June 27, 2013
We woke in the middle of the night to flashing light and the rumble of distant thunder. We unplugged everything and put our IPad in the oven to protect it in case of a lightning strike. (It’s our backup electronic navigation and chart system). Surprisingly, our laptop doesn’t fit in the oven; so all we can do is unplug it. (Didn’t think about the “fitting-in-the-oven” criteria when buying it!)
The stormy weather was still around when we woke up the morning, and today’s group snorkeling trip would have to be postponed. All there was to do now was sit and enjoy the tropical showers.
In this weather, the winds were light but gusty and all the boats were very slowly turning in circles. For a while, our cockpit was facing the jungle not far from us and it was beautiful sight. Tropical rain poured down, and we’d hear occasional thunder and see subtle light flashes far off enough that it wasn’t worrisome. It felt like being in the Tiki Room at Disneyland! Slowly Legacy continued to turn, and eventually the bay came back into view.
I went to sit outside under the canopy to enjoy the rain. Rich was in the companionway, both of us looking out towards the other side of the bay. All of a sudden, this bolt of lightning came out of the sky and hit the water about a 1/2 mile behind us, doing a double flash. At a speed I didn’t know I was capable of, I was inside the boat as the thunder cracked right over us! Meanwhile the radio buzzed eerily. We looked out and were amazed to see what looked like smoke coming off the land. Someone told us later it was steam coming off the water where the lightning had hit.
There had been nervous chatter on the radio all morning, but it was remarkably silent after the lightning strike. No one had anything to say: I think we were all a bit shocked and subdued.
The thunder and lightning seemed to head away, but for awhile whenever lightning would strike, the radio would buzz, which was unnerving. When I felt it was far enough away, I headed back out into the cockpit. I love a good thunderstorm, but it’s tempered by the possibility that lightning could strike one of the boats and cause severe damage. We were all lucky today.
The thunder and lightning abated, but the rain continued into the evening. It wasn’t too rainy to join some of the other cruisers on Ladybug, though, for one of Rani’s wonderful curries! –Cyndi
A Note from the Present (February 21, 2015)…
It’s funny that Cyndi writes this today with hard rain falling here in Coomera, Australia. We’re in between two cyclones as pictured below. The remains of Cyclone Marcia is just now passing over us. -Rich
