Larry, it was very simple. Sometimes silence is best! I brought Jocelyne out and let Bill do the talking. Jocelyne surveyed the damage on the Impreza while Bill did his best impression of a woeful hound dog begging forgiveness. Jocelyne asked if anyone was hurt and when we said no, she gave me that look that tells me Im screwed (and not in a good way) looks over at my new 08 Legacy wagon that has less than 5,000 clicks on the odomoter and she tells Bill not to worry and that she is quite happy to drive my car for as long as necessary. So I make the payments and she enjoys the wheels. She is out doing errands enjoying it now while I write this lament.
For those wondering what happened.... After more than thirty years of tying down boats, you figure Schlarb would know not just to wrap the rope around the bar on the OUTSIDE of the roof rail. Yesterday was a lesson in what can happen when you dont. We leave my place, head up the 416, merge onto the 417 and we are on the Queensway just shy of the Moodie exit when we hear sounds you never want to hear of the wind catching stuff on your roof rack at 120 Km per hour and you are in the far left lane because that is the merge lane from the 416. Bills boat comes flying of the roof, but he had looped the front rope through the security bar on his creeker. The boat briefly hovered in the air, tailing like a parasailer out and above and slightly behind the Subaru, probably scaring the crap out of the driver coming up my tail who backed off in panic at the prospect of a 40+ lb boat flying through his windsheild at 120 K. That split second moment was the silence in the eye of the storm. Then gravity kicked in and 40 lbs of kayak came down BAMMM! The full force of the kayak came smashing down on the back hatch obliterating the rear window into a million bitty pieces, tearing off the spoiler on the back of the Impreza and knocking in a few more deep dents in staccato fashion for good measure before I could pull off to the right shoulder.
After a brief stop to inspect the damage and re attach the kayak properly, we continued our journey to the rendez vous in Pembroke, in a newly styled open-air Impreza. An industrial vacuum, some plastic sheeting, duct tape came into play at the Irving stop to prep the car for the return journey home at the end of the trip.
What can you say about road trips...
In all seriousness though, it was a good thing that the rope was looped through a security bar on the creeker. If that had not been the case, somebody behind us could have been killed. Instead we just have stuff that has to get fixed.
