On Fri, 16 Mar 2007 22:22:25 +1100, Peter Hendra
wrote:

It is rather scary being the tallest
thing for miles of ocean when you see lightning ahead.

You bet. Lightning is fickle however. We were halfway to Bermuda
once, over 300 miles offshore when we got hit with a ferocious thunder
squall. The boat was a perfect target, all aluminum hull with an 85
ft mast. Lightning chose to hit a wavetop about 100 yards away
instead of us. We still lost all of the electronics except my pocket
GPS, just from induced currents. The pocket GPS was an early model
and hasn't worked in years now, but I still keep it around for
sentimental reasons. :-)