Lightning and Fishing Line

Sailing through a thunderstorm with lots of lightning.

We try to avoid storms as much as possible. However, no matter how well one plans, sometimes these storms can sneak up on you. Being on a sailboat, with a tall metal pole sticking up above the water, is not the ideal place to be in this situation. Here is how we dealt with it.

We were anchored in a calm bay (Ay. Nikolaus) off the island of Hydra, Greeceon Wednesday, 3/28. We had the place to ourselves for awhile until a couple of fishing boats joined us. They set two anchors and settled in.

We gathered up our crew and returned from the beach, letting Sunny get in a swim back to the boat (she sure does love being in the water). We hauled anchor and sailed back towards the port to check out. Greek law is that we have to check into and out of each and every island we visit. A fine of $25,000 is charged if you don't follow this rule.

Bad weather was predicted for the weekend near Hydra and Poros (winds up to 50 knots), so we figured we would head further north and find shelter off of Methana or Epidhavros.

Lighting struck the bay we had just left!

We had just rounded the SW corner of Hydra when the rain began. It was a light sprinkling, but nothing to worry about. A few minutes later though, we heard thunder and saw lightning. The strikes were all around us and the storm was closing in. Our weather app had predicted light showers, but not a thunderstorm, so we decided to sail away from the storm and wait for it to pass. We really did not want to risk getting struck by lightning. Another hazard of sailing this area are water spouts. These can heavily damage or even sink a yacht. Our kids put our important devices in the oven and microwave. These would act as faraday cages in case of a strike. We didn't even have to tell them to do this, as we had gone through lightning storms before, only we were tied up in a marina. They know not to be near any metal and to just get a book and try to distract themselves from the storm. It can be quite scary, so a book is a good way to help them not think about it so much.

We sailed towards one of the large barren islands next to Hydra for a couple of reasons. First, being that we'd obtain some shelter from the building wind and waves, but also that it was much taller than us (hoping lightning would strike it instead of our boat). The storm seemed to be moving slowly south, so we skirted around the western side of it and zoomed towards the port.

Some of the fishing line we had caught.

Once we had entered the port, we got ready with our fenders and dock lines. It was then that Zach noticed we had a long yellow line (sort of like a thin rope or twine, the kind fishermen use to make their nets) trailing us in the water. I called to Jared at the helm and he immediately put the engines in neutral. Zach went to grab a knife, as I pulled in the line. We cut it and pulled the rest free. Thankfully, it was only caught around our port rudder. Relieved that we didn't have any of it caught in the prop, we finished docking and got settled in for the night. The storm had passed by this time, leaving only a light sprinkling.

The following day, we untied the lines and spent our last night at anchor near Hydra. 

We woke up early after a lovely night at anchor and headed north. The wind prediction had lessened, so we figured we would make another stop at Poros before heading to Aegina. Once we were tied up at the quay in Poros, we didn’t really see any large winds until the following day. We decided to anchor out, as the winds created quite the chop and boats were bashing into the concrete. We anchored out and settled in for the ride. It really wasn’t too bad in the anchorage and we enjoyed some additional beach time.

Monday morning we left for Aegina, to retrieve a thermostat for the fridge and freezer, as well as the remainder of our cockpit cushions. 

Our favorite kind of sailing!

We spent a couple of nights in the port waiting for a good weather window, which arrived around mid-afternoon on Wednesday 4/4. The Greek Easter holiday was approaching, and so we wanted to spend the holiday in a different part of Greece. We are currently en route to Voula (it is close to Athens, where we need to pick up some additional supplies) and will spend the night there before moving on over to Kythnos. Our goal is to continue to work our way south to hopefully make it to Santorini for Easter.