Thursday, July 02, 2009

Lightning Strike

My captain and I are assessing the damage from a lightning strike that occurred early this morning while aboard sailing vessel Event Horizon. Crew, hull, engine and generator appear to be fine but all of the electronics are not working. As if we needed additional proof, a wire is dangling from the top of the mast where an anemometer used to live--the anemometer is now debris scattered on the adjacent boats.

Eve was secure on her home mooring in Wickford Cove, RI when a shockingly bright light woke up the crew shortly after 7AM this morning. My captain commented "That was close!" so we unplugged what we could before catching a few more minutes of sleep despite the nearby thunder. It was over an hour later when we discovered our instrumentation panel was dark that we realized the boat had suffered a lightning hit during the extremely bright light. We remain in a state of shock but feel fortunate that the boat protected the crew and herself by dissipating the energy through the keel. At this point our only certainty is that we will not be sailing to Canada as planned.