Yes, it does. Just as we posted yesterday's blog, a massive thunderstorm beat the living daylight out of us and a lightning strike happened. It didn't hit us and we didn't think it was that close.
The first indication that something was wrong was when the radar turned itself on. We said the "F" word and proceeded to check every instrument we have. First bad news is the radar. The screen turned on but no data was available. This is not crucial at the moment since we are not relying on the radar for navigation yet.
Next was the depth transducer, so now we have no indication of depth (this happened during the first lightning strike we had back in Singapore in November). This is a little of concern as we won't know what depth we are in. We can use the MaxSea and the electronic charts to give us an indication so we may be able to pull through.
Then the wind instrument does not work, so no wind speed or direction. The head unit at the top of the mast is still turning and pointing so we can look up to see where the wind is coming from.
And of course the battery charger is fried, just like the last time. So we can't charge the batteries via the generator and will have to run the engine twice a day.
Our base GPS is dead, so we now have only 2 handheld GPS, one not really reliable.
The SSB tuner is dead. And the VHF is dead too.
The AIS is 'hicupping' but seems to have fixed itself.
The autopilot is also dead.
So in summary, paradise is beautiful but Murphy can visit there as well. The plan now is changed. We were going to visit the Surin and Similan islands but now feel that we should get back to Phuket and fix some of the essential problems.
At the end of the day, the boat and us are fine so we should be counting our blessings. We are trying hard to understand what lesson we are supposed to learn from this.
No comments:
Post a Comment