I've never been hit by lightning aboard a boat, but I've had 2 really close calls.
First one was when I was a kid fishing in Little River Inlet. Black clouds started forming, and I started heading back to Cherry Grove through Dunn Sound. The temp started dropping, and the wind started blowing, beginning to drive the rain horizontal, it felt like being pelted with rocks. As I was getting near the bridge to Waites Island, I passed the tide guage. I was probably no farther than 500 feet past the guage when a bolt of lightning hit it. Sounded like a 300 Winchester Magnum went off right next to me. I felt a tingle through the tiller handle, and the engine shut down, I had to re-start it. Made it back home, no visible damage to the boat or any components of the engine. Needed a new pair of pants, but that was about it. :mrgreen:
Second time was a few years ago, out on my jet ski. Once again, I saw bad weather approaching from the west, but before I could get back to port, the bottom fell out. I decided to hang out under the pier of a dock and wait for it to pass. Then I realized that pier was made of aluminum, probably not the best place to hang out. So, at that point, I decided to brave it and make the run back to port. The whole way back, I ran as close to the marsh grass as I could, and not standing up, either, trying to stay squatted down to lower my profile. I got back to the dock and put the ski on the sport port.
By this time the rain was really coming down. I needed to flush the salt water from the jet ski engine, and I figured it was one of those summer thunderstorms we have that lasts about 5 minutes, so, I figured I'd just stand there under the cover of the pool house and wait for it to pass. So, I'm standing there on the concrete slab, soaking wet, under an aluminum frame pool house structure, I might add. At one point, I saw a bright flash and felt current run up into my legs. I yelled and jumped about 3 feet off the ground, and about that time.....BLAM!! Lighting had hit a pine tree right across the street from the house, probably no more than 150 feet away. OK, enough standing around here!! Decided to seek cover indoors and wait for the storm to pass before going back down to the dock to flush the jet ski.
So, having had those 2 close calls, I don't care to have a 3rd encounter, because that one may not be so lucky. Some of my friends think I'm overly cautious about not going out on a boat if the sky looks bad, or I see something on the radar. I tell them "that's because you haven't been properly introduced to lightning like I have. Let it get close enough one time, you'll think differently."
That said, I've often heard that your chances of being hit are much greater in a fiberglass boat than in an aluminum boat, something to do with the grounding and the buildup of static charge. Supposedly this is why some fiberglass boat manufacturers put metal anodes or lugs on the sides of their boats, to achieve better grounding and to reduce the static charge of the boat as it moves across the water. Either way, I don't care to try it and find out! :shock:
