Yeh, that's a lot. If I'm by myself I won't usually leave the beach if I can see white caps! Along the coast we get down bursts associated with thunderstorms that can be unmanageable.

I'm mostly concerned with equipment failure or that simple gybe where you didn't enter with enough boat speed.

Last time I got in trouble it was before noon, 6-8 knots of wind. I'd launched from the ramp on Sanibel and was paralleling the causeway. A little squall came through with puffy wind up to about 12-15 but it had heavy rain so visibility dropped almost to zero. I didn't want to go through the bridge like that so I gybed away to let the squall pass. Sure enough, I started the gybe without enough boat speed, got hit by a puff and was on my nose and over in no time. Fortunately I didn't get separated and I was less than 100 yards from shore anyway. But still....