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Research With Ed - 2nd Time

So my friend Ed called me up early on Friday, wondering if I'd be willing lend a hand on the Michigan Tech boat this weekend.  They needed an extra cabin boy to help take core samples and temperature profiles out on Lake Superior.  Hey, I'm always a sucker for a boat ride, so I agreed within 2 seconds.

Sunday, 6:45am.  The boat was running when we arrived, Captain Asshat at the helm.  I figured the last time I saw the sun rise was two weeks ago; except it was at 20,000 feet in a propeller plane on my way to Florida.   It was a brisk morning, registering a scant 50 degrees or so at times steam could be seen rising from the 55-65 degree Portage Lake water.

At this point, it is probably useful to show where we actually went.  We started the trip in Houghton and headed sort of west and entered Lake Superior at the North Entry of the Portage Canal. After that, we headed out off shore about 20km NW of the North Entry.

This is a shot taken off the back of the boat while we were still in the canal.  That boat back there was creating huge wakes about a mile back.  Big enough that when they hit this one dock, this poor crappy yellow boat nearly capsized.  Dumbass.  Anyway, it takes about an hour to get from the marina out to the lake due primarily to the need to slow down so you don't shake other boats apart (like that guy was doing).  To bad too, since this boat can haul ass.

Ok, play time over.  Here's  a picture of Jon setting up the core sampler.  It is this nifty spring loaded device that smacks the bottom of the lake and captures a bunch of hopefully undisturbed dirt in a tube, then returns it unmolested to the surface.

Here's Ed and Jon pulling it in.  It wasn't all that heavy, but the waves were beginning to get some what large, creating some problems with the out rigging swing around looking to smack someone off the boat.

So after we took several samples and a couple of temperature profiles, it was getting to rough to do anything else.  Here's a nice shot of water coming over the front of the boat.  Most of the wave's weren't much more then 1-2 feet.  Every now and though, there'd be a couple of huge ones that would toss the boat around like a tin can.  Walking around was like being totally wasted.  You try to walk strait but all the sudden the ground pitches 30 degrees to the left.  Couple that in with a wet, muddy deck and it is a rip roaring good time.

Here's me and Jon standing in the rear of the boat.  It was 80+ degrees inland, but wasn't much over 55 out where we were.  Unfortunately, the captain decided that going 8mph was a good idea (its not) so it took a damned eternity to get off the lake.  I was hoping for like 20-30 so we could jump the boat.

 

All good things must come to an end so here's the North Entry after we were already inside the break wall. 

Back in Houghton, five hours later.  I had to take a picture of the ubiquitous lift bridge.

So, there you have it.  Lesson learned - boat rides are fun, espcially when it is getting rough out on the lake.  I'm hoping next time I get some 5-10 foot waves.