This post is not in way of warning or advice. Just relating the experience.
I now keep my boat in Colpoys Bay, A bay of Georgian Bay. Geographicaly interesting as the end of the bay has a low elevation while hill and cliff rise along both shores of the bay as you proceed along its length. This creates a basin with walls aprox 200 ft. open on the ends. Wind from south to west seems to always be converted to a SW wind by the geography.
On sunday (fathers day) I was sailing with my daughters Boyfriend. We were anchored for a lunch of great beef stew in a little bay just outside the mouth of Colpoys bay. Here there is a break in the geograph which gave us a view to the distant west and a storm front moving our way. We pulled anchor, raised the foils, opened the valves and proceeded to high tail it outa there! Drained tanks resealed valves and were well on our way back to the marina (just over 1/3 the distance i think).
Suddenly, and i mean fast we were hit by a squall. I believe the winds were 70+ kmh. We lost the ability to steer as the wind was coming straight on our bow it would push us off course downwind where it would catch our windage (mast, freeboard and enclosure) side on. With no foils and no ballast we were heeled to 30 deg (bare poled of course) and blown side ways down wind violently. Regaining controll in our current setup was not possible as we would pass through the wind and repeat the process on the other tack. Filling the ballast into the wind i dont think would have worked as we would need serious power to maintain any semblance of controll. I therefore backed to the wind making the boat a virtual windvane trailing behind the pull of the engine at 1/3 throttle. Filled the tanks and dropped all foils. We were taking a bit of a beating and the sky opened up to drop an incredible flood upon us. While backing to fill the tanks the reverse thrust and the building waves were swamping the cockpit a bit but the snap on enclosure panel helped keep some water out. Wet feet but no issues.
Once we had ballast and foils we had no trouble maintaining course and making headway at reduced speed. The storm lasted about 35 minutes but the violent winds abated after about 20 minutes.
We were back at the marina in about 1 hour after the storm hit. Tied up, changed and watched the fantastic rainbows (double arch for a while), enjoyed the calm and watched as another wave of storm aproached from the west. The second wave brought less rain and less wind but severe lightning and thunder all around us. We decided to pack up the boat, do the dishes and head home. (boat stays there)
We started our trip home aprox 830pm. During our 2 1/2 drive home we were surrounded by wild electricall storms that encompassed a huge area but never seemed to be under it, like we were staying in the moving eye of the storm, kinda cool really. The storm raged over sw ontario all night.
The experience on the water was never scarry. It was however uncomfortable.. I was calm because i knew my boat and could anticipate its reactions, my companion was calm because I believe he was oblivious as to the situation. Because i was calm he saw no reason to be concerned (both good and bad i guess).
Forecasts in the area had not been calling for this weather. There were forecasts for possible storms quite a bit north of us and also for a region further south. I should not have ventured so far in these conditions and i accept any criticism there in. Other lessons learned would be to consider the balance between the spedy run for cover and the security of ballast and foils.
I would put this in my books as an experience to remember but I would not call it a bad experience.
There was no harm to boat or body although i recognise the potential was there.
as u tell ure grandkids. But it sounds like u used ure head and did everything as right as possible. Glad u both are OK. Now if ure potential son-in-law didn't see the danger in that situation I would wonder about his judgement period. 
You know the scariest part...? They say that girls are always looking for a mate that most resembles their fathers traits! 
Now that gives me cause for reflection! 
