I just got home from what I would consider one of the hairiest boat rides to date. I invited a buddy to come along for a little boat ride today. I listened to the weather on the VHF and the weather forcast was as follows..."a 30% chance of a thunderstorm heading from the NORTH bla bla bla bla..." Since I'm the gambling type I decided that 30% odds weren't that bad. We headed out into what looked like an O.K. day that was slightly overcast, winds blowing from the South. I'm thinking we have no shot at hitting that "30%" thunderstorm (from the North). We headed out about 25 miles to a friends cottage. We had a few drinks and ate a few burgs. A short while after we were getting nice and settled I noticed that the wave activity was no longer blowing from south to north. You guessed it North to South ("thunderstorms heading from the North") . I was a bit curious but was still enjoying the company. We were all having a great time. At this point I would say we were all pretty relaxed. It was about 8 pm. A few minutes went by when I glanced out at the lake. HOLY CROW! Blackness was moving our way, FAST. When I say black I mean BLACK! It was now or never. 25 miles of ? or spend the night. I let my guest decide. He chose "run it". We quickly got underway, rain drops hitting ever so slightly. A few minutes go by and...Oh boy, now she's really moving in for the kill. Raindrops turned into an all out down poor. Lightning cracking, thunder booming, wind ripping. I'm giving it all she's got. The rain is hitting me so hard it feels like bb's bouncing off my face. I'm trying to run compass but I can't see the damn thing. My only chance at this point is to hug the shore. It's foggy, raining, and lightning out. With every flash, it seems like it's getting closer and closer. I'm literly ducking at the flashes. At this point I'm running 70 mph trying to get the hell out of the way of this storm...so far it's not working. Finally up ahead of us about two miles I see the edge of the front. Sure enough, the rain started to disappear and the air temp started to warm slightly. Bammo were out. Just like nothing ever happened, Everything was calm. I couldn't believe it. Here I am soaked, cold,and quite frankly a bit shaken about what just occured and.....nothing. I would say it had to have been the worst 25 miles this boat has seen to date. I can handle rain, I can handle a little fog, Maybe even a little thunder. I DO NOT LIKE LIGHTNING!! Needlesstosay, we quickly loaded the boat and were on our way. I think my pal had about 8 lbs. of something in his shorts. I know it would have been better if we waited it out but neither of us felt like sitting for three hours. Maybe next time were going to wait. Actually I'm pretty sure were going to wait.

sounds like ya need a faster boat


I am fine in all that, but when it comes to lighting... I am running for shore

I was pretty far out on a Jet Ski one time and it started downpouring. Fortunately, no lightning, but running wide open made the rain feel like little needles hitting you in the face!

Been caught a few times!!! Not fun and the wife was NOT a happy camper!!! Could definatly do without the lightning!!!

ahhh yessss . . . . sometimes i love closed canopy boating . got stuck once in a similar situation out in lake erie. ended up running back in next to a 38 Baha with about 8 cold wet people on it. i waved and cracked another cold one in the nice warm and dry cockpit

While reading this story all I could think about was the last time I heard a story about someone boating at night after drinking and at 70mph while it was raining.....













5 people died
not to smart on thier part.
god bless there was no major happenings on your endurance run. They, however, were not so lucky.

I do alot of offshore fishing and I can tell you there is nothing more disturbing than being 40 miles offshore and turning on my 48 mile radar to find that the port is covered by thunderstorms. I was out last year in a tournament and got caught on the west side (luckily) of a real bad storm and at one point was surrounded by waterspouts!! I didnt know which way to go so I waited till one died off and ran through the gap. Unbelievable as it may seem I caught it all on video and will try to post a clip tonight. You know that things are getting scary when all of your hair stands on end from electricity in the air, the the lightening strikes the water near you and it glows!!! Thats when you have 4 guys in the cabin and me in the cockpit trying to figure out how to steer the boat without touching anything metal!!

d-hlaw, I bet a new pair of undies were in order when you got back to port!!

Hey Dave,.,... can you blast that thing down the Maumee?....

and blast i do


d-hlaw- that is wild. hope you can get a vid up. would love to see it. that had to be . . . . well. . . hair raising to say the least

mnfast- just to clarify i was kid'n about crackin the cold one. guess i should'a thought that story through. my bad. also my apologies if this struck a nerve with you.

chicks dig the water pickle