Photo: Lightening Strike...

The storm gathered itself on our starboard horizon and the sky grew even bleaker. Sänna sailed effortlessly through fairly calm seas so, for now, everything seemed ok. But the sun began to set on our stern and we knew the moonless night would bring something upon us. We sailed on with the mysterious Nicobar Islands only 50 miles or so to the north of us. We could see huge lightening strikes breaking up the skies inside the now hidden storm and it was moving closer towards us. I estimated maybe an hour or so and then we would be in the thick of it...

Marie and I were both uneasy. The radar screen showed nothing except torrential rain about five miles off our starboard beam. Sänna was alone for hundreds of miles and extremely vulnerable in these intense lightening storms; we could see the flashing skies coming our way and hear the rumblings of thunder. With it would come massively high winds, sheeting rain and powerful seas driven by the weather maelstrom that creates these monsoon systems? We looked at each other and, without a word between us, went through our standard storm procedures... Marie furled in the head sail as quickly as possible and together we reefed the main to slow us down in preparation of the howling wind that would hit our beam. We battened everything down and made sure everything was fast below.

The forked lightening, tearing into the flat and empty seas, now came horrifyingly fast with deafening thunder. The tallness of our aluminium mast made me shudder and Marie frantically suggested we turn all electronics off. This suddenly seemed sensible as we'd listened to many horror stories of fires and sinkings of sail boats following lightening strikes at sea. I raced around Sänna unplugging wires, disconnecting radios and making sure nothing was live. Marie switched off the navigation lights and we waited...

Sänna now drifted in the dark, completely blacked out and dead in the water. Strangely, there was no wind, only the rain now coming down in torrents, running down the decks and out through the sea drains. We both took shelter on the companionway steps, taking care not to touch the steel shrouds and staying within easy reach of our emergency equipment. It was deathly silent... Then came the one we were dreading, a horrendous deafening crack and a thunderous instantaneous roar, throwing us both to the deck. I could feel my skin crawling, I found myself upside down and confused. I couldn't even think. And then it was deathly silent...

I looked around for Marie. She crawled beside me but it took a few moments for us both to gather our senses. She quickly checked me over as we climbed to our feet but I could see she was cut and shocked. Our first reaction was to inspect the boat whilst drifting in the pitch dark and straight away could see our mast in the dim light. I felt instant relief that all seemed well. There was still little wind and Sänna was not being thrashed around helplessly in a big sea driven by the storm. But the warm rain drummed down relentlessly and both of us were drenched to the core. The first thing we needed was some light.

We could immediately sense the lightening bolt had not struck us directly. But we knew that most sail boat damage in thunder storms came from very close strikes that travel through the sea and then up through the keel and mast. We both gathered our senses as the storm edged past us with the thunder and lighting still tearing up the skies around us. Sänna was not out of trouble yet. I was reluctant to switch on any electronics and dreaded starting the engine in case the starters had burnt out. I began to calm down and think more clearly, although puzzled by the total lack of any wind, we drifted in the pitch black with only the red light from our head torches we now switched on to keep our night vision. The torrential rain began to ease, we knew that luck and patience was the key to surviving this storm and our experience would tell. We waited...

And then, like a guardian angel, starlight appeared in the sky in the direction from where the storm had hit us. A refreshing breeze picked up, filling our reefed main and Marie quickly unfurled the head sail to distance ourselves from the maelstrom now moving away towards the Nicobar Island to the north. I still dare not try the engine and we didn't need it. Our instruments now glowed and the navigation lights suddenly lit up the sea around us... Sänna came back to life....
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