NW winds are particularly gusty because of the formation of gravity or mountain waves as the wind rolls over the mountains to the NW of the lake. For more, see the wiki article here: https://windsportatlanta.com/wiki/Northwest_Winds_in_North_Georgia
Here is a great pic from a lake sailing group on FB. The late afternoon light does a good job of contrasting the mountains and you can see directly how they line up upwind of the lake.
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Good photo to illustrate mountain wave phenomena.
Barrett
I think of mountain waves as more like standing waves. And our NW gustiness more a result of smaller scale things like thermals dragging across the water.
some seem to move. I'd assume there's some drift from the upper level winds? from our wiki page- gravity waves in Iowa.
and
over Augusta, GA
they actually require a relatively stable atmosphere