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Lightening Strike
9/14/01
Blaine Parks
In the words of the infamous Captain Ron –“Squalls.
They come on you fast…and they leave you fast.”
What he didn’t say in the movie was how quickly they can wreak
havoc with your boats electrical system!
As we were crossing the Chesapeake Bay from the Chester River to
Annapolis, we watched storms beginning to build to the west of us and heading in
our direction. We quickly brought in
the sails and began motoring. We’d
seen storms on the Bay before and they can bring some very intense winds.
This storm brought little in the way of wind, but made up for it
with lightening!
Just before reaching the William P. Lane Bridge, which connects Annapolis
with Maryland’s eastern shore, the storm was upon us.
Visibility was reduced to just a few hundred yards, the rains came
in heavy sheets across the water, and the sky lit up like a fireworks
show. I was at the helm while
Janet kept the dogs quiet below. (Side
note – Bailey hates storms!). Right
before going under the bridge, I watched in shock as a nearby green
navigational aid took a direct lightening strike.
The green can momentarily turned a bright orange and the water surrounding it
smoked for what seemed like several minutes.
The noise and concussion knocked me back into the helm seat and for
a few moments I could neither hear nor see.
When I finally realized what happened, the boat was locked in a tight
right-hand turn and heading for a tug coming under the bridge.
The autopilot had failed. Looking
up, I noticed that all the electronics were flashing error messages.
I screamed for Janet to turn off the electronics and autopilot,
hoping that disconnecting the power would allow me to regain control of
the helm. Luckily, it did. We passed just a little too close to the tugboat for my
comfort. He slowed to make
sure we were OK and then continued on his way.
‘Charbonneau’ didn’t sustain a direct hit, but was close enough to
get peripheral damage. We began an immediate check of the boat, starting
with the bilges to make sure we hadn’t suffered any damage to the hull.
Janet reported that there was no extra water coming into the bilge
and tested the electric bilge pump – working.
All our B&G electronics were flashing error messages and the
autopilot, mentioned earlier, was flashing ‘No Pilot’.
Our GPS went blank and wouldn’t come back on and the radar
flashed ‘Scanner Not Responding’.
We tested our cockpit VHF radio and got a ‘loud and clear’
response from a nearby boater. (Later tests would show that the VHF was
also damaged)
With the damage control tasks out of the way, we began focusing on getting
into Annapolis. We still had
very limited visibility and were now electronically ‘blind’.
Fortunately, we do a lot of old-fashioned navigation with charts
and dead reckoning. We
plotted our course from the navigational aid that was struck by lightening
and headed for Annapolis. We
knew that if we got lost, we could use Captain Ron’s advice to “just
pull in somewheres and ask directions!”
We’re
back in Rock Hall, MD now while we wait for repairs.
Our insurance carrier, State Farm, has been very responsive.
In fact, a surveyor was here the next morning for a haul-out and
inspection. We’ve chosen to
work with BIG Electronics for our repairs.
They have been equally responsive, meeting us when we arrived in
Rock Hall, attending the haul-out, and then removing all the electronics
for bench-testing right after the insurance surveyor finished his
inspection. We’ll write a
follow-up article on the repairs as soon as they’re complete.
Until then, we’re stuck in a marina with all our cruising plans
on hold. Sounds like a good
time to relax and carefully plan our next spontaneous adventure.
Click
Here To Read About Our Repairs
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