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All three times that I was hit are still very vivid memories.
The first time that I was hit by lightning I was four years old. A sadistic
baby-sitter had locked my sister and I out in a thunderstorm on the exposed
back porch of our house as punishment. Lightning struck a nearby tree and
knocked both of us to the ground. I was conscious and scared. The baby-sitter
beat us senseless for getting hit and so we wouldn't tell our parents. We
didn't.
The second time was on my Tanzer 22 alone when I was about 23. The Tanzer had
no lightning protection and the bolt went through the mast, through the air
and through the keel in one big pop. Everything was wet down below and I got a
good tingle out of the experience. Not much to report, over in a split second
with a crack of thunder.
The last time was right out of a Stephen King novel. I was 30 years old and
alone on one of my 33 hour sails from Ludington Michigan to Beaver Island with
my Hunter 27. My lightning protection was a number 8 wire from the mast base
to the keel. It was late June and I was becalmed about 4 miles off the
Sleeping Bear Dunes in the Manitou Pass in fog. A thunderstorm rolled
overhead that I could not see because of the fog. The weather remained dead
calm with light rain and fog. There was a slight roll with the slap, slap of
the sails. Once in a while there was a clap of thunder but I didn't feel
scared because I couldn't see anything and it was calm.
Then it began. My hair started to gradually stand on end and everything in
the boat started to glow green with mist. The smell of ozone was present and
my heart went to the top of my throat. Sparks as long as 3 to 4 inches were
jumping around. Sparks were jumping from me to everything like the plexiglass
windows when I would try to look out. Then a small ball of fire about the size
of a quarter appeared near the companionway and bounced around popping and
cracking as it made its way around the cabin. All the while I was getting good
pokes from everything around me. I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my
head, my hair sure was. The green glow only intensified and became wavy and
distorted vision of objects around me. The stench became unbearable as well.
Then, POW, the cabin sole boards blew off , water blew out of the bilge, the
locker doors blew open and I got a jolt that nearly blacked me out. It was all
over but not the conditions. The storm and conditions remained for another two
hours. During that time the static electricity in the boat would build then
wane but not build up to a strike again. To remain in a state of absolute
horror for hours on end was enough to end my boating until now. I cannot type
this without becoming tense and losing rational thought patterns. If this
reads a bit choppy that is why. Thank god my wife never experienced anything
like I have. I wouldn't be getting back into boating.
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