BAYFIELD'S GHOSTLY WIND SYMPHONY

THE GHOSTLY ORCHESTRA...BAYFIELD'S SAILING FLEET

THE INSTRUMENTS...THE MASTS AND RIGGING

 Saturday, 9:00 AM.  16 degrees F at the ferry dock, 14 up here on the bluff.  Wind variable with light gusts, sky overcast and it is snowing, the humidity 80%.  The barometer is steady, at 29.96" of mercury.  The forecast calls for temperatures in the twenties, and a wintry mix of skies and weather for the next ten days.
   Yesterday morning I was awakened while it was still dark by an ethereal, moaning, dirge-like  sound, rather like a ghostly orchestra tuning up.  I had heard that sound before, but it took a sleepy moment to remember what it was.
   Which was, of course,  Bayfield's own wind symphony, the sailboats at the marina, playing the music created by the wind rushing through their masts and rigging. 
   They were indeed tuning up for a bravuro musical performance that would last all that windy day, and perhaps today as well, as we we are the recipients of the northern edge of the massive storm now slamming most of the Plains States and the Midwest.
   Who might the composer of the symphony be?   Perhaps Njord, the old Norse wind god; and the conductor? Likely some ancient mariner, lost in a long ago Lake Superior Nor'easter.