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Tompkins: Use common sense on the water during a thunderstorm
Tompkins: Use common sense on the water during a thunderstorm
Houston Chronicle
Copyright 2012 Houston Chronicle. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Updated 10:29 p.m., Wednesday, June 20, 2012
A gray cluster of clouds building in the southeast all morning had morphed to a blue/black wall and was creeping closer to East Galveston Bay where we were drift-fishing a submerged oyster reef, hammering 18-20-inch speckled trout.[...] the obvious went unspoken; we were stuck dumb, wrapped up in enjoying a too-rare session of fast fishing, and no one wanted to break the spell by voicing what we all knew.The monofilament line between the rod tip and where the line entered the water seemed to levitate, almost as if lifted by an unseen hand.Why the lightning bolt didn't hit us, I don't know; by all rights, it should have, as we were the most elevated things in the immediate area.[...] I don't know where, exactly, it struck.[...] there have been several close calls, and a handful of strikes that fried boat electronics and caused minor injuries.If caught on the water when lightning bolts begin flying, keep the boat's profile as low as possible by lowering radio antenna, putting rods in the bottom of the boat and keeping folks on board hunkered lower than the gunwale.If a boater gets caught in rough seas churned by a thunderstorm, the best option - the only one, really - is to keep the boat running and heading into the wind, allowing the boat to take the waves bow-on.Even if it means moving away from a nearby shoreline or other potential safe spot, never try to run downwind in seas rough enough to potentially overwhelm a boat.[...] with the proliferation of smart phones, even boaters without VHF marine or weather radios have access to real-time forecasts and radar which can alert them of potential rough weather.
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Houston Chronicle
A gray cluster of clouds building in the southeast all morning had morphed to a blue/black wall and was creeping closer to East Galveston Bay where we were drift-fishing a submerged oyster reef, hammering 18-20-inch speckled trout.[...] the obvious went unspoken; we were stuck dumb, wrapped up in enjoying a too-rare session of fast fishing, and no one wanted to break the spell by voicing what we all knew.The monofilament line between the rod tip and where the line entered the water seemed to levitate, almost as if lifted by an unseen hand.Why the lightning bolt didn't hit us, I don't know; by all rights, it should have, as we were the most elevated things in the immediate area.[...] I don't know where, exactly, it struck.[...] there have been several close calls, and a handful of strikes that fried boat electronics and caused minor injuries.If caught on the water when lightning bolts begin flying, keep the boat's profile as low as possible by lowering radio antenna, putting rods in the bottom of the boat and keeping folks on board hunkered lower than the gunwale.If a boater gets caught in rough seas churned by a thunderstorm, the best option - the only one, really - is to keep the boat running and heading into the wind, allowing the boat to take the waves bow-on.Even if it means moving away from a nearby shoreline or other potential safe spot, never try to run downwind in seas rough enough to potentially overwhelm a boat.[...] with the proliferation of smart phones, even boaters without VHF marine or weather radios have access to real-time forecasts and radar which can alert them of potential rough weather.
More...