Struck By Lightning

Kittery Point Maine, N 43 04.963 W 70 43.431

Friday, July 28, 2006

We sailed back down the Piscataqua River this morning without event. We were very conservative in choosing the time so that we did not have strong currents. We learned from a book that the Piscataqua River is the second swiftest commercially navigable river in the USA. What's the swiftest? Maybe the Mississippi. We rented a mooring for two nights at Kittery Point. The location is near the mouth of the river so that we could get in and out easily.

Around three in the afternoon we greeted our guests. Warene and Janet, my cousins, and Richard and Gordon, their husbands. We make a merry group. Janet, Warene and myself are not only cousins but we were childhood playmates. Gordon as it turns out is an experienced boater. He used to be a lobster fisherman here in Portsmouth, and he once sailed from Plattsburg, NY to Fort Lauderdale, FL.

Our plan was to take an evening cruise, but the forecast was for severe thunderstorms so I decided to stay in port. Not all of us were experienced sailors. Warene had thought to wear high heels on the boat. As it turns out, the decision was wise. As the six of us sat below eating dinner, a furious storm came by. It blew up to 42 knots. It rocked Tarwathie enough that everyone had to grab their plates to keep them from sliding off the table. Worst of all was the lightning.

I followed my standard practice and put computers and GPSs and radios in the oven to protect them from lightning. Soon after I did that we suffered a hit. I heard a loud "crack" sound of a spark, and some of the audible alarms on the instruments sounded. I never did hear any thunder. Luckily all six of us were fine. Nobody experienced even a shock. The spark sound came from the neighborhood of the mast where I have a thick copper cable that leads to an under water grounding plate on the hull.

I checked the instruments and stuff. At first I thought that we escaped totally unharmed. Then I discovered that the SSB radio and the radar both appear to be fried. Oh dear. I sure hope that the insurance policy will pick up the bill for that. It could be as much as $6000 to replace those two. I'll find out on Monday.

Sorry blog fans, but I'll be posting much less frequently until the SSB radio is replaced or repaired. The SSB radio was my tool for transmitting blogs from onboard.

We weren't the only victims of the storm. In Portsmouth, across the river, the steeple of the North Church being rebuilt was blown over. In Melrose, where Nancy lives, they had a furious storm and lost power for the first time in years. Apparently the line of storms raged across the whole New England Coast.