Thread: Lightning Rod - A cautionary tale!

Many years ago, I was standing at the south end of the pier when a distant, single dark black cloud moved closer. It began to rain, but not too hard and the kings were biting. About the time that the pier began to get rain-saturated, it came to me that I shouldn't be standing there, with lighting approaching, with a graphite rod in my hand. Instantaneously after that thought, a single lightning bolt came down and struck the water in front of the pier. Because the pier was saturated and I was fairly soaked, the electricity went up the pier, traveled up my leg and only gave me a tingling-shock.

It was enough to teach me a lesson about lightning. When I see it anywhere close, I'm getting off the pier!

Good advise

I witnessed a similar (mild shock) happen to HR on a fall morning years ago.

We were fishing small LYs on a 'HOT' spanish bite at the end of the pier when a thundershower interrupted our catching. We started fishing again once it stopped raining but the pier was all wet as the shower moved about a mile or so offshore. We still saw occasional lightning strokes and later the long roll of the thunder - moving away. I had just lost my bait and set my rod against the rail, then turned to go get another when there was a bright light behind me. As I turned HR jumped back and threw his rod down. Wide-eyed, he said the lightning was about a 1/4 mile out when it hit the water, but immediately he felt the tingling sensation run up his arm and through his body to his feet.

Needless to say we all took another break to let the shower move farther away ;-)

the missus had that tingling sensation one morning on the trip that our camp got wiped out.

I used to get popped by lightning, sometimes pretty hard, through the steering gear of my sportsfisherman when I was running charters. It was one of the reasons I quit---every time a dark cloud popped up, I wanted to run for home---not fair to clients and not fun for me.

I was trying to beat a wicked spring storm and had just gotten the skiff on the trailer and pulled into the parking lot to cinch everything down when lightning struck a huge hackberry tree about 20yd from me. I was barefoot and everything was soaked-what I got was a good bit more than a tingle...

no p-p-p-permanent harm though

Mr. Haywire, are you safe from lightning, if your inside the boat?

If the boat has a grounding plate, you are. Sailboats are generally safer in this regard it they have the mast grounded. Otherwise, you are quite vulnerable and it's a wonder more people aren't killed. On the other hand, it seems that lots of boats are struck while tied to the dock---they are grounded through the dock and tend to get very hot to the point of burning and/or exploding. I bet Pier#r can give us a more technical explanation of the lightning/ground/boat complexity.

I remember about 12 years ago there were a pile of badass thunderstorms during the Saturday of the Rodeo. We ran from storms until we were boxed in, rode out a squall line about 50 miles offshore, tied to the MC 252 rig. Figured lighting would hit the rig and not us, since it was the bigger chunk of metal. Don't think any lightning hit that rig, but it hit other rigs within sight.
A boat coming into DI had lightning strike in its wake, about 100' behind the boat. Fried the engine & all the electronics. But no one was injured. Couple other boats swamped coming in the bay.
Scary shit, by far the scariest day I ever had on the water.

It's a type of death that is apparently so rare it has become a metaphor for extremely bad luck. A lightning strike hit Venice beach in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon, killing a man in his 20s, leaving another in a critical condition and injuring a dozen more. The US national weather service confirmed that at least four lightning strikes hit the area about 2.20pm, causing two small fires and downing power lines.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), it was the 15th death by lightning strike in the US this year. However, it represents a steady decrease year-on-year, possibly due to the fall in the numbers of people working outdoors and improvements in health and safety. In 2006, the overall number for the year was 48 and stood at 35 by this time in July.