One Miserable Week in Hammond

Not just because Hammond is the armpit of the nation, but because of this ungodly wind that just won’t quit!

We came into this marina last Monday, knowing that a cold front was coming the next day.  What we didn’t know was that a giant high pressure was to follow, and that high pressure, with gale-force winds, just sat down on top of us for almost a week.  This marina is at the most southern tip of Lake Michigan, so the incessant northeast winds have created 8-10’ waves just outside the marina breakwall.

The winds have not gone below 20 mph since Monday night, have mostly been 25-30 mph, and sometimes gusting as high as 40 mph.  Our boat has been dancing in the dock slip just because of the gusty winds.  But the worst of it is that the waves are crashing at the marina entrance, and large swells are entering the marina exactly on our beam, causing so much rolling that both of us are getting seasick AT THE DOCK!  We’re rolling continually about 20 degrees in our slip, and the dock lines are snapping back and forth, causing jerky motions back and forth, which are totally nauseating.  I have 17 dock lines on the boat, spread out like a horizontal spider web.  With the gusty winds, the nylon lines will severely stretch and then quickly recoil just as a swell rocks the boat from the other side.  I have already punctured another dock fender, but as of yet, haven’t parted any dock lines.

We’ve gotten little sleep at night because of the snap rolls.  It was so bad yesterday that we went to Walmart just to get off the boat.  And going to Walmart was the highlight of our day!  We thought of moving the boat to another slip, but trying to maneuver the boat in 25-30 mph winds is suicide.  Talk about a helpless feeling.


The NOAA report says that this mess is caused by a super high pressure system of 30.8" Hg sitting to the north of us.  To put this 30.8" in perspective, "standard" barometric pressure is 29.92" Hg.  During most of the year, a high pressure system causing real pretty days is around 30.2" Hg.  A strong high pressure is 30.4", causing lots of wind.  A super-duper high is 30.5".  This thing is a monster at 30.8".

And the real frustration is that we’re so near to getting into the river system & getting protection from these winds and waves.  We have a mere 3 miles to go from this marina into Calumet Harbor & into the river.  So near, yet so far.

The weather prognosticators think the winds will start to die tomorrow.  It will take at least a day for the waves to die down, so it’s looking like Monday before we get out of here.  This week delay, coupled with the 2 week delay in northern Wisconsin, is causing us to be way too close to the cold weather.  We had originally hoped to be on the Tennessee River by October, enjoying some beautiful cruising with our friends.  Instead, we’ll just have another sea story to tell over a good stiff drink.