock is about all there was. Saturday offered a northeast wind that made
for some fun play along the cliffs and stacks south of Washburn, but nothing
that required much thought or evaluation.
In other words conditions this weekend did not require much assessment
or analysis, the very opposite of last weekend’s paddling scenario.
Last Saturday after the Point to LaPointe Two Mile Open
Water Swim, the wind picked up out of the southwest. The ManFromSnowyLegs and I paddled to Bayview
Beach rather than Bayfield and had the wind in our teeth the whole time. It blew steadily the rest of the day and was
still blowing the next morning when we paddled north of Washburn. We had a plan to launch around 4pm and then
round Point Detour to our Oak 3 campsite with a bit of a tailwind. When we arrived at Little Sand Bay, checked
the visual conditions, checked the nearshore forecast and real time wave site,
and then talked with the Living Adventures guys that were just coming off the
water, our foursome collectively decided not to launch and to wait until the
morning. Some wanted to go, others were
uncomfortable and since we were out to have fun we implemented plan B and
headed to Patsy’s Bar per an earlier blog post.
ProfessorLichen’s group from CanoeSport Outfitters had planned to launch
in the morning and camped at the Town of Russell campground at LSB after
joining us at Patsys. As I also
mentioned in that post Mr. EngineerGear, the man who authored the Sea Kayaker article
on an economic model for sea kayaking risk analysis, had prudently spent the
Krugerrands for the ferry back from Presque Isle into Bayfield. He and his SO, the WillingAccomplice, weighed
all the factors including wind, route, paddling skill, forecast, estimated
paddling time, Keewenaw Brewing’s Widow Maker, and the award winning Patsy
Burger, and were able to synthesize the information into a very prudent
decision. Meanwhile, up on Devils Island
more critical decisions were being made and some tough paddling was taking
place as we swilled our beers.
A number of different decisions were made that weekend and given the
information at hand as well as the various factors in play, they all seemed to
be pretty good ones. The decision not to
paddle, to take the ferry, and to paddle in from Devil’s were all made based up
on the information available to the decision makers at the time and all seemed
to be sound. Practical decisions based
upon the available information, including physical conditions as well as
psychological and intuitive factors, is the way we keep our butts out of
trouble while paddling on Gitchee Gumee.
Depressingly, as I came off the water on Tuesday I saw the two young
women in the video below heading out to visit the Sand Island sea caves. The weather was nice, the lake was flat, and
the water was warm. They had life
jackets and one had a little dog with his own little life jacket in her lap. No
spray skirts, bilge pump, paddle float or even water bottle that I could
see. From the video a sharp eyed coach
might assess that the paddle technique might not be quite refined as it could
be. When they pointed out to Sand Island
and asked, “Are those the caves, on that end?”, I just shook my head and said
yup, those are the caves. I just wasn’t in the mood for my usual warning
speech and managed only a weak 'be careful and keep your eyes open'. I can’t imagine anything
befalling them on that trip but if it’s successful it will likely spawn more trips.
The future trips will be undertaken with a false sense of security from their
success this time, and Lake Superior just does not allow that type of blissful
ignorance to continue.
Let’s keep our eyes and ears open, gather as much
information as possible on all relevant factors when paddling on Superior, and
give the big lake the respect that she deserves. She will tolerate nothing less.
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