Tourists on fishing boats near Rustico encounter Saturday's thunder, lightning

Toronto-based author Amy Stuart has a tale to tell.

Stuart visits Prince Edward Island every year to see her parents and often she will do some fishing.

She was out in the water on a fishing boat in the Rustico area with her family and a few other families on Saturday evening fishing cod and mackerel around 5 p.m.

"The storm that we could see was sort of in the distance and seemed to be moving in the opposite direction," she said.

The skies were blue at their location, other boats headed out, fish were caught and the captain didn't seem to be worried, Stuart said.

Then they could see a "shelf in the sky" and see rain on the water. 

Everyone on the boat decided to pull in the rods and head to shore.

"Then it seemed to gather speed and energy and it caught us," Stuart said.

Chased by the storm

On Saturday, there was a severe thunderstorm warning issued for portions of the P.E.I. Thunder was rolling and lightning was illuminating the sky, and Stuart was caught in the middle of it about two kilometres offshore.

"It was just coming up behind us and it was just windy and rainy and it got sort of dark, and there was some very, very dark clouds overhead," she said.

Then they saw lightning in the distance.

She said no one panicked. She said the rain pelted down and when it got cold people on the boat moved to the front for shelter.

"It was a bit wavy, the boat was having to move through the chop, but it never felt out of control. I would like to say it was almost fun, a little nerve-racking, but we were mostly laughing," Stuart said.

Keeping calm

Even the kids on the boat were pretty calm, Stuart said. The adults followed the lead of the captain and the children followed the lead of their parents, she said.

Stuart said she would have preferred to be on shore, but never felt like she was in danger.

There were probably about eight boats on the water when the storm started to hit it was a dash to the shore, Stuart said.

"All the boats around us were heading in at the same time," she said.

First big storm on water

Stuart said she thinks the boats headed in at the right time.

"Then this sort of double rainbow appeared as we were approaching the harbour and things were starting to settle down," she said.

Stuart said she has been fishing on P.E.I. before and the water has looked like glass. She is fascinated by how quickly the weather can change.

"We've had rain and hot weather and times where we caught nothing and times we caught lots of fish, but that was definitely my first storm — big storm."

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