It was an overcast day in August 1988. My friend Tom and his girlfriend Debbie, my two daughters (age ages 4 and 8) and I went to the marina in Toledo Ohio for a day sailing on a Cal 22. The weather was questionable, so we took out time settling onto the boat as we hoped the sky would clear. After hours of hanging around, the boat owner (it was a charter sailboat that I earned time on by doing boatwork) told us to shove off and quit worrying. Emboldened, we did just that.
As we sailed out the wind was light out of the southwest. A couple hours out, now a few miles from shore on Lake Erie the wind died. We sat waiting to see if it would return and I felt a drop, then another. The wind shifted from the SW to NW. It picked up as the rain increased. Soon it was blowing and I put the girls below and battened down the hatches. Tom and I remained topside to weather the storm. Soon it was a full blown gale, the wind topped out at 65 mph at the nearby Coast Guard station.
The waves increased to 8 foot. This was in 8 foot of water depth. We dropped the jib and reduced the main while we surfed the storm waves. On top of a wave we surfed down, all the way down, until the boat struck the bottom in the valley of a wave. The keel stuck on the bottom, holding us there as huge waves tossed the boat like a cork tied to a string. Tom brilliantly (gotta give him credit here) yelled "hoist the jib". I scampered forward, hoisted the sail and it caught like a parachute and yanked us up and off the bottom, free. After a bit more hectic surfing and as quickly as the storm came in it passed.
Now in a calm post storm breeze we opened the companionway and poor Debbie was ashen. My girls were fired up, excited and wanting more! Tom and I had had enough excitement for one day thank you. As we sailed in, we passed the owner of the boat. He was a Toledo City policeman and he worked harbor patrol. He was on his way out in the police boat. When we were close he yelled laughing, see, I told you you'd be fine....
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