Three different storm fronts collided over the Gulf of St. Lawrence and merged to create one massive weather maker. It's a recipe for disaster. Start with a deep depression stalled over the Cabot Strait, combine that with a massive low pressure zone from the south, the result of the remnants of two hurricanes, whip in winds of up to 120 kilometres an hour from the northwest, and you get what meteorologists call a weather bomb.

The sunny skies and moderate breezes for the first part of the 1,000-km journey were forecast to give way to heavy overcast and a stormy 45-knots. Unpleasant perhaps, but manageable. As things turned out the 45 knots became gusts of 85 knots. Waves of 2-3 metres rose to 20-25 metres as a 'weather bomb' exploded over the region.

David Hutchinson, a Justice Department lawyer, told the judge in the nonjury trial that the storm was a 'weather bomb' which developed quickly.

Even pleasure craft are endangered by these storms; the tragic loss of life in the 1979 Fastnet yacht race was attributable to a rare summer example of the meteorological "bomb."