Angry Lake Michigan at Grand Haven

So we ended up staying overnight in Grand Haven.  I thought that the Wilfred Sykes was going to be visiting there sometime Sunday morning.  We ended staying at the Best Western just outside of town and it was pretty nice.  I think if I find out that the Sykes is visiting Grand Haven again on a day that I can go, I will stay overnight again.  It beats waking up at 5 in the morning to make the roughly 3 hour trek over there.

 When I woke up the next morning, I checked Marine Traffic to see where the Sykes was and I saw that she was heading up the Wisconsin coast.  Her destination read, "Port Inland" which meant that she wouldn't be heading to Grand Haven.    So I packed the car and as I was packing the car, I saw that there were high winds which was probably the reason why the Sykes ending up getting her next load instead of heading to Grand Haven.

 I don't know how the backloading works.  Typically when the Sykes pays a visit to Grand Haven, she will deliver a load of stone to either Indiana Harbor or Burns Harbor.  After unloading, they will go to one of the steel mills (not exactly sure which one) and pick up what is called iron fines.  These are a byproduct of the smelting process and are used in the creation of cement.  Anyway, I'm guessing this is at the discretion of the captain.

 However, since I don't normally get a chance to get pictures of the lighthouse when it's this windy, I decided to get picture of the lighthouse.  This was one of the calmer pictures and you can see the water running over the pier.

 It's amazing to see a lake get this angry.  Sadly, I wasn't quite timing things right to get some of the bigger waves crashing against the range light.

 Apparently surfing is quite popular on Lake Michigan when it gets this nasty.  Except that I can't imagine being out there when it gets this nasty.

 Gray skies, green water and whitecaps.  Makes for a cool picture.

 Our friendly surfer waiting to move off the pier.

 One of the waves crashing against the shore.

 Sometimes it seems like seagulls have more sense than people.

One more shot before moving on.