Worst day ever!!

I can here the violins now!! OK, big forecast for Rondeau Bay for yesterday Wednesday June 8. Everything was lining up , Sunny, hot, making for thermals,thunderstorms with a cold front behind, pinching lots of wind up through the Lake Erie corridor and most of all South Westerly flow. Doesn't get much better than that, a perfect set up!! I pack most of my stuff in my van Tuesday night in preparation for the one hour ride to the bay, making sure to bring the small stuff just in case, because you never know with this spot sometimes they call for 20 and you can add 10. Up at 6:30 am and a quick check of the forecast, hmm downgraded a bit unexpected, however still a good forecast for the Bay. Off I go,stop at Tim Horton's grab a coffee and breakfast sandwich for the ride.

I arive at Rondeau Bay around 9 am to lots of white caps, and a quick check of the wind speed on my meter at the dock is showing 18 gusting to 20 already. Not bad as the wind forecast is supposed to increase from there. Rigged up a 6.0 and a newly repaired bic Blast 120 litre board. I have been wanting to see how the repair (under the deck) is working.

Once out I imediatley power up and plane out across the Bay, not bad! A quick jibe and return. Each succesive run now seemed less and less powered and I was working harder and harder to stay upwind finally I dropped off plane on the last run on the way back in so time for a break.

Hopefully just a momentary lull, but after sitting and waiting for half an hour I am starting to get ansy! Les shows up and he runs out to the dock now to take a reading and he gets just 15, so OK agreed we need to rig 7.5's at least.

Next I am out on my 7.5 for about 5 or 6 really well powered runs across the Bay finally  on the  last run on the opposite shorline I hear a loud snap and see my boom head separate???? (see attatched pics) so now I am thinking I hope this holds together for another thousand feet or so until I can get to the other side and climb up on shore and walk back around to the launch area (at least a good hours walk) Finally I make it over and about 5 feet away from shore I jump off the board. The shoreline here is all large rock breakwall and would be very hard to scale indeed without breaking your equipment and the water level is up so I am up to my chest with two foot waves crashing over me trying to jury rig my boom but stay away from the rocky shoreline at the same time. After several attempts I manage to tie the boom together secure enough to make a non planning run back to the launch site across the bay, this can be a long shlog of at least 20 min if not more.

Back across the bay I take the old boom off and put on a new one and back out, but now the wind has backed off even more. I shlog across the bay and finally begin to plane about a thousand feet from shore, as I jibe I noticed the upper leg muscle in my left leg jsut burning, I probably did sonme mild damage from when the boom let go and I kept the board afloat in a contorted kind of way. Back to the launch site this time I plane almost all the way back, hmmm maybe this is it, it is coming back so I attempt another run back to the other side and NO!! I shlog almost all the way over and start planning again about a thusand feet from shore, and so it goes on and on for about 5 or 6 runs, me with high hopes and the wind determined not to let me have the good day I expected. Finally I give up and decide to call it quits, my leg muscle aching like crazy now. As I near shore my last step before dry land I step on something, I have no idea what it was but there is a searing pain in  my right big toe (most uf us sail barefoot here). I am thinking I have surely stepped on some fragment of broken glass and almost totaly severed my toe. I get on shore and limp up to the washroom while my shole foot is throbbing. I wash it off and hesitatingly have a look at a very small spot of blood on the side of my big toe but appartently no other damage. Huge amount of pain though, my whole foot is throbbing now. That's it I start to pack my gear up for the ride home, my foot aching the whole time, I must have stepped on something in that last step that decided it would sting or bite me. I'll never know what it was. Finally packed away and not looking forward to using my right foot to operate the gas peddle for the hour ride home, I see Les and a few other dashing into the water as the wind, of course, has started to increase, figures.

On the way home I am wondering if I should stop at some nearby clinic and get an ephedrin shot or something but by the time I retutn home the painm is ebbing somewhat. It took about three hours and the thing finally stopped hurting, and I did manage to sleep through the night.

Returing home everyone tells me how lucky I was to be out on the water, rather than in the city sweltering in the 95+ degree heat. In my heart I know they are right, I guess.  Don