: Today was a beautiful sunshiny day. Water fairly flat, a few puffy
: clouds here and there. We got one of the typical Caribbean
: showers passing over. The cats scattered back inside. No big
: deal. No wind, just rain for about five minutes and then sunny
: again. I was sitting at the computer about 4:45 PM and looked
: out my window and saw what appeared to be a waterspout forming.
: We ran outside to watch it. Amy went to the front yard for a
: better view and spotted what is pictured below- another spout
: fully formed and touching down. Seen pictured is a mega-yacht
: out on the south apparently (hard to tell) much closer to it.
: Not seen, there was a motoring sailboat closer this direction
: and the ferry boat both heading that direction (east). The
: sailboat stopped and waited it out. The ferry pressed on. Note
: that the picture was taken zoomed in. The sky is only dark in
: that area. If I had zoomed out you'd see pretty much sunny sky.
: If you look reeeealy closely behind and to the left of where
: it's touching down you can see another smaller one touching down
: as well. Not the white spot- that's a boat. To the left- a faint
: white blur.

: Now, imagine you're out in a kayak. A quickly passing shower goes
: over, no big deal. You're out there about a mile offshore, when
: suddenly this thing lands on top of you. What would you do? I'll
: throw in my thoughts, but don't take this as expert advice on
: what to do in this situation, but rather just my thoughts.... I
: say stay in the boat, lay low, and in worst-case even tuck and
: roll but don't wet-exit unless absolutely nescessary or the boat
: can ram you in the head or get away. What would you do?

Luckily the odds of getting hit by one are extremely remote. Not sure there is much you can do if it happens, while it's not quite as powerful (usually) as the land based variety, it's plenty powerful enough to get you in serious trouble. The idea of holding onto the boat/paddle is just silly. Staying alive is the idea.

Bill H.