I hear someone say lightning and I used to immediately play the Queen lyrics to Bohemian Rhapsody in my head….“Thunderbolt and lightning, Very, very frightening me. Galileo. Galileo, Galileo Figaro Magnifico-o-o-o-o.” Now, it’s a completely different response. I get a shudder down my spine and a cringe. You guessed it, this is the long awaited lightning post, where you get to learn all about the repair fiascos following our lightning strike.
If you haven’t read the post about our little trip out and getting struck by lightning, read it here.
Following our lightning strike I contacted a local Raymarine/electronics guy in Corpus Christi to have him come aboard and basically go through everything with a fine tooth comb. I needed to know what was ruined and what was not. I also did a write up with very specific details that I needed to send off to our insurance company to let them know that we had been struck and that a claim might be forthcoming very soon.
Little did I know that this was only the beginning of an arduous process that would go on for months and months. If you are the impatient type let me give you the moral of this story….if you are a sailboat, do not get struck by lightning if you are located in the central/south Gulf coast of Texas!! Regardless, I will spare you the gory details of dealing with the people we dealt with in the Corpus area. Of which none I would consider referring anyone to except possibly one that, after it was all said and done, we didn’t end up working with.
The list of items that we identified as needing repair/replacement after the lightning strike were:
- Starboard engine alternator surge/spike protector (had to order from France)
- Port engine alternator (internals completely melted)
- Raymarine electronics:
- Mast head electronics (anemometer & windex)
- Tridata transducer (depth, speed, temp)
- Sonar/fishfinder transducer
- MFD (chart plotter)
- Radar
- VHF antenna & wiring
- VHF splitter (for VHF radio & AIS, the AIS system was ok)
- Anchor light
- Steaming light
- Deck light
- Bow & stern navigation lights
- House battery bank
- Port and starboard engine battery banks
- Electrical distribution panel (12v/115v/230v) LED backlights & indicator lights
That was just the list of main stuff that we had to replace. That didn’t include all the other various and sundry items that we ended up having to include like new radar mounts, wiring, connectors, etc., etc.
Work that should have taken a couple of weeks to a month to perform ended up keeping us in Port Aransas until the first of August!! You read that right, over 4 months!! You can actually read a good timeline in this post. We had to move the boat to Seabrook (Galveston Bay) to complete repairs, only to find out that we needed to repair EVEN MORE items that were not part of the lightning strike. Everyone repeat after me….”BLEEDING MONEY”. I won’t even go into that list as I have a little bit of PTSD from the whole ordeal.
On September 2nd, boat repairs were complete. I forwarded the final list and invoices to our insurance company. A quick look back: lightning strike March 19; Repairs complete final claim amount submitted to insurance September 2nd. That is 5 months, 15 days. That’s not counting the fact that we still have not received payment from insurance which as of today adds almost another 2 months (1 month 22 days to be exact) to the total!
In the end, including upgrades over the insurance company’s “like-for-like”, and repairs/service that were made that were not due to the lightning strike we spend far more than the check we are getting back from insurance. I’m sparing you the details about fighting over nickels and dimes with the insurance company and the drama with the repair people in Port Aransas/Corpus Christi. I’ll just say that there was too much laziness, procrastination, lack of planning, and a shit-ton of half assery. Which if you know me, you know that I have no tolerance for half assery! All stuff that I would just like to put past me.
We finally have a boat that is 99% operational and our Gulf crossing to St. Petersburg (those posts begin here) made sure that everything worked properly. Not only that, we had an excellent sail on Tampa Bay with the great folks at Keep Your Daydream just to make sure that all worked as it should.
