Zap

[Marmalade]

Sailing back from Orford this morning / lunchtime, we were close inshore near the Felixstowe breakwater as we passed under a big black cloud.

Now I'm pretty sure we didn't get hit by lightning as the radio was OK and not everything was affected - but all of a sudden the wind instrument and log started to go bonkers.

iphone video here

http://youtu.be/GpfWVzErA28

check out the log speed (12.8kts) - I can assure you we weren't doing that!!

5 mins later the readouts seemed to reset except that the windspeed had changed to metres per second instead of knots (guess how long it took me to work out a) what was wrong and b) how to reset it...)

All seems OK now - my theory? We got zapped by static from the cloud.

We were also pretty close to the Felixstowe radar mast - could that have been a cause (or the cause)?

 

[tillergirl]

Static I guess. I once picked up the aerial feed from the masthead shortly after a thunderstorm to connect it and got a big zap from the static.

 

[Habebty]

Had the same thing off Orford Ness complete with St Elmo's fire. Lost the instruments, GPS, the lot !! Not a direct hit but a lot of EM activity

 

[FullCircle]

Pah, my wind instrument does that all the time.