"Joe" wrote in message
oups.com...
Dangerious? or a blessing?

Have you ever seen your mast and spreaders glowing with a bright green
luminious plasma?

We had a fast front move thru last week and the corposant was standing
on my upper spreaders.

I've never seen St Elmo's fire.

I have seen lightning from about 50 yards while I was on Setanta. We were
near a ferry terminal when lightning struck a very tall lampost in the ferry
loading area. I *think* that I saw a wavy blue plasma along the length of
the lamppost, but I cannot be 100% certain. The flash and the bang were
simultaneous, and I felt like someone had kicked me in the chest.

On one of the other boats in my flotilla, someone received a nasty jolt from
a winch a few seconds after the strike.




Regards


Donal
--

Joe,

As a mere lad I put in most of two seasons on a fishing schooner that
was well seasoned herself. The rig was not grounded and I did see St.
Elmo's fire on a number of occasions and was told that I missed some.
It did no damage. It could not have hurt the vessle's electrical gear
as there was none at all on board.

The first time it just looked like a light was leaking from the truck
fittings (she had steel truck rings). The next time was a light show
that was truely amazing and was everybit the display in the old Gregery
Peck Moby Dick.

Matt Colie


Joe wrote:

Dangerious? or a blessing?

Have you ever seen your mast and spreaders glowing with a bright green
luminious plasma?

We had a fast front move thru last week and the corposant was standing
on my upper spreaders.

Joe