A few years ago I was paddling on a windy brook in the Adirondacks (Shingle Shanty Brook), when we were hit by a deluge of water and thunder and lightening. We were with a few other paddlers and although my first instinct was to get off of the water, one of the other paddlers insisted that we were safe where we were. The banks of the river are pretty high on that brook, higher than our heads when sitting in the boat and there are trees lining the bank, a short distance back from the water. His logic was that we weren't the high point there, even on the water, and that the boats (all them happened to be kevlar--don't know if that mattered or not), provided insulation from anything that hit the water itself. After about 30-45 minutes of paddling "inside of a carwash", the rain let up, the thunder and lightening had stopped, and we made it out to the Lake and paddled across it to our campsite. We all agreed that it would not have been a good idea to have paddled across the lake during the storm, when we would have been high points on the water. I've always wondered about the decision to stay on the water on the brook. Anyone care to add their thoguhts on this as well as Bill's original question about proper behavior in a lightening storm on the water.
thanks,
Gerry Magnes