The cold blast overnight has put an ice layer on my pond but the larger lakes retained enough heat in the water to prevent that from happening, at least for today, but soon most will succumb to winter’s icy grip.
Lake’s Morning Glow
Picture of the Day for November 10, 2013
The “gales of November” (also referred to as “Witch of November”) is used by Great Lakes sailors to refer to the peak storm season, which usually occurs in November. Storms during this time frame can be brutal, but also are marked by rapidly changing weather conditions, which can make it difficult to navigate the waters.
The Great Lakes Storm of 1913, historically referred to as the “Big Blow”, the “Freshwater Fury”, or the “White Hurricane”, was a blizzard with hurricane-force winds that devastated the Great Lakes Basin in the Midwestern United States and the Canadian province of Ontario from November 7 through November 10, 1913 in which 30 ships were damaged and twelve ships sank.
The “gales of November” was popularized by the Gordon Lightfoot song after the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald which sank on the evening of November 10, 1975, 17 miles northwest of Whitefish Point on eastern Lake Superior.
So I don’t think I will go out on a boat in Lake Superior on November 10th and just watch the these calm waves from shore instead.
Gales of November
Picture of the Day for November 3, 2013
It is nice to see the sun out this morning, after all it is ‘Sun’day. Course seeing sun rising anytime after a grey week is a good thing.
Rising Sun
Picture of the Day for October 29, 2013
Congress appropriated funds for a lighthouse on Long Island in the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior near Bayfield, Wisconsin but when workmen arrived to build it in 1853, a local representative of the Lighthouse Board, directed them to Michigan Island.
The light on Michigan Island entered service in the spring of 1857, but was closed after only one year of operation. Evidence suggests that higher authorities in the Lighthouse Service repudiated the rash decision of their field representative, and ordered the hapless contractors to go back and erect a new lighthouse at the planned Long Island location.
In 1869, however, authorities decided that a lighthouse on Michigan Island might actually be useful, so was $6000 requested to renovate and relight the abandoned station on Michigan Island.
Fifty years later, an effort began to place the Michigan Island light in a higher tower. When the Lighthouse Service discontinued operation of the Schooner’s Ledge light on Pennsylvania’s Delaware River near Philadelphia, the cylindrical steel tower was disassembled and brought to Wisconsin. Originally built in 1880, the tower was transported to Michigan Island in 1919, where it sat on the beach, awaiting assembly, for another ten years.
On October 29, 1929, the Fresnel lens was transferred from the old lighthouse to the new tower. “Started up new tower at sunset,” wrote Keeper Lane. “Everything in good shape but station looked odd, the old tower being dark for the first time in navigation in 72 years. NEW TOWER IN COMMISSION TONIGHT.”
The old Michigan Island Lighthouse is currently under repairs and Michigan Island is unique in that the old lighthouse was supposed to be built somewhere else and the newer lighthouse was originally built elsewhere.
Wandering Lighthouses
Picture of the Day for October 27, 2013
Apparently one of the sea gulls heard about the snow that is coming and is as disgusted as I am. The older two are probably like the people who can’t wait to get their snowmobiles out on trails. I prefer some more fall days first.
Disgusted Sea Gull
Picture of the Day for October 25, 2013
The full harbor a month ago is emptying out fast with the approaching winter as it is a little difficult to sail a boat on the ice unless they put ice skates on the boat.
Full Harbor
Picture of the Day for October 11, 2013
This lonely sentinel, which was placed in operation on October 11, 1897, carried out years of service but it didn’t draw masses crowds to visit it like other lighthouses, especially with no land access. No fancy brick or stone building, no awestruck view, nor a fancy spiral staircase to take you to the top of the light, just a ladder for this short forty-two foot lighthouse.
There is not even a keeper’s house next to it for company, but instead the keeper came on a plank walk from the LaPointe Light Station, which was a little more than a quarter mile to the east, to wind up the weights for the 1,200 pound bronze fog bell every four hours.
So the lonely forgotten Chequamegon Point Light on the end of Long Island in the Apostle Islands, did its task without much recognition, with a re-used fourth-order lens from the old LaPointe Lighthouse, to guide ships into Ashland’s port with its fixed red light. The lighthouse had even less human interaction when the light was automated in 1964 until it was deactivated in 1986, replaced by the tubular structure that is now used.
Ignored Old Plain Lighthouse
Picture of the Day for October 4, 2013
In the middle of the Civil War, Raspberry Island Lighthouse’s fifth-order, fixed lens was exhibited for the first time on July 20, 1863 as part of the lighthouse system guiding sailors in the Apostle Islands area.
Isolated on an island may seem appealing to some but it also presented some hazards too. Light-keeper Francis Jacker was almost dismissed when his light was out on September 13, 1887. A westerly gale forced Keeper Jacker to move the station’s sailboat from the dock to a safe anchorage near the eastern end of the island. He was unable to haul the boat up to the boathouse due to the the dilapidated condition of the boatways and in the darkness, Keeper Jacker sailed beyond the end of the island.
Unable to fight the gale back, he drifted over to Oak Island, where his boat was heavily damaged. On the desolate island without food or fire and only scantily dressed, Jacker finally was able to hail a passing Native American after nearly three days.
The light was out the night of the 13th, but fortunately Keeper Jacker’s family had arrived for a visit on the 14th and displayed the light for two nights until his return. Lighthouse officials reinstated the position of assistant keeper, which had been abolished at Raspberry Island in 1882, after this incident and Keeper Francis Jacker was not discharged due to the credible reason for the outage.
Raspberry Island Lighthouse
Picture of the Day for October 3, 2013
This female Common Mergansers looks like she is scared of something and hiding like my cat yesterday in the thunderstorm, but instead the duck is looking for fish and in a blink of an eye, she is gone under the water. Common Mergansers are sometimes called sawbills, fish ducks, or goosanders. The word “merganser” comes from the Latin and roughly translates to “plunging goose”, which is a good name for this very large and often submerged duck.
Common Merganser
Picture of the Day for September 28, 2013
This lab seemed to like retrieving the thrown tennis ball especially on a warm fall day in the 80s but I not sure I would like the 59ºF temperature of Lake Superior to go swimming in.
Retrieving Lab
