Holy mother of all things good! Was anyone else out there on Sunday?!?

It was just me, my wife, and kids 10yr and 13yr on a 38. I was at Leverick Sunday morning (looked for you, Nick, but you were already gone until Tuesday). On and off squalls in the morning, I phoned The Moorings for a quick briefing as I wanted to get down to Norman that day. They said it'd be drizzly and windy the whole day but if I should be able to run down the channel. So off we went at around 11. At 12-12:30 or so, just off Beef Island, the world suddenly went crazy. Dark as night, sideways rain, steady winds in the 30-40kt range with higher gusts, and I could only see maybe two boatlenghts for at least 20 solid minutes, which felt like years. Lost GPS track as well. I had taken some bearings right before it hit so I'd know how to avoid land. But man-o-man, I have never been in such a spot. 15 minutes in, I got on the cell to the Moorings asking for an update trying to figure out how long I might be in that mess because as far as I could tell, it could have been hours. Their response, "oh, it's just some light drizzle, don't worry, it is usually just a minute or two".

I heard one of their boats was out at the same time and got hit by lightning.

Next time, I get my own weather briefing direct from reliable sources or I stay put. Lesson learned.