Greetings from Lake Superior.
It's not as bad as it looks.
Visibility is ranging 100' to 300' from the bow. The good news is that if you normally travel at 6 knots, you don't need to slow down.
Rest assured, the AIS, double range radar, and the automated fog signals are all operating. Additional good news is that to have conditions like this requires relatively calm winds (2 to 3 knots out of the South currently), which equates to gentle 1' swells (for now).
So Monday I headed up the St. Marys river with a 15 to 25 knot NW forecast (the river is relatively protected). Rounding the corner at Sault Ste. Marie, the winds had been under forecast, 25 gusting to 30 knots NW. Locking through and anchoring in Whitefish Bay wasn’t going to work. Went back down the river to Sugar Island for the night.
Yesterday (Tuesday) was much nicer weather until the afternoon. Locked through the Soo Locks and headed on out to anchor for the night just below Whitefish Point. Then the Canadian and American Coastguard announced squall and thunderstorm warnings for Whitefish Bay. One of the downsides to traveling at displacement speed is the inability to out run weather. While the squall never materialized, the thunderstorms, rain cells, and occasional lightning were stimulating in a morbid sort of way. All ended about the time I anchored just below Whitefish Point. Pea soup fog arrived at twilight (10pm).
Oh look, in 10 minutes you can literally drive right out of the fog. Welcome to Lake Superior!
And an hour later you can be driving back in.
Tonight's destination is Grand Marais, a Michigan Harbor of Refuge on the South coast of Superior. Tomorrow's forecast is 22 gusting to 39 knots in the morning.
Lots to be said for Harbors of Refuge.
Ted