The NOAA Marine forecast for western Lake Superior for today, November 1, 2023, calls for west winds at 30-knots and seas building to 11-feet for the portion of the lake between Isle Royale and the Keweenaw Peninsula, an area of the lake we have transited four times as part of two cruises to Isle Royal departing from Copper Harbor. The notion of being out in the big lake with 30-knot winds and 11-foot seas in my 24-foot Boston Whaler boat is quite terrifying. Even in mid-Summer, we have had to wait a day or two for the right conditions to get across the 55-miles of open water that separate Copper Harbor and Isle Royale.
Adding to the November weather change, the southwestern lake shore of Michigan's lower peninsula just got a foot of snow last night.
As Gordon Lightfoot's song remarks, the Great Lakes are no place to be boating when the Gales of November come early.