What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Our day started out very nice. We had a 0 to 10 knot wind out of the WNW which allowed us to motor sail and make about 5.5 knots. The wind started to pick up as we moved SW along the south coast of Lake Erie and after about 3 hours we were in 10 to 15 knot winds with gusts to 20+ and the wind had switched to SW so we could not use our sails without tacking. The waves were building and we were not going to make our destination (Geneva State Park) before dark. Although we had made over 14 miles I decided to turn around and return to Erie (Presque Isle).

We were monitoring the weather by radio, radar, and visually and could not see any storms but soon we started to hear thunder off to the north. I could see a storm coming into view on the radar and shortly after that we could see the dark clouds off to the NE. Usually thunder storms move pretty fast but this one was very slow and we were closing on it as it moved to the South. I slowed the boat down hoping to let the storm pass in front of us but we were still gaining on it and it was now just 2.5 miles away. Then we saw the first water spout (read TORNADO for you land lubbers) that you can see in the photo. I Turned Summer Snow to run away from the weather and then we saw another water spout form, YIKES! I "put the hammer down" and we were able to move fast enough to let them pass behind us. The wind was really blowing now and we saw multiple funnels hanging out of the clouds as the storm moved over Presque Isle.

We turned again and headed back toward Presque Isle and safe haven. That is when the dinghy broke loose on one side. The violent wave action (and Summer Snow running at max speed) was too much for the towing bridle connections. We managed to pull the dinghy close enough to get another line connected and pulled it up tight so the waves didn't jerk it around and proceeded on. Now we are moving along and should be back in the harbor in a few hours but wait, why is the engine losing RPMs? Well, it seems that the rough conditions has stirred up the fuel tank and we have a restricted fuel filter. The boat looks like the tornado was inside the cabin at this point with everything that wasn't bolted down strewed on the deck. We baby the engine at low speed (the wind was pushing us so we still were hitting 5.5 knots) and make it back to the harbor. It's going to blow for a few days so we are going to STAY PUT and wait for weather.