Waiting...

It was early Friday morning on July 8th when we had our near miss with lightning.  As it turns out lightning does not have to hit you directly to inflict serious damage.  Lightning carries very high voltage, as high a one MILLION volts, with a correspondingly large magnetic field.  When lightning strikes near you an electromagnetic pulse can pass over your boat.  That EMP induces very high current in wires and electrical components causing extensive damage.  Sometimes, the extent of the damage from induction is not readily apparent so it takes a bit of time to assess what all was impacted.

Varnishing the dorade boxes

Michael and I were afraid that we may have incurred some significant damage from the induction of high current into our electrical system.  Most of our electronics are interconnected as they all tie into the NMEA 2000 system, a plug and play standard for marine electronics.  So... we thought it best to not hesitate on communicating with our insurance company.  

Perast, Montenegro

 And then we set about checking all our electronics.  We had lights that would dim then suddenly get bright and lights that would not shut off.  Just odd things.  But we quickly discovered that there was more than the odd electrical quirk. We knew the battery monitor and propane monitor were out.  Now we discovered that our electronics were not working either - we had no readings for GPS, depth or wind.  Our radar didn't pick up any ships nearby and neither did our AIS (automated information system).  The AIS transceiver transmits our position to nearby vessels and also show us where vessels are in relation to us.  We can see what direction they are going, their speed, what type of boat they are, their size and the name of the vessel.  All really useful information. The SSB (single side band radio) turned on but we only received static.  Our SSB is like a HAM radio but for marine use. We use it when out on the ocean to speak with other people and it is how we get current and forecasted weather information.  It would also be the way we would get help if we had an emergency on the boat. Our inverter was no longer working and one of our air conditioning units would not turn on.  The list was getting longer and longer.

17th century church in Perast

We spent the weekend compiling a list of the items we found to be damaged and then emailed the list to Bozo at Navar boatyard in Tivat, Montenegro.  Now we just had to wait for the electricians to come over to Talaria and check things out.  In the meantime we decided we may as well take this opportunity to do some needed boat maintenance.  We started on varnishing (a never ending task) and polishing stainless.  

 

Perast, Montenegro

Our plan was to work through the week and go sightseeing on the weekends.  You know what they say about all work and no play!  We decided to take a bus to visit some of the places we were planning to visit by boat.  Not the way we preferred to see them but the only option available at the moment.  Our winter contract in Sicily starts in October and we would like to be out of Montenegro by early September as we have to travel down the less friendly coast of Italy.  There are just not many safe harbours on the east coast of Italy so we would like to have plenty of time to reach Sicily while the weather is good.  Right now, however, its just a waiting game...