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Well, this was a week of adventure! Every summer my brother, my brother in law and I go sailing for a few days in my brother's boat in the Bay of Quinte.
This is not big water by any stretch of the imagination but it truly beautiful with lots of little coves. At any rate, we left around noon and were gently running down into Big Bay toward the narrows. Watching a thunderstorm come up from the north wets, we dropped the sail, put up the centre section of the Bimini for protection, grabbed our raincoats and prepared for some wetness.
Enter a microburst. I have heard of them, never experienced one - no need to do it again. While there is no pictures or video, and it could have lasted anywhere from 2 - 5 minutes, suffice it to say that we remain genuinely surprised the boat didn't go over. The Bimini (brand new) tore in half, the steel frame blew off and assumed a brand new curve, the jib blew out, judging by the smell the prop was out of the water (and briefly the engine quit) all trying to get the boat into the wind.
Oh, and, looking at the boat attached, we lost the wind vane when when the top of the mast hit the water. Seriously.
After all had settled and we were moored & debriefing with a bottle of scotch. We got to watch a Coast Guard helicopter and three Coast Guard High Speed Tenders answering Mayday calls and searching the water for at least an hour - fortunately there doesn't appear to have been any loss of life.
Quite an adventure was had by all.
This is not big water by any stretch of the imagination but it truly beautiful with lots of little coves. At any rate, we left around noon and were gently running down into Big Bay toward the narrows. Watching a thunderstorm come up from the north wets, we dropped the sail, put up the centre section of the Bimini for protection, grabbed our raincoats and prepared for some wetness.
Enter a microburst. I have heard of them, never experienced one - no need to do it again. While there is no pictures or video, and it could have lasted anywhere from 2 - 5 minutes, suffice it to say that we remain genuinely surprised the boat didn't go over. The Bimini (brand new) tore in half, the steel frame blew off and assumed a brand new curve, the jib blew out, judging by the smell the prop was out of the water (and briefly the engine quit) all trying to get the boat into the wind.
Oh, and, looking at the boat attached, we lost the wind vane when when the top of the mast hit the water. Seriously.
After all had settled and we were moored & debriefing with a bottle of scotch. We got to watch a Coast Guard helicopter and three Coast Guard High Speed Tenders answering Mayday calls and searching the water for at least an hour - fortunately there doesn't appear to have been any loss of life.
Quite an adventure was had by all.
