It was a Wednesday afternoon, I was at work and it started to rain like crazy. It was the first thunderstorm of the season and after the drought we've had I was thrilled to hear the rain beating on the roof and the thunder. I need to mention that I had been lazy the past Sunday and left the kayaks on the racks of the truck instead of putting them away. I was glad that the rain would wash the salt water off of everything. The rain was good.
One of my co-workers was parked in the space next to me and he had left his windows down, so he headed for the parking lot to roll them up when a huge bolt hit right in front of him. He was lucky that he hadn't gone out there a minute earlier. He would have been flopping like a fish next to my car. Joker that he is, I didn't believe him when he told me that lightning had struck my kayak, but when I took a look, the hatch cover was blowing in the wind. Odd.
It was at least an hour before the fireworks let up enough for us to go out in the parking lot and see what had happened. Sure enough, lightning had hit my kayak. It blasted apart the fiberglass on the rear of the boat and put a hole through the bottom in search of a screw.
Here are some photos after the lightning strike:
PS: I do not recommend this. It is no fun and very costly. My car had to have its computer replaced and the kayak is still getting fixed. A girl has to have a sea kayak, so as long as I had to tap into my CD to fix the car, I got enough for a kayak, too.
Follow up - June 6, 2009
All's well that ends well. Rick Cady did a wonderful job bringing my
sea kayak back to life. The lightning-struck Montauk is back on the
water and I didn't notice any difference in the way it paddles. I opted
to save money by losing the skeg and going with whatever paint Rick had
available, so now I have a custom paint job.
Contact moonlightdesigns if you need Rick' services. I'll get you in touch.
