Thunderstorms @ Straitsmouth Island

[bob budd]

This time of year, especially with the persistent heat, you are always watching for and expecting pop up thunderstorms.

Due to vehicle issues two of us paddled from Pebble Beach and two of walked to Whale Cove and swam out. The paddlers beat the walkers/swimmers but the warm water was not a problem once we reached the cove. Late PM the t-storm formed over Rockport and north and the paddlers skedaddled. We walked around the rocks to the small "bay" facing the land some call the stairs to get a final bead on the weather. From there we decided it was better to be in the water than exposed on the land. The line of dark clouds was approximately bisecting Rockport Harbor and the lightning we saw was northerly. While swimming across we noted a bright line or two followed by the requisite boom, usually a mile or so away. While we were in the water the clouds formed into a circle and then a horseshoe wrapping out over the water and then down the cost a bit as we walked back to pebble viewing an occassional cloud-to-cloud flash and boom.

[rick stoehrer]

National Outdoor Leadership School - NOLS, paper on the topic of lightning.

[JohnHuth]

http://rendezvous.nols.edu/files/Curriculum/research_projects/Risk%20Management%20Reports/NOLS%20Backcountry%20Lightning%20Safety%20Guidelines.pdf

[djlewis]

Fascinating article. For those that did not read it through, the information relevant for sea kayakers is...

Boaters should start to get off of the water as soon as they hear thunder. There are no reported incidents of lightning accidents on rivers in canyons, probably because the higher terrain above the canyon attracts the leaders. But there is ample lightning injury data for boaters on rivers in flat terrain, on lakes, and on the ocean.

[leong]

The question is what to do if you’re already out on the ocean in the middle of a T-storm and can’t get to land fast? This happened to me years ago (I couldn’t locate the thread where I posted the story about it).

The approximate skinny is that I was paddling a beeline between Lanes Cove and Plum Island Sound. About the midpoint (about 3 or 4 miles from land) the thunder started. I purposely capsized my kayak and got underneath, breathing air from inside the overturned cockpit.

I have no idea whether this was reasonable thing to do, or not, but it’s what I did. Often I peeked out to see if any boats were heading towards me. I did a re-enter and roll only after things calmed down.

-Leon

[JohnHuth]

There is the question of whether you can anticipate a thunderstorm by looking at cloud formations. It's not always possible, but I've spotted proto-thunderstorms in the distance and hot-footed it to a safe island to hole up.

[bob budd]

...I purposely capsized my kayak and got underneath, breathing air from inside the overturned cockpit...I have no idea whether this was reasonable thing to do

As regards lightning you are about as safe out from under the kayak but at the surface of the water as you are under the kayak, given that sea water is a good conductor, while remaining upright in the kayak would be most risky. The risk in the ocean would be more about being unlucky to be above (or near) a bit of rock where the charge might concentrate and invite the lightning That's more or less what we reasoned when we swam, that it was safer than staying on the (rocky) island.

We did see the storm coming and got the paddlers off before it hit but also I wanted to bring up that (especially) this time of year the conditions are almost always "good" for t-storms so the weather reports can being to sound the same and one can otherwise become less vigilant.