&
Seen Heard
Lightning
Strikes...
…maybe once, maybe twice. That line from a
Fleetwood Mac song will never be the same again for
Mark Blasky as he shares his illuminating experience
with a near-lightning strike.
L
ightning strikes…are
kind of like nuclear
bombs. Even if you
are not hit, you are
going to have some fallout
s o m e w h e r e. I n o u r c a s e
that first strike meant we
lost our batter y charger,
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our forward-looking sonar
transducer, and a few days
later, our VHF. Our autopilot
started messing up too. We
replaced most of the items
and went our merry way. We
were enjoying the cruising
life again, catching up with
old friends and meeting
new faces as well.
Our Thai visas were
running out in a couple of
weeks so we decided to
head north of Phuket to see
if that area had changed
much since our last visit.
Our first stop was to be
Thap Lamu — an all-weather
anchorage for fishing fleets
in Thailand, a base for the
navy and police who guard
and control the area and a
jumping-off place for boats
 Sari Timur
Anchorage after storm
running dive tours to the
Similan Islands.
We worked our way into
the river and found a nice
place to anchor and settle in
for a couple of days. The first
thing we noticed was that
we were going to get rain.
Now at this time of year, in
this part of the world, rain
is very rare. On a sail boat,
one eagerly awaits it so as
to top up the water tanks
and wash down the boat
with fresh water.
The first night saw only
a few minutes of rain. The
next day brought on another
evening shower that lasted
about an hour; enough to
scrub the boat and collect
some water again. We were
happy campers.
On the following day, we
planned to check out a new
anchorage fur ther nor th,
somewhere between Ko Phra
Thong and Ko Ra, then jump
over to the Surin Islands and
work our way back to Phuket
via the Similan Islands. We
entered a small inlet about
25 miles north of Thap Lamu,
just south of the island of Ko
Phra Thong. What a pleasant
surprise! We wound our way
through an inland waterway
full of gorgeous scenery and
calm waters. There were a
couple of eco resorts tucked
away in the region, a few small
fishing establishments but
other than that, little signs
of human intervention except
for the microwave towers for
the mobile phone network.
No problem, at least we have
Internet in paradise!
After anchoring, we decided
to post this best kept cruising
secret on our blog. Alas, I
think Mother Nature wasn’t
happy with this broadcast
because she sent us a large
thunderstorm while we were
posting. We weren’t that
worried about the continuous
rainfall for three consecutive
days as we were anchored
snuggly and our water tanks
would be overflowing. Then
BAM!!! A huge lightning bolt
hit the water right next to
the boat and suddenly it
was like a scene out of a
Stephen King movie. All our
electronics started coming
on by themselves (not a very
good sign), water was pouring
out of the skies and we were
running around with meters
and test equipment trying to
assess the damages.
In the wake of the storm,
we found our new battery
charger dead, our recently
fixed forward-looking sonar
and new VHF completely fried,
the AIS in its last legs and a
working radar with no returns.
The autopilot was living in a
land of its own, and even our
20-year-old wind instruments
and base GPS were no longer
showing any signs of life. The
SSB was able to receive and
transmit but the tuner was
not working.
It turned out that all our
navigation and communications
equipment were gone, save
for a handheld VHF and GPS.
Fortunately, all the laptops
and mobile phones survived.
This meant we could contact
the insurer and find out what
to do next. He advised us
to get two estimates. So we
worked our way back to the
relative safety of Ao Chalong
on the south end of Phuket a
couple of days later and did
just that.
The insurance company has
agreed to pay off on the lesser
quote (minus our deductibles).
So off we went buying or
sending our electronics for
repair, all except the radar
and AIS are completed. The
radar can wait until we get
back to Singapore.
The ironic thing is that it
was the last rain or lightning
they had in the Phuket region
through all of January and
February. We were just unlucky
and in the wrong place at the
wrong time. But boy, we sure
look at those flashes in the
sky a whole lot differently
now — more in fear than in
awe!
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