I am a young healthy 22 year old, I live on rather small lake along the tennessee river, it is about a mile or wide and however long the river is. As lake sailors that sail on small lakes will tell you, the
wind is crazy. It never seems to come from one direction at once, so you end up getting really good at adjusting
sails and direction as the
wind constantly changes.
To my story
My brother and I noticed there was a storm coming, so being bright individuals we decided to take my little laser II out on the lake. The wind was great for about fifteen minutes as the storm got closer and closer. The wind was getting strong enough and
lightning close enough to make us start considering returning to the cove we
dock at. As we make this decision the full brunt of the storm hit us. The first gust was just enough for us to quickly decide to lower the
sails and make for whatever shelter we could. Just as we got both the sails down, a second huge gust simply blew us right over, throwing us both headlong into the
water.
Unfortunately for my
mast we capsized in shallow
water (15- 20 ft) and the
mast was not able to simply roll around and up the other side. The wind and waves drove the mast deep into the mud. After a little while we heard a loud "Bang" which I later learned was my mast breaking in two.
After it all was over and we got the mast pulled out of the water we were able to see that the mast stuck a good 5-6 feet and the mud, and broke just a few feet under the surface of the mud.
I never want to capzise again! But...it sure was fun.