CREW LIFE
When lightning strikes I
remember exactly where I was when it happened. We were finishing up last-minute tasks before the usual owner’s weekend when, out of nowhere, a sudden afternoon downpour began. I was in the lower salon by myself, peeling a clementine, when BOOM! It was the loudest sound I had ever heard. I ran to the upper salon to find my husband, aka Capt. Brendan, and our third crew member. They were both as wide-eyed and panicked as I was. We had no idea what had just happened. We quickly realized our yacht did not have power, although all the yachts around us did. Uh-oh! A crew member from a nearby boat confirmed it
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AUGUST 2022 | TritonNews.com
— she had seen the lightning strike. Lucky for us, an engine repairman happened to be in the parking lot waiting out the rain before heading to our yacht to complete a simple repair, and we scrambled to find solutions. With no power on the yacht, we had to stay at a hotel that night. The weekend owner’s trip obviously was scrapped, and we worked instead on coming up with a plan to get the yacht back in order. We didn’t know it then, but it would take weeks and weeks of hard work. Our first adventure was getting the 90-foot yacht towed 125 miles from Washington, D.C., to Solomons, Maryland. With no power and no
running water, we consoled ourselves along the way by making chocolate chip cookies on the grill. We were not in an ideal location to have a million-dollar refit done, but we worked with what we had. We flew contractors in from Fort Lauderdale to work on the boat around the clock, staying together in the same hotel and sharing every meal. We quickly became local “celebrities” in the small town. When we went out to eat after work, still wearing our uniforms, people would point at us and ask questions. As a reality check, I often reminded everyone it was really the yacht they were interested in. We worked from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. most days, only stopping to eat. There
