A bad day...

[Plastic_worm]

I usually post fishing stuff.  Not the case this time.  Had a humbling experience when I got caught out in a storm Sunday.  Not my proudest moment but there are lessons to be learned.  I learned a few the hard way.  Words and short video (not an edit just real life stuff) here.

http://looknfishy.blogspot.com/2016/07/caught-in-storm-kayakers-nightmare.html  

[Flysmallie]

I've watched it a couple of times already and it's really spooky. Lost my favorite uncle to lightning when I was 15. He was also on the water when a storm came up. Be careful out there. I know that's not always possible, been caught a couple of times myself.  

[jim m]

glad you made it out safely

[Al Agnew]

Scary stuff.  I've been caught in a bunch of storms while floating Ozark streams, and in that case there is no heading for shelter when you're five miles from the take-out.  I get off the water as soon as possible, looking for a gravel bar with low trees on the back of it if possible, with higher trees nearby but not too close.  I figure I can shelter in the small trees, which won't blow over on me and hopefully won't be high enough to serve as lightning conduits.  I did that one time, dragging my solo plastic canoe up under the trees, found a dead log lying about three feet off the ground.  I flipped the canoe over, leaned one end against the log, and got under it just as golf ball size hail started falling.  The wind was blowing like crazy and small limbs were crashing against the canoe as well as the hail.  Lightning struck a tree on the bluff across the river.  I had to grip the gunwales of the canoe to hold it down so the wind didn't blow it away.  This all lasted a good half hour that seemed like a week.

[fishinwrench]

Yeah things like that are real eye openers.  

When you were going through the mental process of rigging something to deploy your PFD why didn't you just go ahead and pull the dang cord ?     No sense in waiting until the last second, right?

[Plastic_worm]

4 hours ago, Flysmallie said:

I've watched it a couple of times already and it's really spooky. Lost my favorite uncle to lightning when I was 15. He was also on the water when a storm came up. Be careful out there. I know that's not always possible, been caught a couple of times myself.  

That sucks man, sorry to hear that.  

[Plastic_worm]

23 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

Yeah things like that are real eye openers.  

When you were going through the mental process of rigging something to deploy your PFD why didn't you just go ahead and pull the dang cord ?     No sense in waiting until the last second, right?

That made me laugh. Now I wonder why they don't just sell them pre-inflated.  I guess the real answer is I'm cheap and hoped I'd wouldn't need it.

[fishinwrench]

I can see the headlines already....

"Gar fisherman who was too poor to pull the ripcord, Drowns".  ?

[Flysmallie]

9 hours ago, Plastic_worm said:

That sucks man, sorry to hear that.  

Thanks. It was over 30 years ago but I don't want to see that happen to anyone else. 

I also thought the PFD auto deploy rig idea was awesome. At least you were wearing one, mine would probably be tucked up underneath something. 

[176champion]

Down in Florida they use to get what they called blue sky lighting strikes...there was a couple guy's out in there wooden mullet skiff pulling there nets after a thunder storm came thru and the skies where clear and both of them got hit with lighting and killed.....it's scary stuff