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Last night was calm, clear and cold. When we went over to talk to Brad at 0830 it was 49 degrees at the marina office. Brad indicated he would lead us down the river at 1000 so Kevin and I went back to the boat, hoisted the dinghy and got ready to leave. Going down the river, we were not as fortunate as coming up as we ran aground. The river bottom is only sand so 10 minutes of working the boat back and forth along with wakes that Brad created with his boat and we were afloat once again. Once out into the lake we had light W wins and seas and a fog bank about 3 miles down the shore in the direction we were headed. Sure enough 20 minutes later we were in the fog. I t was not the pea soup variety, and the visibility never dropped below 100 yards. Thirty minutes later we were out of the fog and that’s when things started to get bad. The forecast had been for 15 knot winds from the west but the wind started at 15 and kept building. At one time for about an hour it was blowing 25-28 knots. Soon we had big 6-8 foot seas and I had to motor tack 30 degrees to either side of our course to keep the pounding down to an acceptable level. At 1730 we pulled into Ganley Harbour and finally relaxed. This day was one of the worst I have ever spent on the water. West winds on this Lake with the huge fetch to the west can be a real demon. We were glad to turn in early and get some rest.