My Watermark is Georgian Bay, Ontario.

We were in Victoria Harbour, we had two weeks holiday and were heading to Killarney. We listened to the marine weather in the morning, and they advised us that the waves were going to be “0-2 metres”, which we thought must have been a mistake because that was too large of a variance and it was completely calm in the marina. So away we went; our planned route would take us up along the peninsula, and across the lake to Lion’s Head, and then on to Killarney.

As we were about halfway, we realized the waves had actually gotten to 2 metres and that we should’ve listened to the weatherman. The waves were so bad that we had to slow down to only a couple of kilometers per hour. We got to a point where we were equidistant from where we started and where we were heading, so we figured we might as well keep going. We were nose-diving right into the next wave, the boat getting up to almost a 45 degree angle, with some of the waves going right over the boat. The only way we could survive was to lay down on the lounge and to count, “1-2-3-bam”, as the waves kept hitting.

I truly thought we weren’t going to make it, that the boat might split. As the boat changed from one angle to the next, dishes would fall out of our cupboards in the boat and crash against the floor. So as I laid there, with the waves are crashing and the dishes are falling, my only thought was “well, at least I’ll get new dishes” (laughs). We realized there was no way we’d make it to Lion’s Head, so we changed course to Meaford. A trip that would usually take two hours, took eight hours, and we got in just in time to gas up.

When we arrived, Steve got on land and I went down into the galley to survey the damage: not one dish was cracked or broken, the only thing that was ruined was a glass from the dollar store. So we survived that whole ordeal, and didn’t even get new dishes out of it (laughs). The whole experience taught us even greater respect for Mother Nature, and that if Environment Canada says “two metres”, they mean two metres!