Kinda Dumb Storm Paddling….

Last Thursday promised a fresh southerly change about midday, so we decided to once again get out in the ski & the Rockpool Taran to give the kayak a speed & handling test.
We paddled out about 4km off the Gap, with building seas & wind from the south, with the aim to turn & run back once things got up. Unfortunately for us the weather had a nasty twist in store. The heavens opened & then there was an almighty crack from above that sounded rather close, so we decided discretion was the better part of valour. As the electric storm started to crank up we found out a few things about our speed downwind, in my case in some generally crappy confused water which isn't usually a barrel of laughs in my ski!
My usual cheery disposition was replaced by something distinctly darker as you can see in the video above!
Our mate Peter told us that if lightning strikes on the water anywhere within about 100m of where you're paddling you'll basically be fried, and that conversation was repeating in my head as the thunder continued to boom.
In hindsight it probably wasn't a great idea to have a metal camera mounted on an extended arm either, but the option to stop for a minute & pull it off wasn't too appealing either.