Tony:
What you won't do for attention!
As to precaution to take, I presume if the cliffs are so full of
iron they attract the nasty, why not shelter under them? I believe the 45
degree law has been repealed by somebody, but seems to me you'd be less
attractive than those cliffs. Nothing personal.
Happy Boatings
Ferg A064
----- Original Message -----
From: Tony Renshaw <renshaw@ozemail.com.au>
Subject: Days like that
> Gidday,
> This is about lightening in a fibreglass speedboat, and whether I did the
> right thing underneath the green lipped, hail filled, mother thunderstorm:
> Well yesterday I took a well earned break from my workshop and decided to
> do some boat trailer maintenance which required me to leave my 1/2 cabin
18
> footer at the local marina overnight. Work completed I loaded the kids,
and
> wifey, and we went for a quick putter before heading home. It had to be
> slow actually, as the local waterways police pulled me over yesterday
going
> a tad too fast in a 4 knot area. I was asked to produce my boat licence
> which I did and was told it was two years out of date. The silly card
> displays date of expiry "unlabelled" and my DOB. I noticed this earlier
and
> could only think it was a perpetual licence and this was about the date of
> issue. My wife pays the incoming bills so it would be easy I thought for
> something to slip past. Murphys law states I was going to have a bad 24
> hours ish. It turns out that the mail was not redirected when we moved
> house, or at least the renewal notice slipped through after the
redirection
> expired. Everything seems to have expired in this story. Boat registration
> sticker missing also, so "not a very impressive start to our summer
boating
> season". Well at least I had a roadworthy trailer which is the weak link
in
> my boating safety, and I had met a nice waterways policeman who let me
off.
> He said that if I kept under 4 knots I don't actually need a licence.
>
> So there we were in a narrow tributary about 3/4 km wide with 300' high
> bush cliffs on either side, also known for getting the largest no. of
> lightening strikes in Sydney because of the high ironstone content of the
> sandstone area. When the hail hit I was in the middle of this waterway so
I
> put the family up into the cabin. I realised I needed to NOT be the
highest
> point on my boat. (my kids fibreglass fishing rods had appropriately been
> removed from them for the same reason). I too got as much inside the cabin
> as I could making steering adjustments to the boat which was left in gear
> at a slow rev by reaching out at regular intervals. The strategy was
simply
> to keep on the move so that I could head into wind as the direction kept
on
> changing in the downdraughts. It was too late to throw out an anchor as I
> was worried about the lightening. I kept going around in circles with the
> visibility down to only being able to see one side of the river at one
time.
>
> We got hammered! The hail was 1/2 way between golf balls and the big jack
> marbles you used to play with as a kid. It looked impressive on the
> surface of a relatively flat waterway, a little like seeing flack from
> straifing fighters hitting the water, except everywhere at once, not just
> in lines. I want to know what risk I was in, what with a fibreglass boat
> and all, and whether we would have shocked if the boat had been hit. I
know
> fibreglass doesn't take too kindly to lightening so I figure it could at
> worst, basically exploded/melted if it took a hit, but I have never heard
> of that happening. In hindsight the only thing I think I could have done
> better was to instruct my wife to put on her lifejacket, and done the same
> myself. This would only have helped if we ended up in the water
> unconscious. I think there was a greater chance of us ending up in the
> water from my method of navigating in the reduced visibility by running
> aground than by lightening.
> So I figure we were the same potential as the water. Can anyone suggest
> other or better courses of action in these boating passtimes that
aviators
> enjoy as their alternative recreation to flying?
> Reg
> Tony Renshaw
> Reg
> Tony Renshaw
> Builder No.236
>
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