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These word vomits are meant to be only a loosely edited, sort of stream of consciousness flow of thoughts and words. A lot of the time I stray from that ideal, often because inspiration doesn't quite strike and I have to collect and collate a bunch of ideas before I find a throughline that connects everything.

Luckily, I don't have that problem today. Sometimes, events in life are so interesting and have such an impact that its easier to talk about them then not. Today, the words flow on their own because after getting caught in a storm while sailing on Lake Michigan I can't stop thinking about it. To be clear, not in a bad way, but because it was intensely, incredibly, cool.

To give some background, I've been sailing Colgate 26 keelboats with my friend for a a few weeks now, after we both completed an introductory course over the summer. We've had a few minor incidents, but we felt pretty sure of ourselves by this point. We'd taken friends and family out onto the water and we were feeling confident about out ability to manage the boat even in rougher conditions.

This was actually the first time we'd taken the boat out without any guests, which ended up being a huge stroke of luck. Imagine if the storm had hit while we had to manage another person.

The weather was extremely warm, probably the warmest day of the Chicago summer, with approximately zero wind. Luckily it's always a little cooler out on the lake, so we used the motor to head out and then just sat motionless hoping for some wind.

The one thing I remember is how incredibly beautiful the sky was. Maybe the best sky I'd seen all year. I think that might have been a sign. There has to be some kind of rule; the more beautiful the sky the worse the weather. Either way, we were enjoying the incredible sky while sitting motionless, praying for wind.

Completely tangentially, there were a lot of flies on the boat! So annoying! I don't know if they were flies or mosquitos or what but I think they bit my ankles through my socks. I'm kind of glad the storm probably wiped them out.

Eventually the first gust hit. We were really excited - we'd been waiting an hour to get moving and finally we were off! With a gorgeous sky behind us and just the right amount of wind in our sails it might have been the best 5 minutes I'd ever had on the water.

All throughout this time, interesting and ominous looking clouds kept gathering and growing. In hindsight, it really obviously should have been a warning sign. Any clouds looking this beautiful, this dark, this menacing must portend incoming doom. Almost immediately after that first perfect gust of wind it picked up and we realized we should head back in. We quickly turned around and made way for land.

When the wind hits a sailboat horizontally, it propels it forward but also produces a slight tipping force called heel. This is normal and fun, but on that day the boat heeled over more than I'd ever seen it before. These boats are designed to not capsize, but to be safe we decided to bring down the sails and use the motor to get back. We leater learned that another one of the boats trapped out there kept the sails up, and they heeled over so much that the boat was almost 90 degrees with the mast touching the water!

Bringing down the sails at this point was not an easy task. We loosened the ropes holding up the sail, but the wind was so strong that it didn't budge. I switched to managing the motor and tiller on my own while my friend started wrestling down the mainsail fulltime. He was using both hands to forcibly pull it down, and the wind was so powerful that even after it was down he hand to hold on tight to prevent it from flapping away.

At this point the rain had become so intense that we could hardly see. Partially because the visibility in the clouds was just so poor, but more importantly because the raindrops hitting us were more like pellets of hail. If we looked in any direction other than down, our faces were pelted with painful pellets. I even tried wearing my sunglasses despite the darkness, to protect my eyes. Our best option was to keep our backs to the storm so we could look forward, but that didn't help much if we wanted to get back into the harbour. If anyone had gone overboard at this point, I don't even know if it would be possible to find them.

It was loud too; the thunderclaps right above us were terrifying. We had to sit next to each other and yell to be heard, which made communication difficult. We eventually found the breakwall, the wall at the edge of the harbour, but finding the entrance from there was pretty impossible due to the visibility issue. Plus, the motor was hardly strong enough to move forward against the waves; we were more worried about losing track of our location and hitting the wall.

Eventually, there was a lull in the storm and we were able to get in and tie up the boat. Luckily we were completely fine, whereas the other two boats had to be rescued by the coast guard. It was an incredible experience, and I'm very glad to have experienced it and come out safe.

It makes you view mother nature in an entirely different light. I hardly respected the warnings of rain or lightning before because, safe in my apartment, there was literally no impact to me. Now I understand the sheer terror and respect that some people have for the wind and the waves; I couldn't imagine facing those conditions in the middle of the ocean, unsure if we'd survive. Going on these kinds of adventures, hiking/camping included, instill in you an entirely different way with which to relate to nature and I highly recommend it. It reminds you that humans are not all powerful, and in many cases we are not the dominant force on the planet.