SLEEPLESS IN BAYFIELD

RAIN, FOG AND A LOW OVERCAST THIS MORNING

Wednesday, 8:00 AM.  36 degrees F at the ferry dock, 30 on the back porch.  Wind ESE, mostly calm with occasional light to moderate gusts.  The sky has a very low overcast, it is raining lightly and it is foggy with poor visibility.  The humidity is 92%, the barometer more or less steady for now, currently at 30.36" of mercury.  Snow showers are predicted for today, Thursday and Friday, then slightly warmer, with continuing unsettled weather patterns.  

   Sleepless and up very early with sinus congestion, I had the opportunity to witness, or at least to hear, intermittent early morning activity in Bayfield.  First heard were two fishing tugs leaving port in succession at about 4:45 AM.  Nothing else would be heading out of Bayfield into the lake at that early hour, and they must have been heading far out, probably past Michigan Island, in order to be at the fishing grounds by first light. I heard their engines growing fainter and fainter in the quiet of the fog, for perhaps twenty minutes. I hope their radar was working well, as they certainly could see little or nothing.

   All was silent after that until perhaps 5:30 or so, when a few cars and trucks were heard; probably early shift restaurant workers and such.  By 7:00 the Coast Guardian next door started his truck, and he was off to work before 7:30.  Teachers were going to school by 7:00 or so, and by 7:30 the first ferry out of Bayfield was just barely visible, plying the dark waters to La Pointe on Madeline Island.  I am surprised I heard no fog horns this morning, as murky as it was.  

   Also, by 7:00 or so it was light enough that the harbor lights at La Pointe had shut off; otherwise they are visible all night, friendly beacons in the darkness.