Monday, September 24th, 7pm
Ottawa
We made it home. We slept in a whole half hour this morning, waking to more cold and wind. But the sky cleared, showing us the sun rising over Brent. There was a strong ‘change’ wind blowing from the north east and as we pondered what to do for breakfast, the waves were already pronounced.
In the end we skipped the traditional pancakes and maple syrup, opting for coffee, peanut butter and jam wraps and whatever else we could find loose in the food bag. It worked out okay. We got on the water just before 9am. I put the bow across the wind and off we went. It was a bouncy paddle, but reasonably straight forward. Plus we had fresh arms and not far to go. We got in to Brent at around 9:20. The only tricky bit was rounding a peninsula and turning the canoe across wind and waves to point ashore. A moment of concentration and it was done. A few minutes later we were there.
The whole crossing I had been writing an epic weather terror narrative in my head. But when we arrived we ran into a couple of car campers out walking their dog. When we said we were from Ottawa they got kind of grim-faced and said “Wow did you ever get lucky with the weather this weekend.”
This came as something of a surprise but they told us our Friday afternoon was nothing compared to home where tornadoes had touched down and caused havoc through the west and south of the city and in Gatineau. People were without power, hurt and hospitalized. some critically. We packed up, put the boat on the car and headed off home desperate to get into cell phone range. And not just for the soccer scores.