"Like a lake"
Apr. 19th, 2010 10:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beige_alertI just saw another example of this, and it's always amusing to me, when people, especially serious mariners, describe flat calm seas as "like a lake." I've spent most of my life near Lake Michigan. To me, Lake Michigan is the first example of "lake" that comes to mind. It's 190km by 490km and near 300 meters deep in the deepest part. (I see Google Earth has some new high-resolution photos of my favorite beach on the big lake. It's at a narrow spot, only 101km from the eastern shore in Michigan.) The sort of place 300 meter cargo ships sail and from time to time sink in the sort of storms that sink big ships. Oh, sure, sometimes it's flat calm, too. You know, "like a lake." But not usually, normally at least some little waves breaking on the shore on a pretty day, and, from time to time, very much more than that.
I've been out in Milwaukee's outer harbor, protected behind the outer breakwater, in my kayak, and plan to explore that some more, but I don't have the equipment or skills to dare go out past the wall into the actual lake itself. 125km from the breakwater light to the very nearest land on the other side (and typically the wind is blowing in that general direction, but probably not directly toward the nearest land).
I've been out in Milwaukee's outer harbor, protected behind the outer breakwater, in my kayak, and plan to explore that some more, but I don't have the equipment or skills to dare go out past the wall into the actual lake itself. 125km from the breakwater light to the very nearest land on the other side (and typically the wind is blowing in that general direction, but probably not directly toward the nearest land).
