"barry lawson" wrote in news:zJLKh.12288
:

we were protected from the lightening by our cloth bimini top

Fantastic stories! Thank you!

I was on watch during a very violent thunderstorm while out on Charleston
(SC, USA) Harbor on a Saturday afternoon. Cap'n Geoffrey had guests
aboard the Endeavour 35 who were not sailors, so I suggested, instead of
everyone getting drenched to the bone, that he take his guests down into
the cabin and I'd handle the helm until it stopped. I put her on a nice
tack in not-too-much wind (in spite of the storm), and was soon racing
against a Catalina 27 in the storm headed in the same direction.

Drowned to the bone by the deluge and having a ball, I soon felt the
hackles on my neck start tickling for no reason. I was leaning back
against the ungrounded backstay, without thinking about it, and holding
THE OCEAN in my hands, the metal wheel firmly attached by stainless
cables to the big aluminum rudder underwater! St Elmo's fire was
creeping up my arm to discharge that rigging.

I decided this was NOT the path to glory it said in the books, so moved
away from the backstay to stand on the upwind side of the wheel, steering
it from its side a little forward of the pedestal. There were two POPS
that jumped, one after the other, from the backstay to the wheel in my
hands about 5-10 minutes after I moved! It wasn't a lightning hit, it
was static discharging the rigging to that overhead black cloud. It
looked like the thin discharge from a Van Degraff static generator back
in high school physics class. They didn't hear it in the cabin.

I've often wondered how close we were to a major strike to the ungrounded
mainmast that lead down to the step in the bilge. Cap'n Geoffrey popped
his head up opening the hatch to see if I needed anything a few minutes
after. I didn't say anything, but I needed a change of pants....hee hee.

Larry
--
Roll up to the long checkout line....
Yell, "ICE RAID!"
It's your turn to load the grocery belt...(c;