Healthy dose of perspective

[Gill-T]

With the kids home for summer, me working, and the wife in school full-time, my parents stepped up and took my two daughters for two weeks in North Carolina. Part of the time spent at the beach. With my overweight mother whom had a partial knee replacement two years ago, and my father with Parkinsons, my biggest fears almost came true last week. The hurricaine off the coast was reeking havoc with rip-tides all week. While in shallow water a rip grabbed my mother, and two kids and started pulling them out. My youngest was holding onto my mother's bathing suit for dear life, and my nine year old was washed out of view by waves. At this point my mother, as you can imagine, is in full panic mode. Nobody can see what is happening on shore. By the grace of god, the rip carried them to the next sand bar where they were able to get their feet underneath them. My mother is going to need counciling......and so is my wife. Count your blessings people. Understand what is really important in life. There was a lot of boats still fishing as that storm rolled in at Oswego at the Pro/Am event :?: I was off the water by 9:30 ahead of the storm. This weekend they are calling for more thunderstorms......please be safe!!!!!! You can always earn the prize money back.......if you are alive.

[Yankee Troller]

First off......I'm glad to hear everything worked out in your almost tragic matter. Secondly, there were no claps of thunder or any lightening during the tourney. I know it was predicted, but it never accumulated to anything.

[Gill-T]

That was a wierd storm. Landshark had his cellphone and uplinked the radar loop. There was a lot of red and orange in the cell, so I got the hell off. I did not hear any thunder either, but when the storm rolled through western NY, there was lightening and thunder.

[skipper19]

An ounce of perception is worth a pound of obscure ...Getty Lee (RUSH) said that in a song...and there you go... :!: That cell phone radar is really good to have out there cause it can give you real time lightning strikes that occur in the area.. so if a storm looks ominous and you wonder if it is a danger with lightning,, this can help you decide if there is a reason to run or stay... It's called MyCast 5 Weather...avialable for sprint nextel, and possibly others..I use it all the time and it is well worth the $3.95 a month subscription

Mark

[Iceman]

If there is lightening around, the FM radio will let you know. The crackling is easy to hear.

[waterlogged]

Thank God everything turned out ok. That is a scary situation.

Clarke

[Gene Shenk]

Well after reading this post I signed up and got the my cast 5 weather for my cell phone and it is a great tool and all the guys at hunting camp will love it to. I think I will pass the hat before I give them wind direction for the morning hunt LOL! Maybe not they really are bad texas holdem players and I take enough from them playing cards so I guess I should not charge them for the weather forcast to.

[chinook]

In 30 years of fishing the great lakes I've seen plenty of violent weather hit over the lakes. Again as I mentioned not to long ago, safety needs to be stressed first and foremost. When a micro burst hits like it did of about a month ago with 80 mile an hour winds, you better hope that you are sitting dockside instead of 10 miles out. Or just as Ron Penna mentioned a few years back when a colliding Low hit a Hi pressure, his comment was it was like the Perfect Storm. Winds out of almost 4 different directions and he made the comment it was like fishing in a soup bowl. I was at Point Breeze that day, and was thankful I was sitting in the State Park. I remember the time a thunderstorm hit Lake Erie with 90 mile an hour winds sinking a number of boats fishing a bass tournament. The list could go on and on. Any approaching thunderstorm cell should be viewed as a potential threat. As I made mention in another thread, I know of 2 individuals hit and killed by a stray bolt from a cell they said was 10 miles off. So it by all means doesn't need to be overhead. I don't want to become the " safety director" here. Just don't want to give others a false sense of security either. My policy has always been and always will be, if and when in doubt, pull lines and get back to dock. You may not get a second chance.

[Fishtails]

I'm thankful everything worked out Chad.....lord that must have been scary. I have a 5 yr old and a 9 yr old and they are my life. I would have needed counseling myself had I gone through that. All this other non- sense we get worked up about in life is meaningless. For me...spending time with my kids makes all that stuff go away.

Hey....too bad we never had a chance to grab that beer. I decided to drink a couple for ya though Maybe next year when I get out to the west end for the month of May?

[Gill-T]

I will be in the Niagara and Orleans for sure. Not sure if I want to fish for Browns in the east events. Those browns fight almost as bad as Lakers!