Crazy weather

This picture was taken on Oct. 24, 2006 in Saint Malo, in the North-West of France. Météo France said winds reached over 100 km/h.

Saint-Malo during the Middle Ages was a fortified island, controlling not only the estuary of the Rance river but the open sea beyond. Saint-Malo traces its origins to a monastic settlement founded by Saint Aaron and Saint Brendan early in the VI th century. Its name is derived from a man said to have been a follower of Brendan, Saint Malo. In the later centuries it became notorious as the home of a fierce breed of pirate-mariners, who were never quite under anyone's control but their own; for 4 years from 1590, Saint-Malo even declared itself to be an independent republic, taking up the motto "not French, not Breton, but Malois". The Corsairs of Saint-Malo not only forced English ships passing up the Channel to pay tribute, but also brought wealth from further afield. Jacques Cartier, who sailed the Saint Laurent (St. Lawrence) river and visited the sites of Québec and Montréal - and is thus credited as the discoverer of Canada, lived in and sailed from Saint-Malo, as did the first colonists to settle the Falklands – hence the islands' Argentinian name, Islas Malvinas, from the French Îles Malouines...

Imagine, you're in 1653 leaving on a sails boat to reach Québec, with waves and winds like those on the picture....