Lightning at sea

Well, our trip up the coast to Barnegat never quite happened. Through the night the winds remained light from the south so that we alternated between motor-sailing and sailing. By dawn we were opposite Cape May, about 25 miles out and the wind shifted north on our nose. I called Chris Parker, our weather guy on the SSB radio and he told me it would stay like that until noon when it would swing back to the south. So with that, we bore off and sailed in to Cape May where we anchored to await he wind.
In Cape May we met a boat from Newfoundland. At least its headed there. John Lane, from St John's, just bought a Caliber 38' "Changing Lanes" in Chesapeake Bay and is headed home with it. They too had just come in waiting for the wind. There were comments about not repeating last night's experience, but I'm not sure what that referred to.
When the wind shifted, about one o'clock, we headed out again. But it was now too late to make Barnegat, so we headed for Atlantic City. It was again a nice sail, interrupted from time to time by some motor-sailing, so that it was 7 pm when we finally anchored in a 3 knot current off Herod's Casino where we spent the night (in the boat, not the casino). Changing Lanes anchored next to us, but as it was late and we were all tired after our trip from Norfolk, we had dinner and headed to bed early.
Friday morning we were up and off by 7 am heading for Block Island, 177 miles away, meaning another overnight run. The forecast was for 10-15 south-west winds, but they didn't materialize, so we motor-sailed again. Passing the first of three shipping lanes into New York Harbor, we met our first commercial ship of the day.
All was quiet for the day until evening... as usual. Then all hell broke loose. We received an updated weather forecast around noon warning of severe thunderstorms in the evening. They were right. From out of nowhere, just at dark, the sky turned black, the heavens opened up and the rain teemed down and we slogged through 4 hours of intense thunder and lightning. The sights and sounds were indescribable. And just to throw in something different, we met and altered course for two commercial ships as we crossed the last of the shipping lanes. Even at 3 am after seven hours the lightning was still visible on the horizon. But we got through unscathed. And this morning we woke to dense fog. And finally, just to keep us amused, we have been attacked by a horde of small black flies with a sharp bite. So all day yesterday one of us was constantly swatting. The only good thing about the squalls was that it got rid of the flies! A bit of everything.
But we sailed on through the rain and fog using the radar and the charting program, Jeannie pleased to have an excuse to get out our ships bell. She spent this morning polishing it and ringing it whenever we approached a unknown radar contact.
We finally arrived off Block Island shortly before noon. For all our trials and tribulations we were right on our original ETA. Safely moored, I took our portable electronics (GPS, VHF, Computer, cell phone) out of our "Faraday Cage", the oven.
The plan is a lunch of Clam Cakes, a Block Island special which has never been available when we've been here. Then a walk to stretch our legs. It has been four days since we have been on dry land. I'm expecting some "Land Sickness" from Gerard. Its just a mild sensation that the land is moving like the boat. Kind of fun to watch people.
We'll spend the night here before, weather permitting, heading up Buzzards Bay and through the Cape Cod Canal to Provincetown. We also expect to see and finally meet Changing Lanes here. We chatted throughout the day and night, but after two days of chatting have not yet met them, so are looking forward to it. It seems that now they have had two exciting nights in a row!