Storm on Lake Erie!!!

[unionworks]

I was leaving Grandmas house on the bluff, and noticed "the wind in the wires making a tattletale sound, twas the witch of November...come 2 months late"! Wind gusts made massive swaths of tall trees bow down before her fury. Winter has come very late this year, and I don't know what came over me... but I decided to go see Lake Erie herself in person, in all her majestic glory.
I drove my 91 Crown Vic down to Eries beloved Peninsula, 20 miles of beach fun in the summertime. Bass and Walleye fishing of a sportsmans wildest dreams, in the summer it is fun to walk along the docks watching fishermen skinning fish that would make others call them liars who have never been to Erie.
But not tonight. Suprisingly, even with the 60+ mph gusts, the Coast Guard had not closed the gates of Presque Isle State Park I drove a short distance to the northern shore, saw a spot where. I could see the water briefly, about 40 yards away...
The wind was simply blowing the tops off the waves close to shore. O.K., imagine the place where the horizon would normally be. Now imagine whitecaps rising far above that, to where you would normally look and expect to see sky. The wind was blowing the sand right off the beach, horizontally...
The voice inside my head said "get the hell out of here. Right now". In no slow fashion, I put my faithful mount in gear and didimaued for the high ground. But I don't regret my going down for a peak. The old songs will have vivid meaning for me now.

[unionworks]

1. Call me crazy

...but I felt as if I had just looked into the forbidden face of the most beautiful woman I could imagine in any cross between my wilest dreams and most terrible nightmares. A true Goddess, inspiring equal portions of awe and terror.

[siligut]

13. Wow, this is profound

Do you think about this stuff or are you really from another era? J/k, a little, but not much.

[unionworks]

14. I can't take credit

...but thanks. The native American people living on the shores of Lake Erie regarded the lake as a female spirit, and not a benevolent one!

[siligut]

15. Reminds me of the "mother" in the movie Ponyo

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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0876563/ Just a little about the film.

Still a wonderous story, thank you for sharing.

[unionworks]

17. thanks for sharing this

I love movies like that and will check it out first chance!

[elleng]

2. Wrong lake, but

&feature=related

[unionworks]

3. Not the wrong lake

...it's the same spirit. As in native american spirit. I looked at it face to face and nearly sodded my linens. I'm glad at least one person gets it. Perhaps the rest thought I was exaggerating. I assure you that is not the case.

[BiggJawn]

4. But it's the same water.

Pictures?

[unionworks]

5. Bigglawn,

I was there less than 1 minute outside the car, I was that scared. Seriously, I felt my life was in danger. Next time I will whip out the cell cam. Promise.

[BiggJawn]

6. That sounds awesome.

Closest I've come to something like that is a tornado.

I'd probably have done the same.

[unionworks]

7. About 10 years ago

Someone decided it was a good idea to drive onto a presque isle beach to watch a storm. They fished his body out of his submerged car pulled into the lake by a rogue wave a day or so later. I took one look at this furious body of water and said "fuck that"

[unionworks]

8. Best Explanation

...after 20 years or so spent interacting with Lake Erie, you get an ideaof what is normal. When she is glassy smooth, she is happy. When you see whitecaps, she is baring her teeth. When you see waves breaking where you should see sky, run for your life. Truth.

[WCGreen]

9. There was a November night back in 1983.....

The last night before my folks were putting their 36' Marinette to bed for the winter.
The weather looked okay as ten of us traveled from the Cleveland Yacht Club in Rocky River down to Jim's Steak House in the flats.

Now this was before the flats were the flats. Everything was industrial gritty, still very polluted water and a few establishments that held on, throw back to the 1920 speak easy era where the liquor came in from Canada and Elliot Ness was the Police Commissioner.
I was drinking back then, heavy like, one year short of my AA epiphany. The wind was kicking up; making waves all the way to Jim’s which was three or four big bends until hitting Lake Erie.
Six of the ten decided to take a cab back to the CYC and I went along for the boat ride.
As we set off due north to hit Lake Erie, I wondered if I made the right choice. I was more than half in the bag by this time, hoping to grab a few more drinks on my folks before jumping in my car and driving home after we docked five miles up the coast.
On the way to Jim’s it took about 45 minutes from setting off and jumping on the doc at Jim’s.
It took three hours to make it back.

Now by that time I had been shot at by a wild man at a strip joint, caught my apartment on fire down at OSU, totaled a couple of cars and had more close calls than most men don’t have in a life time.

But I was never really scared.

Until that night.

The boat was sturdy. The woman who came with us was down in the cabin with me. My stepfather and his best pal were up on top, trying to get the boat back in one piece.

Water was spilling over and down the stairs to the cabin. The pump was working overtime. They could not get down to us so they would yell shit down to me. The radio was gone.

The woman was praying to god, was white as a ghost and I thought he she was going to hurl.

About half way in, she just started to laugh hysterically, yelling at the wind, the rain, the wave.

I thought we were going to die.

This part of the lakeshore was cliffs, no place to go but onward to the safety of the Rocky River and CYC.

When we got back, the boat was battered, we felt like we had been through a war.

My mom had called the Coast Guard and they were set to go out and search for us if we didn’t get in by midnight.

We got in at 11:50.

I have to say this, I never felt more alive that night than any time up to then and to this day.

Erie is the most shallow of the Great Lakes and so when the win blows up, it can get awful dicey out there.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

10. Omigod.

What a story...

Even from here, I feel scared.

Great storytelling!

[unionworks]

12. Thanks WC!

...and congradulations on your continued sobriety! Man, I couldn't even imagine being ona boat or even a freighter in that mess. After reading your tale, I had to go to youtube and listen to sea shanties. They range from historic to instructive to incredibly filthy.

[WCGreen]

16. Your post jogged that memory...

That was an experience I wish on no one but I have to admit, it was exhilarating.

[hedgehog]

11. They must have put up some scary ass signs,

but when we first moved up here, it seemed like every couple of years some students would get into trouble up at Oswego State. They'd go out on the breakwater to watch the waves and get knocked into Lake Ontario. I think some of them drowned.